Bratislava

 Bratislava, Slovakia

This Christmas we touched down in 6 different countries.  We started in Italy, stopped for a night in Vienna and spent our first day Christmas Marketing in Bratislava, Slovakia.  

 

This Christmas Market was the smallest of all that we visited and the country the most underdeveloped (at least from what we could see).  The city of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, was relatively unimpressive but still cool because it felt very much like an eastern, former Communist block country.  And of course Christmas Markets, no matter how small, make for a really good time.  This was also the coldest day of our trip with temperatures definitely below freezing and some of our toes hitting almost the same temperatures.  In fact we spent half of our day hunting down an open shoe store with affordable snow boots for mom who's UGGS were soaked with wet snow.  OUCH!! (FYI, UGGS, even when sprayed with water proofing material are still not waterproof.  But when dry there is nothing more warm and snuggly then those gloriously ugly boots!! )

Here's Bryant (who looks so much like Dad to me in this picture!!) and Joey eating a bowl of Goulash, a typical Beef stew.  I will forever remember the huge Potato Pancake/Giant Hash Brown/Swiss Rosti JOey bought at a booth here. (I don't know how else to describe it..we only saw them at this Christmas Market so I believe it's something uniquely Slovakian).  It might have been my favorite thing we had the entire trip.  I wish I had taken a picture of all it's greasy gloriousness.  

This was the typical dessert that we saw everywhere here:

 These were basically crepes filled with different things and rolled up, sometimes sprinkled with more toppings.

ANd this is a round of Camembert Cheese that he's grilling up to melt between two slices of white Ciabatta bread then to be slathered with carmelized onions and peppers to be eaten by mua.  But I don't think any of us ever ate an entire thing ourselves.  We were like a little pack of generous wolves, huddling and passing, eating and praising everything that we all discovered from different booths within the Christmas Market...it was sooo fun!!

These giant gingerbread cookies are sold at every Christmas Market (and Oktoberfest).  We bought one for Isaac and Georgie for the fun of it here in Bratislava.  

Despite the city of Bratislava not being anything seemingly special we all had a great time and were glad we went if for nothing else than to say that we'd been to Slovakia.  It's a good thing it was our first Christmas Market, however, because Vienna and Budapest, (oooh glorious Budapest), blew it out of the water:)

xoxo

The A Poop: A Juliet Story

A Never To Be Forgotten Juliet Story

      A few days ago Joey was sitting with Juliet while she was going to the bathroom.  She has been a beast to potty train and just when we thought we were in the clear she began regressing and pooping in her pants again (while traveling...fun!)   She finished pooping, waited with a big grin while we all cheered her on from the living room and then stood up from the toilet.  She walked over to Joey where he was washing his hands or something, pointed at the toilet and said, "That's an A right there."  A bit puzzled, JOey walked over to the toilet to see what in the heck she was talking about.  As he peered into her miniature potty training potty she said, "That's an A poop."  Sure enough, in the potty was a poop that looked just like the letter A.   

...TEARS!  We are still laughing about this.  And for the record, if she is subconciously trying to convince us that she gets an A in the subject of potty training, we're not convinced.  But we are convinced that this little cookie is about as cute and smart as 2 year olds come;)  

xoxo

Ashley

p.s. if you'd like to see a picture of the "A" poop rest assured that we took one;)  just let me know and I"ll email it to you;)  

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!