Christmas is a comin'!!!

We would like you to meet Boudin, our Belgian Christmas tree that we got from Ikea this year! Why did we name it Boudin (pronounced: Boo-dahn)? Well, it's rather a complicated connection, but when Zeno was in the army there was a song about no more Boudin for the Belgians... Boudin is actually a type of sausage, but that wasn't the connection for us, rather, it was the fact that since Boudin is in our living room in Italy, it's no longer for the Belgians.... So, now that that's all crystal clear! Introducing: Boudin!

Yes, we're the ones who decorated and trimmed him so very nicely and festively!

There are some very special and wonderful ornaments on Boudin. For example, we have:












The Christmas Fish!!!

The Grape Cluster is an ornament no Italian

Christmas tree should be without!

The Crystal star is truly beautiful.

Going right along with the Grape Cluster,

apparently the wine flask is a necessary ornament!

Here is our city-scape scene of Indiana!!!

We need to make sure our internationality is properly

displayed with a bit of the good old USA!

This is our Christmas Raccoon! We think he's afraid of heights...

Our Christmas butterflies!!! Symbolizing the new and beautiful life that came when Jesus was born.

Here is our Christmas Frog. He says:
you make my heart leap!!!!

And last, but certainly not least,

is our Christmas puzzle ball!

We put it together on the flight

to the US last Christmas ( =

Merry Christmas!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Buon Giorno di Ringraziamento!!!!

In preparation we did a little bit of decorating:

And God gave us a dusting of snow!!! ... though, by the time we had the celebration, it had turned to rain and been washed away. But it was beautiful and fun while it lasted!!!

Of course we prepared a LOT of food!!!

(We can testify to the A LOT part since now, we've been having leftovers for about a week! It's a good thing all the food was good!)

This year we doubled in size:

Angie and Giuliano with their girls Bea and Cate; Giovanni and Rachel with their little baby girl (who has yet to make her appearance); Joe and Laurie with their little Amelia; Paolo and Luiza with their new little 3-mos old Elia; Natalie and her girls Kennedy and Giada (Joe had to work), and then, of course, A&Z!

Thanks to Dad we had the annual Thanksgiving Quiz! It was a tough one this year... Here are Angie and Cate working together on the quiz ( =

Time to carve the Turkey!

Here's Zeno (holding the knife of course!), Joe (the one who knew what he was doing) and Giovanni (spectating and giving moral support).

The carving drew a few spectators!

Here's the girls' table:

Cate, Bea and Kennedy

Our friends Angie and Giuliano

Rachel and Natalie... eating!!! or, at least, preparing to ( =

Angie holding Natali's youngest: Giada

And then, there was the cleanup afterwards.... actually, thanks to paper plates it wasn't that bad! But we were both ready to kick up our feet and take a good rest after all the festivities.

What a GREAT time!!! I think we're going to make it a tradition... now, let's see, how can we fit everyone in next year....? and next year, we'll have the photographer going around a bit more to make sure to take more pictures of everyone during the party! We missed a few this year.

Happy 2nd Anniversary!!!

For our second anniversary we took a long weekend in the mountains of Valle Aurina - beautiful, peaceful, refreshing, clear, lovely, exciting... perfect!

Swan Lake

I love you!!!!

FOREVER

The snow sparkled like diamonds in the Sunshine!

Amanda's hair sparkled in the sunshine too!

The mountains Croda Rossa and Le Tre Cime di Lavaredo

This is the Hatlerhoff, the quaint little pention where we stayed in San Giorgio.

The little chapel in San Giorgo

We walked along the river in the woods

Which way do we go!?!?!

Finally we found waterfalls!!!

Che Bello!

Che bella vista!!!

Sleeping Beauty...

The Enchanted Forest

Amore