Well it's that time of year again

Time to start thinking about the New Years Resolutions that you will be making again this year.

How about this one: Remembering to connect with a friend, or a family member.

Try to spend one hour a month with a child. They have great reasonings and see things differently than us. Besides they make you feel young again.

Make time for yourself, you deserve it. There certainly is no ONE like you anywhere on earth.

Enjoy the day today, tomorrow will come on its own.

Say a prayer, someone....somewhere.... needs it today.

Try to say one kind, caring thing to someone, it will make you feel good about yourself also.

Okay the usual ones also work, or they don't work. Try loosing weight. Isn't that what most of us will be thinking??? But that is so hard to do.

Good Luck in whatever you resolve to do this coming year.


Good Health and Happiness to all who read this.

Szczesliwego Nowego Roku

Wesolych Swiat- Merry Christmas to all

Hey you, I caught you ....You must be a friend or family to be reading this site. ...... So to you all we wish you a very Healthy & Happy Holiday. May your coming year be better than this one. (Unless you won the Lottery you got it good already) Or unless this year was a very good one already. May your dreams and wishes be fulfilled.
Do one thing that you did when you were a child......Like.... sing a Christmas Carol during the day or evening, by yourself or with someone you love. OR Go to church. OR stand in line for Santa and sit on his lap. OR Go caroling around the neighborhood. OR send a card to someone that you have forgotten about. OR make some hot chocolate and invite a friend over to join you. Do something that will remind you or make it a tradition from today on to Celebrate the season with LOVE and PEACE and JOY.

Well you can forget about making a Snowman in the Chicago area. We do not have ANY SNOW. Unlike our family and friends in Colorado or Washington. Surely no Snow in Florida or Arizona. Well hoping that you have a wonderful season.

Happy Birthday To Ashley Grygo

Happy Birthday to you on your 7th Birthday today. Sto Lat.

Happy Holidays from the Koivuns!

Season's Greetings!

Wishing you all the best of the holiday season!

All our love,

The Koivun Family

Visit www.Koivun.com

ALL 6 of our GRANDCHILDREN

We make an even dozen now! With Stefan and myself, Suzia and Koy with their three kids, and Steve and Karen, now with their three kids - we have twelve of us to sit around the table for a "family" dinner!

I am holding the newest of our grandchildren, Lily Maca, then left to right are Maddie Maca, Julia Koivun, Little Stevie Maca, Ela Koivun, Stevie Koivun, and of course Dziadzia Stefan on far right.

We were attending Julia's Christmas Play and of course I took advantage of having all six of them there together so we snapped a few pictures.

Birthday Wishes to Maegan Jankowski

We wanted to wish Maegan a very Happy Birthday. Now that you are 7, I will send more cards for you to read by yourself. Love you hugs and kisses. STO LAT.

Spending time with Maddie, Stevie & Lily

We spent the first evening of babysitting all three of the Maca grandchildren on Tuesday. Steve & Karen went to play Billiards on their league play.
Dziadzia was kept busy reading a book for Maddie. Then Maddie & Stevie (my Pan Maca) kept an eye out for their little sister Lily. My first also this evening was to give Lily her first formula bottle, which Karen had left in case Lily did not want her regular breast milk bottle.

P.S. Let me tell you that it was a challenge to watch all 3 at the same time. I was so glad to have the hands of Dziadzia there to help out. As time goes by, I am sure I will be able to do the "sitting" with more ease.
Lily was asleep most of the evening,she is of course 8 days old today, Maddie wanted to play and jump around (with her clothes off, of course) and little Stevie was a shadow to his sister Maddie.
When Karen came to pick them up, they were all still awake at a very late hour, but in the van only a few minutes and they were out like a light.

Dinner with the Schmidt's

We went to a restaurant called SOLACE 601 in Addison this year to have our annual dinner together. Great food, nice atmosphere. The evening spent with our friends Anne & Jerry was great.

Julia the STAR

Okay not a very good picture of Julia, because we had a side view of her. But she was great. She said her lines clearly and slowly. I think she has a future for being on the stage. (I could dream cant't I?)

Julia is a STAR!!!

Tonight, Julia is one of the main stars of the Christmas program!

At Salt Creek, the kindergarteners and first graders get together and put on a Christmas program. Since that totals close to 200 students that are all part of the program, not everyone has a starring role. Only about 20 children are chosen to have speaking roles; the remainder of the students are all part of the choir and participate during the songs.

When Ela was at Salt Creek, she was part of the choir for both years. Last year in kindergarten, Julia was part of the choir too. But this year, she really blossomed academically - she excels in reading and speaking. She's not as shy as she once was! And this year, in first grade, Julia has a starring role in this year's Christmas program. She is an Elf. Actually, she is two elves - midway through rehearsals, they lost an elf and instead of replacing the elf, Julia just added those lines to hers!

I'll post pictures after the program tonight - and I'll see if I can post a video clip somewhere...!

Here's to Julia - Break a leg!!!

Hugs and kisses -
Love - Mama, Daddy, Ela and Stevie
. and our theater guests for the evening - Babcia and Dziadzia, Wujek Steve, Ciocia Karen and cousins, Maddie, Stefan and Lily!!!

Email Daniella for an invite!

Daniella is working on putting together an album with pictures of Baby Lily.
The entire album (over 100 pictures) is on Shutterfly, so you can view the pictures AND you can order prints of them too!

If you'd like to see more pictures of Baby Lily, email Daniella and ask her to send you an invite to view the album!!! The album invitation works through email only (or so we've been led to believe) so we can't post the link to the album here. But Daniella would be glad to email you an invite, so just let her know you're waiting for one!

Ciao for now!
~~Suzia

"We saw our new cousin!" - EJS Koivun

On Monday evening, December 4th, Ela, Julia and Stevie Koivun went to Hinsdale Hospital with their mom and dad, Suzia and Koy.
After a very busy day, Lily Diane welcomed a few more visitors. All the Koivuns are completely smitten with the little cutie!


Ela can't wait - this is one cousin she'll be babysitting in the near future!!!


Baby Lily shows us just how tall 20" is. Ten fingers and ten toes makes for all kinds of cuteness!


Stevie said that Lily was very tiny and very soft... and just barely 12 hours old too!


Julia is very excited to have another baby to entertain - after all, that's her specialty!!!

The Maca Family will be back at home later in the week, so I'm sure they'll be posting more pictures of the beautiful Lily Diane... either here or on their family website. Email Steve for more details...

Congratulations to the Maca family as they welcome Lily Diane into the world!

Love always,
Ciocia Suzia,
Wujek Koy,
and cousins Ela, Julia and Stevie

More of Lily Diane Maca

A real close up of Lily Diane Maca.
Kisses for a new daughter Lily Diane.
How tiny her hands are compared to Daddy Steve's

Our newest Grandaughter is HERE

Our newest Grandaughter Lily Diane, that makes it SIX for us now. One of the many faces Lily made while we visited her the first day.
That was a sad face, don't you think?
The newest MACA FAMILY PORTRAIT
Steve & Suzia with Lily.

December 4, 2006 at 8:46 a.m. Beautiful Lily Diane Maca was born at Hinsdale Hospital. Babcia Daniella was over at their house at 5:00a.m. to watch Maddie & Stefan, while Mama Karen and Daddy Steve went to have the baby. "ONE push is all it took," Karen said. Lily weighed in at 8lbs and 1 oz and was 20 inches long. Mom and Lily are doing fine. We went to visit her by lunch time. We sang to her a Very Happy BIRTHDAY and Sto Lat while she was only 4 hours old. Mommy & daddy went walking down the hallways to visit the other babies there and to let Maddie see that there were other babies also.
Suzia had picked up PraBabcia Hela to see her newest grandchild, that makes it now 9 for her. Suzia also had picked up her Stevie from school to see his newest cousin. Karen's parents were in the waiting room as Karen gave birth to Lily Diane in the morning.
More pictures will follow. But of course. I will take more tonight as we go visit Lily again when Dziadzia Stefan gets home from work.
Karen wanted to have the baby after Thanksgiving and after Our annual Christmas Party, well she had it her way. She let me enjoy the party and clean up afterwards also. Thank you so much for a beautiful grandaughter.

Maca's Christmas Party 2006

A few pictures of our Annual Christmas Party. We enjoyed being together as a group. We sang our usual amount of Christmas Carols in Polish and English.