Pierce's Christmas Program

Pierce's preschool had a holiday tea for the parents, and they put on a little performance before refreshments were served. Here's a picture of Pierce right after his performance:



This is the video of part of their performance. I feel bad for the little girl beside Pierce. She kept getting boxed out by Pierce's exuberance.

Grandparent's Day Chapel

Every year, Madelyn's school, Immanuel Christian School, hosts Grandparent's Day. Grandparents are invited to a Christmas musical and get to see the classrooms and participate in a project with the kids. The musical was quite entertaining and it was obvious that the kids had worked very hard to learn the songs and their lines. The first grade students sang a few songs at the end of the production. Madelyn was actually chosen to be part of a smaller ensemble and then went back to join the rest of her class mates for the remaining part of the performance.


Waiting for the show to begin:

The younger kids were great during the waiting and the actual show, especially considering they both have horrible colds.


Madelyn was a little nervous before the show:


Part of Madelyn's class:

Here's a video of Madelyn in the ensemble. The quality isn't the best, and our seats made it hard to get the best view, but you can hear her pretty well. You can also hear the coughing and singing of Pierce and Isabel in the background:


Madelyn with her class:

Isabel Singing "Silent Night" and "Away in a Manger"

You might need to turn the volume waaaaaay up to hear these.

This year's ornaments and our tree

We've been getting the kids their own ornaments for the last few years, and we try to get them one that commemorates something from their year.

Madelyn got a piano this year.


I couldn't find any cute superhero ornaments this year, so I got Pierce a dinosaur. He's really gotten into superheros and dinosaurs to a degree.


A reminder of Isabel's broken leg:


Our family ornament:


We also got an ornament to celebrate buying our house. It also has our last name and address on it.


Not the best picture, but this is our tree:

Finding our Christmas Tree

On the way back from Thanksgiving with family, we stopped at a farm to cut down a Christmas tree. We had a good time picking out the "perfect" tree.

Taking it all in:



We found it:


Pierce likes it:


Isabel was just along for the running around:





Always a good time to wrestle:



And we're off:


Just like the Griswolds:

It all started

with two trees, two kids, a big kid who's great with tools, and a big dream.














Now, we have an awesome treehouse with "the fastest slide ever" and a "really cool climbing wall." Reason #753 why I love that guy!

Thankful Trees

This is our third year of doing "thankful trees". I got this idea from a MOPS meeting a few years ago and have loved doing it with the kids. You start out with a blank tree and leaves. You then write things that you are thankful for on the leaves, and glue the leaves on the tree. Madelyn pointed out that the leaves should be falling off the tree since it's fall. I took pictures of the kids with their thankful trees today. Here are their lists in no particular order:



1. candy
2. beach
3. food
4. mommy and daddy
5. our house
6. God
7. toys
8. Kathryn and Taylor (cousins)
9. Nature-God's creation (her clarification)



1. parks
2. pool
3. Mommy and Daddy
4. our house
5. tamborine (made at church)
6. that God made the world
7. that he was able to stay home (no school on this day)
8. changing seasons
9. that God made the world


1. Special bag (which holds her Halloween candy that we are still working on)
2. socks
3. Mommy
4. God
5. Clay
6. Puggles (AWANA class at church)
7. God
8. God
9. Daddy



I am thankful for so much-our family (both immediate and extended) and our many blessings (health, house, job, church, too many to name really).

Madelyn has been learning about thankfulness in her class at church and also during Bible at school. Here are some of her verses:

1 Thessalonians 5:18-Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Psalm 107:1-Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever.
2 Corinthians 9:15-Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift.

It's hard to not be thankful after reflecting on these and listening to her say them.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Italy Wrap Up

I think this will end my posts about Italy. We had an amazing time, and I would definitely go back one day. I think the amount of time we were gone was just about right. I didn't miss the kids and home until we were in our last couple of days of the trip. I think we met one rude person in our entire two weeks in Italy, so we were definitely treated well. Some interesting things I noted and discovered-peanut butter is almost impossible to find, but it can be done. I really dislike Nutella (is that weird?). I did get tired of bread and cappuccino for breakfast by the end of the two weeks. I wish Italians would discover the "to go" concept. I missed having my big coffee cup to carry around. Venice was not my favorite city, but contrary to some stories I had heard, it does not stink. Not one bit. If we ever go back, I would like to go back to Tuscany and visit southern Italy since I've never been to that part of the country.

Here are some of J.D.'s travel tips:

1) When you turn in a rental car, look carefully at the receipt for anything that references "carburante" (fuel) or "addebito" (surcharge). Apparently, it's not uncommon to stick refill fees on the bill and wait for the customer to say something. It's not difficult to get it removed later if you still have the receipt, but it would be easier to handle before you leave the lot.

2) Do not go to any self-serve credit card machine with an American credit card. This is especially true at toll booths and transit ticket machine. Most places can read the magnetic strip on American cards, but you need a human employee to assist you.

3) GPS is absolutely indispensable in getting around, particularly if you get lost. One exception to the rule - in city centers, you are better off turning off the GPS and relying on a good map and street signs. The turns come too fast for the GPS, and it can't account for one way traffic and lane reversals.

4) VAT refunds are a major headache. Think of them as the European version of manufacturers rebates. You have to show the merchandise at a customs desk to get a stamp (outside security) and then process the refund at a refund point (inside security). If you don't process the refund at the airport, you can mail it in later, but you have to get the stamp at the airport.

5) Rick Steves is great for tourist attractions, but for hotels and restaurants, you are better off looking at flyertalk.com and chowhound.com, respectively.

6) I strongly recommend staying at an airport hotel on the final night if you have an early departure. If your final city is Venice or Rome and you won't have the rental car, the airport hotel can also store your unneeded luggage and purchases.

7) Pay the extra money for a centrally located hotel. You will save time on transit and your feet will appreciate a mid-afternoon break.

8) Try to keep your total imports of gifts, souvenirs and wine under $800/person. Otherwise you can run into import duties at customs.

Madelyn Update

Madelyn is thriving in first grade. She is a voracious reader. She will read anything you put in front of her, and she's borderline insulted when she has to read something besides a chapter book. She's really enjoying American Girl Doll books and Ramona Quimby books. I met with her teacher today for parent/teacher conferences, and Madelyn is excelling academically. I did ask if she seemed bored in class, and while her teacher assured me she seems engaged and eager, she also mentioned starting her and a few of her classmates in the school's enrichment program after Thanksgiving.

Recently, the class had a contest to draw the cover of their "I Am Thankful" books. For this book, the class members all submit a page of what they are thankful for, and the teacher sends the pages off to a publishing company where it is bound and returned. Well, Madelyn's drawing was voted as the best, so her drawing will be on the cover of the book. She was so excited to have won. She really was proud, so I asked her teacher if I could see it today. I will say that she did a very neat job. The drawing was simple-just a rainbow, flowers, birds, and clouds, but she was very careful with it, and it was obvious that she had really tried. Her teacher said she worked much longer and harder on it than anyone else. So, I'm glad that she was rewarded for her efforts.

While I wasn't surprised by this, her teacher did ask us to work on one thing with Madelyn. Madelyn is a rule follower, and it bothers her when others don't follow the rules. Apparently, Madelyn likes to remind people when they aren't following the rules at school, and it sometimes annoys the other kids. I can't imagine why :-) While her teacher assured me that it doesn't affect the overall relationship Madelyn has with her classmates, she did ask that we work on teaching "If it doesn't cause bodily harm or damage property, let the teacher handle it." She does the same thing at home with her siblings, and we've tried to curb it. We obviously need to try a little harder.

As for her extracurriculars, Madelyn is taking gymnastics, piano, and continues to go to Sparks (AWANA) at church. We tried ballet and tap with Madelyn, and she just didn't like it. I was a bit disappointed with that, but I didn't push it. Gymnastics, though, seems to be something she does like, so maybe we can stick with that. Piano is a new hobby, and she is doing very well with it. So well, actually, that her teacher asked if she could participate in a festival this spring where she will be judged (based on her own ability, not compared with other students) and given remarks by the judges. It will be a lot of work on her part, but I think it will be a great way to challenge her, and she only competes with herself.

I'm really enjoying Madelyn as she grows. She's so smart and has such a strong personality, which can be challenging at times, but I know it will serve her well as she gets older. I love being able to have real conversations with her and being able to get a better idea of what's going on her mind. I'm usually pleasantly pleased when I find out.

October 12-14

October 12 - This was a day that we hadn't initially planned, but our friends Andy and Kate said we would enjoy the ceramic/pottery town. We drove to the town of Nove, and enjoyed an afternoon of ceramic and pottery shopping. JD had done some research, and we started at the "best" shop, La Ceramica V.B.C. This proved to be true, and we found pottery stamped with American brands "Tiffany", "Lenox", and "Williams-Sonoma". They make pottery for these companies and apparently hold back some items. We chose a few pieces of "Tiffany" marked items and then discovered some mosaic pottery that we really liked. We picked up a few pieces of that as well. We went to several other ceramic stores, but La Ceramica was definitely the best. At the end of the afternoon, we enjoyed a delicious pizza at Pizzeria da Asporta. Who makes pizza with arugala sprinkled all over the top? This place, and it was amazingly good! Then, we drove towards Venice.

We made it to our hotel, The Crown Plaza (Thank you, travel points!) and enjoyed a fine but unremarkable hotel that was located about 20 minutes from Venice's Marco Polo airport.

Oct. 13- We checked out of the hotel and headed toward Venice, but not before hunting down a hardware store for some packing tape. The clerk at the hotel was a wonderful help, but we had to use Google translator to communicate what we needed. Once he figured it out, he gave us excellent directions to this hardware store and the lady working there was very helpful. Why did we need packing tape? Well, we had to do some slight rearranging of our pottery boxes to meet airline size requirements. Once we had the tape, we were on our way to Venice.

Suburban Venice is located on the mainland of the country. This is where the airport is, as well as our hotel for our last night in Italy. We stopped by this hotel, Titian Hotel, because they were gracious enough to let us store our extra luggage and boxes for the night that we stayed on the island-what you think of when you think of Venice. We dropped off our luggage and drove to the airport to say goodbye to our rental car. There's no driving in Venice, so we decided to leave the car behind. From there, we went into the airport to purchase our bus and vaporetti tickets. We caught the bus to take us to the vaporetti-boats that operate like buses on the canals in Venice. We purchased a pass that allowed unlimited rides for 36 hours. It was a pretty good deal considering one single ticket cost 6.50 euros. We hopped on a very crowded vaporetto and headed toward our hotel. We were able to get our first glimpses of Venice -large, beautiful buildings with flooded basements, large churches, many canals, bridges, and lots of tourists.

We walked to our hotel, The Westin Europa and Regina (Thanks, again, travel points!), just off of St. Mark's Square. The hotel was beautiful! We dropped our bag off but couldn't check in because it was too early, so we ventured out and bought tickets to the Correr's Museum and Doge's Palace. We were both pretty much done with art museums, so we breezed through the Correr and got some lunch. We then went to Doge's Palace. The doge was the Venetian ruler, but we read conflicting commentary about how much power he really had. One doge, for example, was executed for going against the will of the senate and council, so it would seem that he was just a rubber stamp for what the other ruling bodies wanted. Regardless, the palace was pretty spectacular-large, lots of art, gold and marble. Included in this tour was a tour of the old prison which was attached to the Doge's Palace.

Then we ran back to the Westin, checked in, and freshened up. One of the benefits of being so close to the action is that we were back in St Mark's Piazza in three minutes and the line into the Basilica was short so we went inside. We listened to a podcast guided audio tour and walked around enjoying the art. After leaving St Mark's, we hopped a vaporetto over to the Rialto Bridge where we got some pictures of the setting sun. From there we walked to a restaurant, Cantina Do Spade. Cantina Do Spade had rave online reviews for its price point, but it's a little difficult to find. The best explanation is to take the main drag (Ruga dei Orefici) north from Rialto Bridge until it intersects S. Giovanni and turn left. Take the second alley to the right and follow it back two blocks. The restaurant is just before the Do Spade bridge on the left.

We got back to the hotel around 930 and were both exhausted. Asleep by 10.

October 14 - The Westin wanted a ridiculous 45 euros per person for breakfast so we ventured out for a thoroughly Italian experience - breakfast at a Pasticceria. A blog had listed Pasticceria Tonola as one of the best and said it was just behind Chiesa di San Rocco. Unfortunately, only one of these things was true. We wandered around for 30 minutes before we started asking directions and found it. In JD directions (meaning good directions), walk from San Toma towards Frari church. Once you emerge into the square facing the church, walk around to the left and walk through the archway towards Accademia and go down that street. . When that street deadends, take a right and walk one block and the bakery is there. We got delicious pastries (JD got seconds) and delicious cappuccinos. It was also the cheapest breakfast we had and we were the only English speakers in the shop.

After breakfast, we went back to Frari and did another audio podcast. It was a beautiful church and relatively tourist free. From there, we wandered out to Canel Della Guidecca and caught a vaporetto over to Isla di San Giorggio where there is a bell tower providing wonderful views overlooking the city. Unfortunately, we arrived in the middle of the lunch break, so we enjoyed lunch and killed time at a nearby sandwich shop. When the bell tower reopened, we went up and took a bunch of pictures . We then grabbed some gelatto and spent the afternoon wandering through the city. When we were ready to leave, we caught a vaporetto back to the Westin, picked up our bag, and headed back to our airport hotel, the Titian.

To view photos of Venice, click on the photo below:

Venice photos

October 10th and 11th

October 10 - it was a runaround day but in some ways the most exciting. We at breakfast and then retrieved our car from the garage. We had made much more deliberate plans to exit the city than we had coming in, and made it out of town without any problem. We headed south to the small town of Montevarchi where the Prada label has its outlet store. They call it Space Outlet. We got to the store around 9:10, and found out that the store opened at 10:30. We needed some supplies and an extra suitcase to hold all of our booty, so we darted over to the Intercoop, which is Italy's version of the super Walmart. We made it back to the outlet by 10:15, and there were already 40 people in line. By the time the doors were opened, the crowd had grown to over 100 people. We learned that Prada is still Prada and most of the prices were still ridiculous. JD attentively helped me choose shoes for a while, and it took a while because I scoured the store for the "cheapest" boots I could find. I did find some that were at a price point that I would spend of a nice pair of normal leather boots. We then headed to the men's section. We finally checked out around 1:00 pm and got on the road.

We headed for Pisa, where we needed to be at 3:30 to pick up our tickets to climb the famous tower. GPS said we only needed 90 minutes, but we got turned around twice and then traffic was really bad around Pisa. We ended up getting to the parking area at 3:15. Pisa is nice because you can park just across the street from the Tower. We took a bunch of pictures, including the cheesy must haves of us "holding" up the tower. We then climbed up to the tower. The lean was very obvious when climbing the steps and when standing on top, but not so serious that your mobility was affected. We got some great pictures of the surrounding area. Once we were down, we grabbed sandwiches and ate them sitting on the steps of a statue at the cathedral. We then browsed the tourist stands for souvenirs and got on the road around 5:45 pm.

To see our pictures from the Prada outlet and Pisa, click on the photo of the tower:

Pisa and Prada

We then headed up to the Ligurian beach to of Lerici. We got off the autostrade and began taking smaller and smaller roads towards the sea. We eventually went through several tunnels and popped out right on the Ligurean Sea. Our hotel (Hotel San Terenzo) is one of the few on the sea side of the road along the sea, and our room had a good sized balcony overlooking the sea. There was also a beach club next door and the hotel had privileges there.
After dropping our bags, we strolled back into town to a gelateria, and were excited to learn that portions were bigger and prices lower than any other place we'd been to.

october 11 - This was basically a lazy beach day. We did hike up to the Castello di Lerici above town and were rewarded with some gorgeous views of Lerici and San Terenzo. We read for a while on our balcony and then went down to put our toes in the water. The water was too cold, so my toes were the only part of me that touched the water. JD decided to take the plunge. He stayed in just long enough to get a photo and then jumped out. We wanted to enjoy our balcony a little more and so we grabbed some takeout food and then watched the sunset over the mountains in front of us.

To see more photos from Lerici, click on the photo below:

Lerici

A treat

from my sweets.

Happy Halloween!

October 7-9

Oct. 7-We enjoyed a leisurely morning before heading to Siena. Siena has very limited driving within the city, so we parked in a free parking lot next to the medieval fortress and headed to the hotel. Siena is lovely, and if we ever go back to Italy, I'll want to stay in Siena for at least three nights and use the city as a branching out point to visit other Tuscan towns. Our hotel room was cute with plenty of room and a pretty canopied bed. The view from our room was pretty spectacular. It was very close to Il Campo, the square in Siena where people gather. We milled around Il Campo, admired the city hall and Torre del Mangia (city tower), and viewed the Fountain of Joy (Fonte Gaia). We saw the duomo, duomo museum (Museo dell'Opera e Panorama) and climbed 120 narrow, winding steps to get a breath-taking panoramic view of the city. We also briefly explored the crypt and baptistery of the duomo. We ate dinner at a restaurant in Il Campo and then headed back to our room.

You can click on the picture below to see our photos of Siena:

Siena

Oct. 8-We ate breakfast at our hotel and left for Florence. The drive to the city was uneventful. Once we entered the city, the driving was anything but uneventful. We discovered very quickly that Florence is much like Rome with it's tiny narrow streets and seemingly random placement of one-way streets. Our GPS, which up to this point had been extremely useful, became worthless as it told us to go down one-way streets the wrong way, and once we actually made it to our hotel, it kept telling us to turn around. Thankfully JD had purchased maps of the cities we were visiting, so he was able to get us to the right spot. The other complication is that Florence, like Sienna, has very limited driving in the city and will ticket you if you are driving when and where you shouldn't be. Our hotel assured us that they would take care of any ticket as long as we didn't drive in a "public transportation only" area. We don't think we did, but I guess we'll find out in a few months. There are traffic cameras throughout the city to capture the license plate image of cars driving in the wrong area.

Once we were settled in our room, we set out to explore Florence. We made our way to the Uffizi Gallery, an art gallery with a great collection of Italian paintings. We saw works by Giotto, Leonardo, Raphael, Caravaggio, Rubens, Titian, and Michelangelo, as well as a room of Botticellis. We saw his famous Birth of Venus, which looks like a woman coming out of an oyster shell. The best things in this museum (Carey's opinion) are Michelangelo's only surviving easel painting, the round Holy Family, and the view of the Arno River and Ponte Vecchio (famous bridge across the river). After we left the museum, we wandered around the river, walked across the Ponte Vecchio, and took lots of pictures.

We used our borrowed Rick Steves Italy book and did his Renaissance walk through Florence. The walk pointed out the bronze doors on the baptistery of the Santa Maria del Fiore (duomo). The audio guide of the walk pointed out another church, Orsanmichele, with many statues on its exterior (some by Donatello). We also walked by Palazzo Vecchio (city palace) and saw a replica of Michelangelo's David. It stands in the same place as the original once stood. The original was moved to the Accademia (another museum) for its protection. Its left arm was knocked off when someone threw a sofa out of a window of the palace during a protest. Don't worry - they glued it back on. The walk finished up at the Arno where we took a bunch of pictures. Saturday evening we regressed into our American selves. JD was craving food that sounds like Rick Dawn Folds and then we watched the VT-Miami game on sling box.

October 9 - We had breakfast at the hotel and then we set out on another walk. We went back to Ponte Vecchio to try and get more pictures. Then we walked up to Galleria dell'Accademia, which houses Michelangelo's David. We both agreed afterwards that it was our favorite museum, and David is an amazing work of art. On the way back from Accademia we swung through Mercato Centrale and the market around San Lorenzo church. We bought a few things although JD passed on a 25 euro Rolex. From there we walked back over to the Duomo. The line was much shorter than Saturday and we went inside. The only art of note inside was a massive mural of judgment day painted on the inside of the dome. We went back to the hotel for a nap and then skyped with the kids. Isabel dominated the conversation by yelling "Mommy Daddy Mommy Daddy" over and over. We got a kick out of it. We at dinner at Trattoria ZaZa close to the central market. It had very good online reviews and pleased to say those reviews were accurate.

You can click on the picture of Florence and the Arno River below to see more photos from Florence:

Florence Photos

October 6th

On October 6 we checked out of the Mercure and headed to Termini (train station) to pick up the rental car. We got on the road around 10:15 and cleared Rome by 10:45. We managed to get out of the city without too many wrong turns and were very thankful for the GPS. Our first bit of troube came when we exited the Autostrade (toll highway) and got to the toll booth. JD inserted our ticket into the wrong slot, and we couldn't get it back. Also, the machine in the credit card only lane wouldn't read JD's card (no chip, remember), so he had to get the cars behind him to back up so he could get over to the cash lane. He tried to explain to the gentleman at the ticket booth that the machine "ate" his ticket. There was a definite language barrier, and JD finally resorted to exclaiming "Biglietti irregulari", which in pigeon Italian means irregular ticket. The gentleman finally figured out that we had inserted our ticket into the "biglietti irregulari" slot instead of the regular slot. He unlocked the box, got out our ticket, and charged us the appropriate amount.

We stayed at Castello di Velona in southern Montalcino, and it was spectacular. It was built around the old fortress and you can still see the outline of the fortress, but it has been massively expanded. Montalcino is very hilly and has some taller mountains, and our place was on top of one of them. The views were amazing. After touring the castle, we went to a local winery and enjoyed a tour with wine tasting. After that , we went back to the castle and each got a massage and enjoyed relaxing by the pool filled with natural thermal spring water. We then enjoyed a delicious dinner before retiring to a fabulous room with a bathroom almost as big as our bedroom at home.

Click on the photo of the castle to see our photos from Montalcino.

Montalcino