We’ve had a few big changes this year. My mother died in September after a long decline, so now my sisters and I (mostly Adele, who lives near Baltimore) are looking after my aunt, who will be 89 in February and is still living in the condo. Ken and I joined a reformed Jewish temple after being away from religion for 40 years. It’s a nice group of people and we’re enjoying the learning opportunities and the more inclusive and non-restrictive aspects of the reformed (much less traditional) faction of the religion. We sold one of our properties and we now have no mortgages, which is a nice feeling in this economy. We have a house up for rent, and thankfully can easily afford its upkeep even when it isn’t rented.

Ken’s summer has been full of horses - riding in the back country every week and volunteering at a facility that provides therapeutic riding for people who are disabled. He also took a 5-day ride into Yellowstone Park with an outfitter. Ken reads a lot (I don’t seem to have as much time), and almost every day we take a walk through the woods on the trails by our house. I attend exercise class three days a week at the senior center year round, join their hiking group in the summer, and go on day trips around the state. I went with them on an overnight float down the Snake River in Idaho in July. I’m also active in the Newcomer’s Club and we have a lot of fun and organize an auction every December and give the proceeds to several local charities. I’m training for the AARP tax assistance program for the 3rd year. I’m also doing a Money Management class for Adult Ed this winter, and from time to time I have clients for Past Life Regressions, Hypnotherapy, Family Constellations and Astrology.

We’re spending the holidays in Florida with Ken’s cousins and uncle Leon, who is 91. We will celebrate our 45th anniversary in February. Our kids and grandkids are doing well. Kelsey is 14, Riley is 4. Jessica’s 8, Chloe is 6, and my baby just turned 40. We get to see them once or twice a year - not often enough, of course. Recent photos of our family are attached.

Hope you all get through the economic crisis in 2009 with your financial security intact, and have an abundance of good health, many friends, and lots of love.

Hilda Miller - 1918-2008

PAUL and HILDA - A Love Story

Paul and Hilda were our neighbors,
they lived across the street from us,
we saw them frequently on Sundays,
the only day we were all at home.

Hilda passed away Friday evening.
Souls are immortal, spirits continue,
Paul and Hilda are both now together,
Their souls will live on in their children.

Yehi Zichrom Baruch!

Herman Taube

Harry & Lisa Pell with their new daughter, Eliana Sarah (7 pounds 11 ounces, 19 inches long)

More photos, click here.

At a luncheon reception at the Nashua Club, Meiselman family representatives from the Washington, DC area (Alyson Meiselman, Gail and Dean Osgood, Sandy and John Walter and Sharon Kolstad) enjoyed sitting with the Boston crew, (Sandy Deiner, Mel Lurie and Marilyn Brachman Hoffman). While catching up on family comings and going at our table, Mel Lurie told us the success his daughter Joelle is having in New York. We viewed a video of her singing talent!

It was great to see Areve’s brother, our cousin Merom Brachman from Columbus Ohio, in Boston for this wonderful family event. Saturday evening the family, neighbors and Justin’s friends gathered at the family’s home for a very warm evening of family stories and fun.

We use this holiday as an opportunity for our whole family to spend time together at least once a year. Since some of us live in different areas of the country, it’s rare that we are all in the same place at the same time too often anymore.

Al and Mary have been celebrating Passover at their home every year since my grandmother, Minnie Pivar passed away. About 6 years ago, attending Passover dinner together was considered optional, but then my dad, Alvin Pivar made the decision that “optional” would no longer be the case, so here we are, every year, sharing Passover at the Pivars’ house and enjoy a reunion that provides plenty of time to catch up with each other’s lives. It was the best decision he could have made for the good of all of us. There’s nothing like spending time with your family and the fact that it’s Passover makes it that much more special.

Mary goes out of her way to make sure that nothing is overlooked and that the family traditions which began many years ago at Minnie and Edward Pivar’s Passovers dinners remain true to form. She makes sure we use the same yamakas, dishes, silverware, books and afikomen routine dating from back to when I was just a little girl, and probably much further for those that had the pleasure of sharing the holiday with them before I was even born, I’m sure.

Mary and Gertie Shear, (Gertie is Donald’s wife of more than 50 years, and Donald is dad’s first cousin on my Grandfather’s side. He is the son of Edward Pivar’s sister, Blunky) do their best so that the recipes for each dish are as close to Minnie’s as possible and equally, if not more so, delicious.

By looking through the many photographs on the web site so generously provided by other family members, I noticed many that were taken inside both residences I remember of my grandmother and grandfather. So, I know that many of you had the pleasure of sharing holidays with them too.

Every year, Alvin, his first cousin, Donald Shear (check out the photos, they look more like brothers) get together to decide who will handle what, as we go through the ceremony. They huddle together determining whose responsibility it will be to keep a close eye on the afikomen to ensure that it will absolutely, positively, NOT disappear. As everyone knows, it’s necessary for the completion of service. With the kids watching with the same intensity, well, you know the rest!

Once the all important negotiations for retrieval finally commence and finally, the singing of Chad Gadya, another Pivar Passover comes to a close until next year.

I know I can speak for all of us when I say we feel blessed to be able to make this happen every year.

I have included photographs for you to become familiar with the family members you may not have met yet and some of us that I know you haven’t seen for a while.

We hope you enjoyed hearing just a bit about how we celebrate and now we look forward to hearing about you too. Happy Holiday!

Far table from left: Alyson Meiselman, Gail Osgood, Bill Lawrence, John Walter, Lauren Kolstad, Yonah Meiselman, Pat Lawrence, & Sharon Kolstad.

Don’t you love the tables of friends and family members we collect for Passover? I do! And all year long I am looking for new recipes (like my favorite flourless chocolate cake), new serving dishes (like my brightly colored Fiesta ware), new readings or stories to expand the Hagadah (like the passage about the Passover celebration during the Civil War that we read this year).

I dust off the cranberry glasses I have collected just for Passover. I consider which flowers and trees will be blooming (this year I brought flowering crab apple into the house) and how they will decorate the room. I think about the place settings, who will sit near whom, and completing the elements on the Seder Plate, adding items every year to improve the celebration. (This year we added an actual shank bone instead of the chicken neck of prior years. I roasted it just short of embers but all three tables had a shank bone on the Seder plate.) Alyson supplied the Charoseth in a tub so we could eat it with the hard boiled eggs. There is usually never enough Charoseth but this year there was!

It gives me great pleasure to have all of my siblings gather with which ever younger generation is available to go through the story again. Changing the dishes and moving all of the living room furniture to the basement does make me feel like I am moving from Egypt, with out the camels or sand, of course.

Each year we struggle over the choice of which Hagadah to use. Everyone has their least favorite. This year, Neal got Hagadot from ORT, illustrated with colorful children’s art. Beautiful, but not easy to read.

This year we had our newest bride and groom (Susannah and Brian Kolstad) with us. Susannah has promised she will be asking the 4 questions next year. Gail sang them this year. And this year Micah and Kendra were just back from 18 months on the island of Dominica and joined in for the Seder before moving to Baltimore. Neal, Terry and both Ben and Yonah took part in our Seder on the first night and were going to have their first Seder in their new home on the second night. So our first night of Passover Seder had many firsts within it.

From our house to yours, we hope you had a wonderful holiday.

In other news, a committee will look at the RLFG Constitution. And the annual charity contributions we made.

Of interest was the reading of minutes from 1968.

Rabbi Josh Shapiro with Carol & Gary Fradkin

I just spent time on the website and…WOW, what a great job, and what a service to all of us. It even helped me figure out the relationship to the cousins I spent time with in the last 2 weeks.

Let me explain:

Gary and I just returned this morning from our first trip to Israel. Right before we left, I printed out the RLFG address list which Adele had compiled. On the plane, I went through the list and circled everyone who lives in Israel….and was astounded at how many cousins are there! When we were visiting with cousins of Gary’s, they looked at the list and found a number of people they knew, including Avi, who lived right around the corner! He was nice enough to come over, and later in the trip we also spent time with Carmi and his family, and Rabbi Josh, as well. We talked with David Klein’s wife Esther when we were in Safat, only to find out that David was on his way to Baltimore for a visit, so we missed getting to see him.

The genealogy links on the website has made it easy to determine that Avi and Carmi are my second cousins….a fact we all thought was right, but weren’t exactly sure.

So, thanks to you and to Adele for doing the work to help keep our huge family connected.

Gary & Carol Fradkin with Debbie & Carmi Shapiro & their children

They eventually migrated to Fort Worth, Texas where many of their descendants still live including my mother, Karen Raimey Kaplan. Al Kaplan, my father, passed away on Christmas 2007. Karen is doing fine. Mom is an only child.

My husband and I live in Plano, Texas (about 20 miles north of Dallas) with our daughter (14), two sons (9 and almost 5) and a dog. Paul works as an IT manager for Retalix while I’m the freelance writer behind meryl.net. We just had our first Bat Mitzvah last year and you can see plenty of pictures of the family.

My sister, Elisa, lives in Dallas with her husband and dogs. Elisa works as an information architect and usability expert for a contract company. My brother, Michael, lives a few miles from me in Plano with his wife and daughter who is in 4th grade, and a dog. Michael has his own business as a computer consultant who installs and repairs computers.

You can see us in two photos (below) in the Photo Galleries, “Photos from 50’s, 60’s & 70’s”

This picture shows from left, Miriam Lurie, Sidney and Lillian Raimey, and Goldie Lurie.

And below is my mom (Karen Kaplan), me, and my dad (Al Kaplan) from when we visited Baltimore and Washington, DC around 1979-80.

Feel free to drop us a line through my contact form (don’t want spambots getting my email address).