Friends new and old!  Please forgive our lack of holiday card last year, we did not have it in us after the move etc.

For new friends, thank you so much for welcoming us.

For older friends, missing our NY buddies, please do come visit, and consider early retirement in FL lol! 

Crazy year and a half since we moved, but this is how we roll as many of you know :)

Settled, but yes, we were at the reno game again.

- garage with cabinets and epoxy floors - I think Stefan may have moved to Florida for his 3 car garage with a golf cart

- fence around the pool and lanai, to keep the 'gator away from Smokey  

- replaced tile floors throughout 1st floor and carpets upstairs

- created an office out for Danielle 

- kitchen renovation

- house painted inside and out

- bathroom reno, and added another mini laundry upstairs for two boys, who are on a future husbands training program to do their own washing

So, one more bathroom (primary bed) to do, who knows when, Danielle needs a vacation from dealing with contractors!

All the contractors we deal with say this is an amazing achievement in a short period of time, but Stefan always needs a new something...

For outdoors by the pool Stefan has downsized from two (lol) big green eggs, and a crazy large rig, to a Yoder BBQ/smoker, some other gas contraptions for searing foods, and a Gozney pizza oven, so come make pizza with us! 

In other events

Oh just a few hurricanes Helene, Milton, and one called Rafael that did not dare come near us! With Milton, we took a little trip to Jacksonville because we weren’t toughened up Floridians who were ready to stick it out as yet.  We returned home, and the house was in great shape except for one roof panel of the Lanai that we did not realize was missing for a week. We are not in flood zone being well off in suburbia.  It was mostly coastal, unfortunately that meant flooding around Rafael’s new school - though they jumped on repairs. Only now is all most of debris in residential areas cleaned up.  People are resilient, however we heard several sad stories.

On our summer trip, we had the opportunity to meet with many of you in NY and  then Danielle's nephews, brother and parents in Singapore and Bali.  This was the trip that was planned for April of 2020, but got delayed with COVID.  Finally in the books!  That flight to Singapore is a loooong 18 hrs.  The kids who were already obsessed with ramen and Asian food, loved it.

With the move to Florida, we hosted our second annual family Thanksgiving here in Florida.  With more equipment and our kitchen reno finished this year, Stefan ordered the turkey deconstructed, with smoked wings, confit legs and sous vide breast. Danielle made the mixed fruit relish (thanks Sherry Klein, our NY neighbor for that amazing recipe), stuffing balls, green beans with almonds, potatoes dauphinoise, sweet potato casserole, as well as desserts galore: Banoffee pie, Pecan Pie, Fruit Crumble, and Pecan Pie Slice.  Then the family returned for home made pizza night.  The kids loved spending time with their cousins and the rest of the family.

As many of you older experienced parenting folks know, getting that first taste of teenage hood is like a slap in the face, and that's just from the 11 year old.  As the comedian Jim Gaffigan says parenthood is the only thing you’ve been doing for 13 years really well and then suddenly you're bad at it. As Danielle's bestie Diane O’Bryan Johnston says, it’s like a well trained dog that suddenly turns around and bites you!  We are working hard to manage attitudes, and devices, and keep our wits about us.  Any advice or strategies welcomed for those ahead of us!!  In general, they are responsible, polite boys (when outside of our house, we are relieved to hear from other parents lol).

Changing schools again! Last year Rafael applied to Berkeley Prep and was accepted, and he is really enjoying it there even though they are heavy on homework expectations! It was an adjustment initially from public schools, he is settled and back in a rhythm of A grades after a slow start! Sebastien is making straight As in 5th grade and has worked hard to submit his application to Berkeley, so fingers crossed!

We are loving that the kids are outdoors living their best lives, playing sports year round, and riding their e-bikes in our community.  Both boys have had some Baseball team seasonal wins this year.  Rafael's team won their local Keystone area league, and went on to win the Tampa Bay championship!  Sebastien's team also won their Keystone league this Fall.  Stefan coached Rafael's team 3x already, and helped pull a rag tag inexperienced bunch, some true newbies to baseball, together to have a reasonable win/loss record.  Parents were telling Stefan he was doing the Lord's work at times.  Rafael's has made the decision to play team sports with his school, and move away from Baseball to Basketball, and Tennis (Danielle is overjoyed!). Sebbie has just joined a flag football team for the first time, coached by his best friends' older brother, and he is loving it. 

The boys do miss their NY friends (it's nice to keep in touch with them via Roblox gaming etc), but have made many new friends at their schools and in our community and neighboring communities. 

Many Floridians (young and old) are super pickleball obsessed, courts are jam packed in our community.  With plans to refurbish the existing three tennis and two pickleball courts, Danielle was part of a small crew who helped get the HSA board to approve making four pickle courts out of the two. There are a lot of public courts here and open community play, which has helped us to get to know people in the community and beyond.  Danielle has a regular crew of Friday morning ladies games, and plays weekend mixed open play when she can at a local public park - where they run once a month mini food and pickle event.  It's been great to meet people this way, and she was invited to play on a team that evolved from the open play circle of friends, called the Dawg Pound (!!). In this one v one, vs the Lions team tourney, she and her partner came away with a personal match win, contributing to the team win.

Danielle has also been immersed in Florida USTA tennis - finding her crew of quirky tennis characters (who may curse here and there somewhat like Danielle) in Team Smokeshow.  They have all improved and move up the USTA league ladder this season from bottom 5 to top 3. We've both found great tennis coaches.

Stefan gets his butt kicked by a former pro that also used to live close by our hood from when we lived in London, ranked 110 at one point in his career, Alex Bogdanovic.  Stefan has won exactly two tennis games (not matches) against this pro lol, and to him it felt like he won Wimbledon! Danielle's coach is a straight talking Singaporian dude who does not sugar coat his feedback.  When Coach is right, he is right, and he has helped us all improve immensely!

Stefan has also developed a love of Padel - the sport that has taken over Europe, similar to platform tennis/paddle but played in a glass and wire cage and you can hit back off the glass like in racquetball, and even run outside the court and hit the ball back in play.  It's too crazy at times.  He won the first tournament he played in.  Unfortunately currently the Padel club is an hour away, but the club happens to be the same Tampa venue that Patrick Mourataglou just engaged to set up his new tennis academy, so we might be there more often!

Danielle turned 50 in Oct 2024 in a birthday that has lasted about 3 years so far, and is forecast to continue until her planned trip to the Australian Open in Jan 2026 to hang with her parents as their half century gift to her.   

On the work front, a former client reached out to Danielle, to ask her to work with them part time managing their HR function in USA, Bermuda and UK.  They are XBTO, a digital asset manager and founding sponsor of Inter Miami - you will have probably seen the pink Messi shirts everywhere since Messi joined the team.  This gives her time to play chauffeur to kids sports, and continue delving into the world of content creation and ops for Saucy Rascals.

Stefan is thriving in his position at Boston firm Charles River Development (State Street Bank) as MD, Client Management, enabling him to drop in for the occasional paddle game in NY!  #Priorities :)

With respect to Saucy Rascals, last year we produced 55,000 bottles and we are doing our best to get them out there! :) We made some good strides in getting into over 80 retail stores across the Northeast and our first store in Florida, and our goal is to keep expanding year over year with more collaborations coming soon. We also plan to engage with a PR firm soon and gets some local boots on the ground on Long Island in 2025. The kids are Saucy Rascals delivery personnel locally in our community in Florida, sometimes content creators, and have dabbled in car washing businesses in between school and sporting commitments.  

So that's the last year and half, it's not all puppies and rainbows at times as we all know, the school and work routine can be a bit of a grind, so we are ready for a little holiday break, until we will be very ready for children to return to school.  And so it continues for all of us - it is the circle of life!

Happiest of Holidays to you all.  Thank you to all who support us, and hope to see more of you in 2025 and beyond.

Seriously, come visit/stay with us.  And for locals, let's get grilling or playing tennis or pickle-balling !

Danielle, Stefan, Rafael, Danielle & Smokey

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