Tommy's Rescheduled 50th Birthday!

My brother Tommy turned 50, February 6th. We felt awful about missing big event in January for Tommy's 50th birthday, which by all reports were phenomenally successful! We decided to make a trip to NY for Valentine's Weekend. Friday night, after Laura and Dennis arrived home after work/school, we left. We drove to DuBois, PA the first night, staying in a beautiful Holiday Inn Express that had a fantastic hot breakfast. When we awoke the next morning, there was about a half-inch of snow on the ground - not enough to plow, but certainly enough to make 80 slippery. And boy oh boy was it ever slippery!! We saw cars spin out, slip and slide. We saw cars that had slid down ravines and those who had attempted to scale the mountains. Eventually we outran the storm, staying ahead of it; we arrived in Suffern at the hotel safe and sound. Brian, Megan and Jocelyn were already there having driven from MA. We all unpacked. I called Noreen who graciously invited us right over.

We got a warm welcome from The Birthday Boy, Tom, Noreen,and Johnny. The first thing we noticed was their living room. WOW! They had redecorated - new furniture, paint, the original hardwood floors buffed to a shine! It looks fantastic! We had lunch sitting around Noreen's great homey kitchen table. Little Tommy came home for lunch, then left to pick up his girlfriend. Bob, Susan and Kerin arrived a few hours later. Timmy came home from work, then went to pick up his little honey. Tara and Caitlin arrived later with their boyfriends. It was, afterall, Valentine's Day, and these dates [poor souls] were now stuck with the Gernon family. What good sports they were! It was wonderful to see everyone together. We looked at the digital slide shows that were shown at Tommy's party. One Noreen had done of Tommy growing up, set to music which was very well done. The other the fire department guys put together of Tom's career and antics during his almost 30 years in the NYFD. Both were fantastic! We ate some great food, had some laughs, shared insights about our children and our own lives, played with Jocelyn, met Wee Willie Winkle-Tom's cat, and viewed slides from our childhood. We so enjoyed seeing the Gernon side of the family! It is always a memorable experience to get all of us together. The most amazing thing to me was how almost all the children are now adults - with careers and lives separate from their parents. It is one thing to see your own children grow up, but.....in my mind, these young men and women were stuck in a time warp.... When did they grow up? Who let that happen? Incredible! We left, sadly, after a day of family memories, promising to get together again......soon and the Koch families went back to the hotel after a very long, exhausting, but incredibly, wonderful day!

Sunday morning we met in the breakfast room at the hotel for a last Koch family get-together. We ate, talked, drew on the hotel paper and
wrote J-O-C-E-L-Y-N...with pen...

and did a lot of laughing. Then it was time to go, always a tough time for Grandma. We drove through PA without incident, but when we hit Akron Ohio......the roads were iced over. It was like watching cars performing in the Ice Capades. There were 7 accidents involving over 20 cars total. We crept along until we turned south. It took a few miles to realize we were no longer on ice, then we flew home, as fast as our little tires could take us, thankful for getting there without incident!

We are looking forward to having a Gernon Get-together again soon!