sand angels for Christmas

If we can't have snow angels, I guess we'll settle for sand angels this year.  Happy Holidays to all of you!

Christmas 2014

 This is my favorite picture of all time of Aaron- toothless Santa Claus.  He reminds me of the grandpa from the movie"Arthur Christmas".

Christmas Eve dinner with Paolo's family:

Christmas at the beach

This year we wanted to surprise the kids and go for a trip somewhere on Christmas.  We were thinking either Venice or the tower of Pisa since Aaron has been asking to go see them.  Do to tiredness, distance, and fog, we decided to go the beach.

Aaron will jump into the water anytime of year, even if it were snowing.  Today was no exception.  Fortunately I came prepared.  Isabel followed suit as she always does, and these two had fun getting cold and wet.

Paolo, Jordan, and I had fun staying warm and dry. :)

My morning run with a sunrise!

Hiking in the hills above our house

 There's a nature hike in the hills about 2 km above where we live.  It's beautiful, and it was a beautiful day.  Lately we've had grey all day and no sun, so it was a nice change! The bonus is that they have this rock that looks like it has quartz or other shiney stuff.  You know what that means to my boys?  TREASURE!!!

 So we filled a bucket with rocks, and before leaving chose our 3 favorite rocks and left the rest for the gnomes to come and get tonight.

 We did Thanksgiving dinner the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  It's difficult to get a whole turkey, but you can buy the breast and legs and wings already cut.  So that's what we did.  Jordan ate a WHOLE drum stick!

 I'd like to say this was my first cooking disaster.  But it'd be a lie.  For any previous roommates, this might bring back memories.  Last week we did a cooking class with a group of women from church and I was going to teach how to make American desserts.  I was trying to prepare and make these chocolate cupcakes.  I think that Aaron dumped the whole packet of backing powder when I had my back turned, and this is what happened!

Christmas is my kids FAVORITE holiday of all times.  There are Christmas markets around and we went to this one on Saturday.  Luckily it was tiny and my kids didn't ask me to buy anything.

jordan bowling

Bowling for family night

Tuesday night we went bowling for family night.  Aaron won.  He told us all about it many times.  He said thank you in many of his prayers, and apparently he told his whole class at school too!  What a funny kid.

Florence with friends

The David (replica) by Michelangelo

 So I had two friends/x-co-workers come and visit me on Monday.  We met up in Florence.  They were there for the day with a cruise they were on.

Maggie, Julie, and Julie R.

 I tried to be a nifty tour guide and walk us up to Piazzale Michelangelo where you can see the top of the Duomo.  I made a wrong turn and we walked up to this crazy fortress, down a steep hill,and then up some steep stairs to make it to the right place. :)

Thanks to my sweet husband for taking the kids for a day, and thanks to my friend Rachel for babysitting them in the morning.  I appreciated it!!!