European Christmas

Thanks to Uncle Bryant for taking these pictures for us. I wanted to post this a little prematurely to show everyone what you are missing out on if you don't come to visit us. Thanks to Uncle B, Papa, and Gaga for making the long trip out. It has been an incredible four-country Christmas so far, especially today in Budapest (fried bread, anyone?). The Christmas markets in Bratislava, Slovakia and Vienna, Austria were amazing, but Hungary is the winner so far. Enjoy the pictures and start making your travel plans now.

December

So far our first European December has held a few fun surprises.  

Our town, Caneva had a little celebration in the city center where San Niccolo (Saint Nicholas, different from Santa Claus) came for a visit.  We received a flyer in the kids backpacks and decided not to miss it.  The town center was decorated with a huge 5 story Christmas tree, Christmas music was blaring (a rotation of 4 songs: Mariah Carey and 3 Italian Christmas songs we'd never heard but quickly fell in love with), hot cocoa, wassail, cookies and cakes were being served and people were crammed tightly around the little wooden house/sleigh where Santa Claus and his elves were handing out presents.  Italians don't understand the concept of long lines.   If there are more than 5 or 6 people it becomes every man for himself, pushing and shoving, jamming and the smallest, wormiest person wins;)  The kids, especially Isaac, loved worming their way through the crowd, mazing through the legs of Moms and Dads and coming out on different sides of the crowd with huge grins on their faces (I wish I had taken pictures of this!)Finally they ended at the feet of Santa Claus and waited patiently for their gifts:

Here they are telling Dad there fun story of the leg maze:

Santa Claus and his elves delivered "quadernos" (graph paper notebooks) and a pencil.  

After meeting with the patron Saint the whole town of kids played tag in the square.  It was fun to watch and Joey and I felt keenly what a unique cultural experience the kids (we) were having.  We could never have experienced this if we didn't actually live in Europe!

Farewell Santa Claus hitched to a tractor trailer!:

Like most people, every year we decorate gingerbread houses.  Last weekend we invited over our Italian friends to decorate with us because a.) we love them and  b.) we wanted to share our American traditions with them.  

Once again we had such a good time with them.  Giovanni decorated one side of the house intensely...he had plans!  And Daniela went around taking tons of photos which she posted here on her blog about Emma;)  SHe brought the kids three adorable handmade ornaments that she'd made with her mother that will always remind us of them when we hang them on our tree each year!

Isaac and Tomasso decorated the other side of the large house together while the little girls munched on candies on the other side of the table.  True to her personality Georgie decorated gingerbread cookies for everyone else most of the time, one by one and delivered them on a napkin to their intended recipeint;)  She is always so sweet;)  

I should also add that she had gotten into her Barbie make-up kit before our guests arrived and powdered herself in several different shades of pink in all the wrong places.  She looked...awesome.  Once again, I didn't take pictures but still wanted to illustrate her personality.  

We were finally able to pull these two away from the candy and cookies with the distraction of the downstairs playroom.  Emma found the markers:

Because they are washable I let her go to town and Daniela was mortified when she turned the corner and saw here there with green all over the tile, the walls and her tights!  LOL!!  We thought it was great!

Giovanni's side of the house!  He was so proud;)

The weekend before this we spent in Ljubljana, Slovenia.  I didn't take too many pictures because it was too cold and too much trouble to lug around my camera.  We fell in love with Ljubljana, especially Joey and I.  We shopped around at the Christmas Market, took a tour of the city with Father Christmas, ate lots of yummy food, went ice skating, shopped at an antique market and at a huge outdoor mall and ate yummy food.  We had a good time but it was really, really cold.  Since its only 2 hours and 15 minutes away at the first sign of warm weather we're heading back.

Italian Christmas Lesson:

On December 6th Italians (and Slovenians and maybe some other countries, we're not sure;) celebrate Saint Nicolas Day.  Through a few context clues we've figured out that Santa Claus (Babbo Natale) and San Nicola are two different people in Italy.  San Nicola is the patron saint who, as tradition tells it,  delivered gifts to the poor and needy and now brings gifts to children on December 6th.  He brought gifts to Isaac and Georgie's classrooms...games, puzzles etc. for them to use in their class.  The Italian kids most likely received gifts at their homes on that day as well.  Le Befana is a grandmother figure that delivers gifts to the homes of children on January 6th.   

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIMI !!!!

Happy Happy Birthday Mimi dear!  

Happy Days will come to you all year!  

We are thinking of you on your Birthday and wishing we could be with you.  The kids want to be a part of your special day and we did it in the only way we know how!:

What We've Up To Lately

Warning, bragging on my boy ahead:

I left Isaac alone at home for an hour last week while I ran Georgie to an after school activity.  He had homework to do and I totally trust him to be responsible so, off we went;)  

When I got home this table was set:

His homework had been done, he had practiced the piano and he was working on a salad.  ehhemmm...so proud of this kid;)  He is sweet, an excellent big brother that loves his sisters and is SUPER responsible!!

This weekend Joey and I went to a Christmas party.  It was JOey's work party and the first one of those where we actually had a really good time!  Yay for actual fun at work parties!  

AND, last but not least, we went to our first Christmas market her in our local city, Sacile.  This is Bobo Natale, the Italian Santa Claus:

He definitely looks more like a saint than the American Santa Claus does doesn't he...almost Pope-ish.  He walked around the town holding his staff and handing out candy, or, in Italian, caramella.

At the markets they sell all kinds of winter crafts, ornaments, sweaters, slippers and food.  It seemed like the big Italian Christmas Market food was Mulled Wine called Vin Brule and Hot Chocolate or Cioccolato Caldo.  Here Isaac is drinking Cioccolato Caldo Bianco (white hot chocolate)  Hot chocolate here is thick, almost like pudding and not nearly as sweet.  It takes some getting used to, at least for me, but it is good.  The kids drank it right up.  

p.s.  This is what a mail order, PO Box Christmas looks like!  My Mail pick up today consisted of 11 boxes, lots of gifts for the kids (some from Mimi;) and two of which are brand new skis that JOey and I bought for each other!!  Woot Woot!

 Happy December and Merry soon to be Christmas!!

If anyone gets these  posts in your email and ever reads them I apologize for my typos..I am sooooo bad about checking my work;)  I do it later, after the thing has gone out to you and kick myself for all my silly mistakes.  Hopefully you understand what I am saying!

A Tuscan Thanksgiving

We spent our first European Thanksgiving in southern Tuscany, an area called Maremma.  Our friend Megan found a little stone farm house tucked into the hills with a huge eat in kitchen and 5 bedrooms, perfect for our group.  The atmosphere of this house was ALL Italy.  We drove down on Thursday morning, stopping in Bologna on the way for some Bolognese sauce at a lunch place we had missed out on the last time we were there and arrived here early that evening:

 The drive in was windy and long, weaving in and out of hills covered with farmland and cypress trees. 

 And the house made us feel soooo authentic!  

 The minivan is in the way of the view but you get the picture.

On Friday morning we put our feast together.  We were the only family there with kids (well, one 4 month old) so while everyone else slept in until 11am we were busy shushing our kids starting at 7 am...fun.  We're not sure we'll be invited next time (actually...everyone was super gracious).  ALl of our friends have dogs and the farmhouse we stayed in sat on a few acres of property with an olive orchard and a herd of sheep grazing next to it so we hardly saw the kids during the day.  THey just roamed.  Joey and I both went for runs that early morning and that was pretty, at least for me, spiritual.  It was so beautiful and the sheep around every turn wore bells around their necks.  In Europe I have learned how much I love bells.  Church bells, cow bells, sheep bells...all of them.  

Our friends Kate and Steve take the term "Foodie" to all new levels.  They made a Souvie Turkey for us...a term I had never even heard.  Here's Steve carving it and a picture of the deep fried breast after being "Souvie'd"

 Souvie-ing (spelling??) , so Steve tells us, is a French form of cooking where you vacuum pack your meat and then simmer it at a low temperature in water for several hours.  You then deep fry it to form a nice crust with the skin.  I am not just saying this because I think the Emporer has clothes but it was amazing.  A-freaking-mazing.  Here's the Souvie thangy that they cooked the turkey in.  Steves friend built the contraption that would normally cost $900 at Williams-Sonoma...pretty impressive. 

 Anywho, the kids made home made butter, per our family tradition, and it was a hit.  

 Megan reminded us of Gaga when she invited Georgie to come out and pick flowers with her for a centerpiece for our table...she's got our Georgie girl figured out and knows exactly what she loves;)

 On Saturday we went to Terme Saturnia, a hot spring just 30 minutes from our house.  We had a good time and particularly enjoyed the people watching.

 Kate Steve and baby B with a good shot of typical hot springing Europeans in the back...love the speedos!

 The kids are still talking about this place!

 MOst of the Europeans were putting mud from the bottom of the spring on their face as a mask.  Joey was the only one of our group brave enough to try it:

After the springs and we all smelt sufficiently of sulphur and decided to take that with us out to dinner in an ancient looking town called Salsetto.  We ate in a restaurant that looked like a cave.  I should have taken pictures but I'm lazy like that.

In the end it was a really good time but after driving home through Sienna and Florence we wished we'd stayed in the northern part of TUscany because it was even lovelier.  Next Thanksgiving I have my sights set on Luca, a town north of Florence.  

Here are a few things the kids listed they were grateful for this year.  We kept a running checklist that we added to every night at dinner during the month of November:

Juliet:

Totoro, 

a character in her new favorite movie that we checked out from the base library.  She tells us obsessively that Santa Claus is bringing it to her for Christmas (and he is).  Okay, I have to go on ...one night I told her a story about how she would ride on the cat bus (from the movie) during the night that night.  She began telling us every night after that she was going on the cat bus.  So now, every night as we walk out the door from tucking her in we say "Have fun on the cat bus."  To her, that phrase means "good night".  She says that to us and other people randomly when it is night time.  "Good night," in her little squirrel voice, "Have fun on the cat bus!!"

Gaga and Papa are coming for Christmas, Christmas

Isaac: 

School, playing with Juliet, legos, that we played under the table together, to have a house, Juliet

Georgie:  

That we have a good world, that I have good parents (I'm not making this up...promise;), she's just sweet:), helping MOm, Gaga and Papa coming for Christmas

I won't bore you with Joey and my list;)

Merry Christmas to you all!  We wish we could ALL be together!

Halloween...

I'm a little depressed because we lost almost all of our Halloween pictures.  The cute ones, ya know, the ones where they sat on the front steps all dressed up and smiled.  OH well.. What are ya gonna do!  Here are the remnants...the ones I didn't care to keep but were left on my camera...:(   But they are better than nothing.  

 Pumpkin Patch at the base Halloween Party.  Juliet followed Isaac around like a little puppy!

On actual Halloween night we were surprised to get two trick or treaters.  We'll be sure and join them next year.  We had a small dinner party with our first Italian friends.  

Thomaso, who is in Georgie's class at school, was very excited to be all dressed up as a skeleton.  His mom was very excited to paint his face!!  DIdn't she do a beautiful job!

 

These are our new friends Megan and Greg, the only adults who dressed up for the party!  They wanted to show off for the Italians!  And they are both real gems.  Megan and I hang out weekly but she starts her job next week which I be really sad about;(  Farewell my weekday friend!

 Thomaso has a little sister named Emma who is the same age as Juliet.  

She has Downs Syndrome and is about the cutest little thing you have ever seen.  

  I was glad to see that they played together really well!

We hope to try and get them together somewhat regularly which would be excellent.

 And this is her Mom, Daniella! (and Megan, of course)  I was about to say that she would die if she new I was posting this picture of her but she's not that type.  She would laugh!  I truly love this woman.  She is kinder than kind, so much fun, incredibly generous and just about as warm as a human can possibly be.  I can't wait for you to meet her.  She's a real keeper!

 And I had to add this because it shows what a good time we had.  

It was an excellent Halloween Dinner Party!

 Heres a shot of the kids and I embarking on our annual "Great Pumpkin" secret cookie give away.  My Mom and Aunt Kathy (right, MOm?) started this tradition when we were kids and it is the best family tradition that we have, by far.  We laugh until our sides hurt and I fall in love with my kids all over again, every time.  Isaac especially loves this.  This year he's demanding that we extend it into St. Patricks day and April Fools because he had so much fun.  He cracked us up the entire time acting, so goofy.  He has such an excellent sense of humor and I LOVE that.

Last shot..at the end of our top secret mission.  

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

We miss you!

xoxo

Ash

The Food Tour

This past weekend we took a bitter sweet trip to Emilia-Romano, the food capital of Italy.  We had planned the trip around the occasion of our first visitors, the Garff family foodies, Walt, Paula and Corey.  It turns out they were unable to make it because they of that darn hurricane Sandy who reeked her havoc in a million and one ways.  

But the reservations had to be kept so we packed up our brood and headed for the central Italian hills.  

First stop:

 Modena

The Balsamic capital of the world.  I scheduled a free tour of a Traditional Balsamic Vinegar Production at Villa San Donnono.  The villa above is the legendary home of the owner, one that looks like it jumped straight out of the Godfather and just so happens to have been the set of two movies. 

 Sculptures, tall trees and shaped boxwoods were everywhere, all of which I knew I couldn't do justice with my camera so I didn't take many pictures of it.  

 Here they are in a tiny chamber where wooden barrels of Balsamic Vinegar, aged for 12-25 years, is matured.  The smell in here knocked you down...in a good way.  

 The napkins cover a square opening where water evaporates out of them over the aging process, making the flavor more and more concentrated.  The balsamic vinegar we buy in stores isn't aged like this and is made mostly of vinegar with some grape juice and corn syrup added in.  This stuff is "Traditional Balsamic Vinegar", made entirely of organic grape juice and aged for 12-25 years.

  

 In the states, a 12 oz bottle costs over $100.  But, after being here you understand why.  It is very expensive, in time and labor, to make.  After the tour of the vinegar production we were given samples.  Oh man is there a difference between this stuff and the store bought stuff.  I still don't think it's worth it to buy this regularly because even though its good it's just not necessary but we bought a small bottle of it anyway because...well you have to.  It's just part of the experience.  We plan to bust it out when all of you come into town.  

Let me just add as an aside that Joey and I were totally enthralled and on some sort of travelers high during both these tours.  The kids were really good...especially on the vinegar tour but they simly don't appreciate it.  They keep asking, "When is this going to be over?"  or "Can we get some gelato? or, Mom, can I play with your cell phone?"  eh??  

 While we totally get where they are coming from (they are children after all) we can't help but look at each other and wonder..."Why on earth am I paying for you to be here?" and "Please can you find someone to stay with the next time we go on a trip...!?"  These are real questions we're asking ourselves.   If you have the answer for us or are willing to babysit please fly on over.  With all the money we're sinking into travel that is totally lost on them we'll pay for your flight.  We love them but surely you can see our predicament;)  

Parmesan Cheese tour in Parma

So many things about this process blew me over.  But for me the number one thing that I took with me was that these workers and 95% of all Parmesan Cheese producers in the area don't get a single day off the entire year.  Because of the process and because most of these places are small family owned companies days off aren't part of the job description.  Oh man, my heart breaks for them.  

 These are two brothers and the girl behind them is a wife to one of them.  In this picture is a vat full of "whey".  The milk of a cow is poured into this vat along with a barrel full of whey from the day before.  It is kept at a certain temperature, and stirred for a few hours.  The ball of cheese comes together at the bottom of the vat at which point they lift it out with cheesecloth, cut it in half to make two rounds and place it in the molds.

 The molds sit for a number of days to become solid and then are soaked in a salt water bath for a month.  That's where Parmesan cheese gets its salty flavor from...sitting in the salt water bath.  

 The rounds then are set to dry on oak boards for as many as 24 months to fully "ripen".  The guide showed us how the cheese gets its color as well as some flavor from sitting on the oak (specifically) boards...the caramel color of the wood seeps into the cheese, the round is flipped and then the color seeps into the other side.  The rounds are flipped every month for the entire aging process.  

The DOP of Parmesan cheese comes by each factory when the cheese is "ready" and taps them with a hammer to determine if they pass the DOP test or not.  If they do then they can be sold as Traditional Parmesan Cheese.  

Our tour came with a lunch but when we told our guide that we weren't hungry yet he drove us over to a beautiful castle nearby.  This area has nearly 100 castles and this one was is one of the best preserved.

 The views were breathtaking.

The tour guides children were out of school for the holiday so they came along with us.  

Georgie made a friend in Anna, the 10 year old so we have a few pictures of her in here.

 Again, I don't do it justice but I'm in love with patchwork green farm land...

This castle was excellent because we had it nearly to ourselves.   There was no furniture so nothing was roped off.  The kids could just run around, imagine, pretend and play. 

And the frescoes were quite breathtaking

THat about concludes our days in Parma and Modena.  I'm not sure that I ever would have discovered the necessity of this adventure if it hadn't been for Walt and Paula.  Thanks to them for giving us the idea.  We'll be happy to take you back (and plan it better next time) when ever you can make it!  Till then!

xoxo

Ash