Al and I were delighted to see Barby and Paul Ruskin at Willow Valley on Saturday, February 22, 2014, especially since we had last seen them at Geoff and Amanda’s wedding last September. Barby had surgery on her neck in December, but is now fully recovered.

We opened their Christmas gifts, which included a beautiful crystal bowl.

They had also framed a newspaper article from a Lancaster newspaper printed shortly after we moved to Willow Valley in 1994 about Al’s woodworking hobby.

We had a great afternoon talking about all that had happened since we had seen them – Becky and Dan’s new daughter, Cora Jane Shirer, born January 23, 2014, Anna and Mike’s family’s busy life, and all the Christmas activities.

We had dinner here, and they left shortly afterwards to go to Macungie to be ready for the skiing trip with Anna’s family to Jack Frost resort in the Poconos on Sunday.

We are grateful for their thoughtfulness, especially the memories that the framed article of an important part of Al’s life brought to all of us.