Sadly, no photo's

David and I have always done non traditional Christmas meals. It's started in Italy, where we spent our very first Christmas without any family. That Christmas we had steamed shrimp and lobster and Seprino, Italian white wine, in our beautiful Italian flutes. We had lobster again, when Karen joined us for Christmas. We like lobster, and it's a splurge we don't do often! The past Christmas Eve, I wanted to do something different. Festa dei sette pesce came to mind, feast of the seven fishes. It is a traditional Christmas Eve celebration in Italy. It's pretty easy, seven courses that all involve some seafood. Most everything we had was a new venture in cooking for me. I was nervous, and excited. I planned it out so that the food would be ready at different times throughout the day. I tried to keep the meals versatile. I ended up with shrimp cocktail, crab soup, smoked oysters, herrings in white sauce, mussels in a red sauce, Sicilian salsa verde with sautéed cabbage, and for the main event, spaghetti misto mare (mixed seafood pasta) with tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil. My crab soup started out as crab bisque, I ended up missing a key "bisque" ingredient so I tweaked my recipe to be broth based, used with white wine, low sodium chicken broth and water. I was especially proud of my soup, it was so good, and light and simple. The Sicilian salsa verde was made with anchovies, and many other things, turned out excellent as well. It was my first taste of anchovies. I wish I had taken photo's. The end result was 9 adults feed and 2 kids, not one complaint and lots of compliments. It was such a success, I think I'll make this my routine for Christmas Eve. Next year, I'm going to do something completely different. I really wanted fried calamari, but couldn't find it before my meal. That will definitely be there next year!

and more......

The club provided live music every day. It wasn't that great but it was live, and Hannah loved it. David probably pulled her off the stairs 10 times that day. She loved walking to the bar and people loved seeing her walk around. We couldn't get two steps in one direction without an employee or another guest stopping to talk to hannah.

More Club Med

We did spend about half our time at the pool, because it was in close proximity to the bar. =) They also had a baby pool located near the baby club med. It was about two feet deep and very small. I took her there a couple of times but she actually seemed to do better in the big pool. Plus, in the little pool, I had to kind of squat to get Hannah in the water.

Why everyone......pt 2

Here we are taking advantage of the archery. I didn't do too bad. I actually hit the target with two arrows!! And according to the guy running it, David was better than most of of the guests he had seen. There's also some pictures of our beach time. Going to the beach was easier with Hannah than the pool because the sand made it harder for her to walk away from us!

Why everyone should go to a Club Med

For everyone who thinks a cruise is the way to go, you should look at a Club Med for your next vacation. It's very similar to a cruise, you pay for everything up front and it's all inclusive. There's no tipping, so really, the only money you'll spend once you get there are on things you want to buy as souvenirs or gifts. There offer numerous sporting activities to keep children and adults happy. Our particular resort has tennis, skating, archery, climbing, sailing, a circus area, and an excursion center. Everything except the excursion center was included in your package.

Salerno

Last city on the Amalfi coast. It still amazes when I see something and can say "It looks just like the photo's of it." I don't quite know what I expect it to look like, but it amazes me when it does. Salerno is like that. Take any picture of the Amalfi coast and that's exactly what Salerno looks like. The only exception would be that Salerno is not very touristy like some of the other cities on the Amalfi coast are. It's home to a lot of boats, David and I walked around and daydreamed. It's a quiet, little fishing city built into the cliffs that make up the coastline. We ate dinner there and concluded that the food isn't all that different than anywhere else in Italy. The sauces are different throughout Italy, as well as their specialities but other than that it's not remarkable better in one region than another. We both had pizza's because they're supposed to be the best in that area, and they were delicious but all pizza in Italy is delicious. America just doesn't hold a candle to Italian pizza. The small difference we both noticed is that the mozzarella down south is different than what we eat here.

Pompeii

So here's a couple photo's from our trip to Pompeii. It was really neat. We only wandered around for about an hour and a half because we got there right before closing time. Then we managed to get lost trying to find our way out. These pictures aren't the best because I had to take them with my camcorder. The batteries in my camera died right after we got there. This first picture on the left is really interesting though. I thought I had a better one but I guess not. When they started to uncover the ruins in the late 1700's they found large voids in the ground that contained human bone. They realized the void once held a human, the one's the volcanic eruption had killed. So they injected the void with plaster, and were able to see the people, in a sense. From the plaster casts, one can see the terror frozen on the victim's face. You could clearly distinguish a bathroom, from a kitchen even still. And it was much larger than I imagined.

The Mall

The Mall is a giant outlet store located in the outskirts of Florence. Located there are high end Italian brands, such as Gucci, Prada, Armani and Valentino. I've known about The Mall for a long time, I've just never had the oppurtunity to go there; and I am so sorry that I waited until right before we're leaving to go! It's wonderful. Italian name brands are much cheaper here than in the states but most people think they're going to come here and get a big Gucci bag for $100. That's not the case though. However, at The Mall, it's totally possible! David won't let me tell everyone what he got, but I can say that he purchased more things than I did!

The last couple of weeks

Let's see, over the last couple of weeks we've been swimming once. She also stopped crawling, finally! The day David came back from DC she started doing laps around the kitchen table with him. She looks so cute walking! She also had her 12 month visit and shots. She's just over 17 1/2 pounds, which is pretty small on the doctor's scale but they are not overly concerned. He did recommend I start fattening up her food, which is surprisingly hard when David and I are trying to eat to healthy!

Trying.......SIgurta Gardens

Well this is part of my attempt to get back to my life. I've been absent for the last couple of weeks as I try and make sense of everything that has happened. Anywho, Friday Michelle, David and I went to Sigurta Gardens in Verona. We took our bikes and a picnic lunch, and after eating on the softest grass ever, we took off. It was gorgeous. The gardens had over 7 kilometers of trail that went up, down and around. There were castles on the grounds, as well as many water gardens. They also had the largest herb garden I've ever seen! It was so pretty, and the weather was gorgeous. Hannah got to see cow, koi, frogs, water lillies, and lots of Italian school kids.

Burano and a pirate ship

This Saturday we went out on a pirate ship in Venice to the island of Burano. It's an island famous for their lace. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and warm. We set sail at about 11 am and pulled back in at 5. We didn't get to stay on the island very long, which was a little disappointing but the day was enjoyable and relaxing. I mean, how can you go wrong with a long boat ride in Venice. And of course Hannah had a blast on the boat. At one point, she could even just crawl around up top. I let her hang onto the railing and look out at the water as we were moving, which she really liked but it made Daddy too nervous, so she didn't get to enjoy it long. You may notice from the picture of Burano that all the houses are different pastel colors. It goes back to a time when merchants did not always have lighthouses and other such things to rely on. From the different houses, not only could ships see them better, but they also knew exactly where they were at. All in all, it was an alright day.

Diao Diao

Sunday Hannah and I were outside, enjoying the beautiful weather, when some of our Italian neighbors came over to talk to us. It was the neighbor with a little girl who is 1 1/2 years old. David and I decided months ago that we were going to try and teach Hannah ciao ciao, instead of hello/bye bye. So the neighbor's come over, and we're chatting when Hannah looks at Chiara, the neighbor, waves and says "diao diao." It was so cute! So now, whenever she waves, she says it. Now we'll have to tackle our next Italian word, which I haven't determined yet.

We're in for it now!!!!

No pictures with this one. I haven't mentioned this to many people, probably because I wasn't sure if it would last. On April 3rd Hannah took her very first steps. She took seven in all that first night. Not all at once, the most she took at once was three. Since then, we've been practicing everyday, and everyday she's taken a couple of steps here and there. Last Wednesday, while we were outside, she let go of the front pillar and walked about five steps to a toy that she wanted. She did it all on her own, without prompting. She doesn't quite have the hang of it in shoes or socks, but we're still working on it. I'm hoping by her birthday party we'll be able to impress all of our friends with her new skill. We haven't been able to get it on video or pictures yet, because everytime she hears the ding of the camera or video camera she stops to look at the device making the noise. I'll keep ya'll updated.

A swing of her own

Last weekend David and I, and Hannah, went out and got the rest of her birthday presents. Just a couple of little things, and the one thing we set out to find........a backyard swing for her. Yes, we do have that one behind our house that works just fine. However, that may not be the case at our next home. Furthermore, David and I love nothing more than hanging out back around our patio table; whether it be enjoying some food or sitting with a bottle of wine. The position of the swing, which we had to put up immediately, allows us to do all of this and still push/entertain Hannah. She loved it, and so far we've been able to put her in it everyday, well those days that it hasn't been raining. And it has been doing an awful lot of that. April has definately brought Vicenza rain. The same day we put up Hannah's swing, we also put a floral addition around the olive tree in our front yard. I think it looks really good, it was David's idea. And of course, Hannah helped with that!

Just a typical Italian weekend

Well this weekend was fun.  Saturday David and I went to a winery in Soave.  When we came home we went for a bike ride into the hills.  However, I had not anticipated how difficult riding in the hills with 20 extra pounds that move would be!  So we didn't make it that far into the hills but it was still a very nice ride.  I also took her to the swing set behind our house.  She's still a little too small for it but as long as I push slow, she's fine.  And she loved it!  She did  not stop laughing.  She kept letting go of the bar and lose her balance and back in the swing.  It made me nervous but she obviously enjoyed it since she did it repeatedly.  We're going to start walking over there more often.  Yesterday, another gorgeous day so we spent all day outside.  Hannah tasted bird poop, a couple wood chips and some berries.  She didn't get a chance to swallow any of it though.  Yesterday evening David and I sat out front with a bottle of wine and enjoyed the sun while Hannah hung out with the neighbors.