Barbieri 2010 Family Update
By: Susie Barbieri
Gouvieux, January 1st, 2011
Dear Everyone,
The year 2010 has just ended and it is about time to give you the yearly family update especially to those who don’t have the chance to get some news from us regularly and don’t have Facebook accounts.
Year 2010 has been an exciting year for us as we have two “added value” in family. Our two dear daughters Cynthia and Marie-Anne got married last summer. Cynthia our eldest said “yes” to Gregory (picture up right) and Marie-Anne to Mathieu (picture up left)
The celebrations took place last July 21 for Cynthia and Gregory in Talence civilly, had a simple meeting at the LDS chapel and a reception was held afterwards. Their religious wedding took place in Switzerland on July 24 after which they immediately left for their honeymoon in Bali.
Less than three weeks later, we had just gotten over the marriage of Cynthia and Gregory, and both had just got back from their honeymoon, we again had to start all over again for Marie-Anne and Mathieu’s wedding. But more intimate celebration this time with the presence of the family and few friends in Hourtin, close to Bordeaux last Ausust 10.
It was like a summer marathon for Marie-Anne and Mathieu because as soon as their wedding was over, the next day, they left for the Haute Savoie in search for housing as both of them found new jobs in Geneva, Switzerland and had to start a week later. Marie-Anne had just finished her studies in Hotel and Restaurant Management and found a job in a hotel and Mathieu quit his job in a restaurant in Bordeaux and landed in a new restaurant as “chef”. If you happen to be around Geneva and you look for a good restaurant, “Le Bistrot du Boucher” and his chef would be pleased to welcome you and try their excellent food and service. And if you need a hotel accommodation…”Hotel Mon-Repos” and Marie-Anne will be at your service.
My sister from Australia came last summer to visit us. And in between preparations for the two weddings, I brought her to some places in Europe and that was a good bonding moment for the two of us. We visited London, Paris, Cyprus, Rome, Spain, Belgium; Geneva and other places in France.
Autumn allowed us to stay calm a little bit. No traveling this time but we did some work in our house. Pierre and Philippe tried to work in the carport by providing some shelves and installing electricity. A job well-done.
Cynthia and Gregory slowly got themselves installed in their newly built house in Cranves Sales near the Swiss border. Gregogy works in Geneva in a trading enterprise while Cynthia still has to finish her last year of dentistry and shares her time between Bordeaux and Cranves Sales. It is quite challenging for Cynthia at this point as it is not always easy to get and join her husband home when airports are blocked by bad and snowy weather.
Pierre is getting more serious as it’s the year of Baccalaureat and hoping that he could go to the university next school year. He still plays rugby regularly in the club of Chantilly, although we are wishing that he gives more time to his philosophy and economy subjects. We often hear him sing in his bedroom while strumming his guitar though. He likes to impress his friends especially the girls knowing that he learned to play the guitar just by himself.
Philippe as always is occupied with his work. He is still with the Middle East and African continents side and he gets to travel from time to time. Despite his busy schedule, he still finds time to take care of his family. He regularly takes us to Paris and watch movies, but no more Mc Dos though (diet oblige).
As for myself, I am still actively engaged and pursue my Philippine humanitarian activities. I just got back from South Korea and Philippines trying to visit and raise funds for my multiple projects like school and hospital projects, livelihood program and scholarship grants. On top of that, I am also busy with my church calling as the Relief Society president in our church ward.
We celebrated birthdays,Christmas and anniversary with the whole family at Cynthia and Gregory’s house. Papy and Mamie Barbieri were with us and so happy to see their grandaughters well-settled in their new homes.
And another special event which took place recently was the celebration of our 25th (silver) wedding anniversary last December 28. Simple yet very meaningful. Yes, 25 years have gone so quickly and as we look back, a lot of wonderful things have happened in our family. We are blessed with three wonderful children and now with two lovely sons-in-law. Our only pride and treasure so to speak. Our childen give us so much satisfaction and we are so proud and grateful to have gone this far and hope to go much farther and looking forward to be surrounded with lots of bambinos to readily love and spoil.
As we close this yearly family update, we sincerely wish everyone a wonderful and blessed year ahead.
Susie, Philippe, Pierre, Cynthia et Greg, Marie-Anne et Mathieu
