Christmas in Ferrara

Italy is a beautiful place to be in the winter.  For one thing, it's actually fairly cold here so it feels like winter (unlike anywhere else I've lived!)  Just after American Thanksgiving in November, thousands of sparkling icicle lights were hung all around the downtown area of Ferrara.  It's beautiful to walk around and see everything glittering and shining.

There was a carousel set up in the Piazza Municipale that Michael LOVED.  It was so cute watching him ride around and around. We bought more tickets than we probably should have, and Robbie and I had to switch off so we didn't get dizzy holding him on his horse.

The lights all over town were really beautiful.

They also set up an ice skating rink in one of the little plazas near the castle.  We didn't get the chance to skate but it looked like a lot of fun.

Ferrara also has its own little Christmas market.  There are some stalls set up in the main piazza that sell a variety of gifts, decorations, candy, and food.  We went several times and walked around--we got a Ferrara bulb for our Christmas tree, some candy (a couple of times), and little cups of vin brule, the spiced wine they sell here for the holidays.

We also got our first Christmas tree in Italy. They do things a little differently here.  The trees are smaller and they sell them in a pot.  You buy a tree and decorate it for the holiday, then you can plant it in your garden for the next year, or even return it to the nursery.  I had never really put much thought into the millions of trees that are cut down and die in the US every year for Christmas until we got to Italy and saw you didn't necessarily have to kill your tree. We hadn't brought any of our Christmas decorations with us since we didn't know how much room we'd have and where we'd be living, so we made a quick trip to the store and got some cheap ones to make it look happy and festive.  And the best part of it being on the small-side was that we could easily put it on a table and out of reach of the one year-old who loves to grab anything he can get his hands on!

A couple days before Christmas we got our first visitors--my mom and bother Ryan came to visit! it was really fun to show them Italy.  Michael had a great time opening his presents (this was the first time he really understood what to do with them) and we had a great Christmas with lots of food and a walk around Ferrara.

Merry Christmas (a month or so late)!

Tree Lighting in Ferrara

At the beginning of December we were excited to go down to the cathedral and watch the lighting of the big Christmas tree in the Piazza.  We had heard last year there was a big light show on the side of a nearby building so we were expecting something similar.  We ran into a few friends in the crowd and staked out a spot in front of the tree and waited for the show to start.

What a show!  They had a synchronized light/fire/water show right in front of us that lasted almost 20 minutes.

The music was so loud (you can see we were right near a speaker) and you could feel the heat from the fire every time it went off.  Michael, who has about a 13 second attention span for the things he's most interested in, was captivated the whole time.  As cool as the show was, it was even more fun for me to watch him and his reactions to the colors and water and fire. He kind of wrinkled his nose every time the fire went off. It was super cute.

Towards the end of the show, the tree was lit! And it continued awhile longer (most of the music was instrumental, but at one point they started playing "We are the Champions" by Queen which was funny).

We had one of our friends take a picture of us near the Christmas tree at the end. It was hard to get a good picture in the dark and with all the other people trying to do the same thing.

After the show, we wanted to go out for dinner but still had a few minutes to kill before the restaurant opened.  We let Michael ride on the carousel a few more times, which he thoroughly enjoyed!

It was a really fun evening. I can't wait to see what they do next year!

International Christmas Party

Every year in December, there is a big Christmas party for all the NATO countries represented at the base here in Italy.  They have a Santa for the kids (parents buy presents for their children, then Santa hands them out), and the main attraction is dinner where each country sets up a table of typical foods from their country and everyone walks around to try them all.

We got there a little early to see if the Americans needed help setting up (and I had made three batches of cookies for our table I needed to deliver).  They got everything put out and ready to go before all the festivities started.

For reasons I'm still unclear about, our group decided to make fajitas for our table.  I had imagined something along the lines of turkey, hamburgers, barbecue... Something more American. But they decided on fajitas so we had chicken/peppers, tortillas, guacamole, pico de gallo, sour cream, beans, rice, and margaritas. With an assortment of cookies for dessert.  It was very good!

Once everything got set up, we went to another room for a speech by the commander and for Santa handing out presents to the kids.  They had two Santas and it still took forever. Michael was getting hungry and impatient and was one of the last kids to get his present. By the time his turn came around he was NOT happy about getting put in a stranger's lap.  Especially since that stranger had a beard. He's suspicious of facial hair.  This was  the result:

Poor kid screamed!  It took him a while to recover.  He didn't really care about his present and any glimpse of Santa sent him back into hysterics.

Eventually we took him outside away from all the people and let him open his present in peace (and without that weird Santa guy within eyesight) and he calmed down enough to show some interest in his new drum and instrument set.

After all the gift unwrapping, it was finally time to eat.  We had a good time walking around and trying all of the different types of food. Michael did a great job trying new things--he was so hungry I don't think he even spit anything out! We tried pickled herring, pate, different kinds of meats and cheeses, olives, kebabs, Turkish delight, soups, potato pancakes, pastas, cakes, and cookies.

Finally, after some food in his stomach, Michael was feeling better and started acting like his normal, sweet self again.

While everyone was finishing up eating, cleaning, and talking, they had a magician come and perform for the kids. Michael wasn't very interested so he and I went outside to he could run around with the big kids.  We came back in every few minutes to warm up and check on daddy, and one of the times we saw this:

Robbie got picked to be the magician's lovely assistant. After the magic show it was getting late and Michael was pretty burned out on all the excitement so we headed home to call it a night. It was a good time--maybe next year he'll enjoy it a little more and won't be too traumatized by his interaction with Santa!

Thanksgiving in Italy

We weren't in the United States for Thanksgiving this year, but that didn't stop us from celebrating... twice!  We got back from Germany a couple weeks before Thanksgiving and decided it might be fun to invite one of our Italian friends over to experience good ol' American Thanksgiving.  They of course didn't get a random Thursday off of work, so we decided to have Thanksgiving with them the Sunday night after Thanksgiving.

On Thanksgiving day, Robbie's commander had everyone over for a big dinner.  There was so much food--three turkeys, stuffing, potatoes, vegetables, rolls, and several types of dessert.  It was a lot of fun.  The only hitch was our water heater breaking earlier in the day--I had to run to a friend's house to shower before the big party, then Robbie ended up having to drive back to our apartment right before we started eating to meet the guy who was fixing it for us.  We ate tons of food, then Michael played on the trampoline with the big kids for a while.

We have a lot to be thankful for this year.  The wonderful experiences of living and traveling around Europe, our sweet little family, the friends and family we have back in the US, and the new friends we're making here who are from all over the world. One of the things I'm most thankful for every day is baby snuggles like this:

We had a great time. It was nice to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with a big group of Americans and have that little piece of home over the holidays.

I cooked most of the day on Saturday and Sunday to prepare for our second Thanksgiving with the Italians.  When we originally asked, our friend said he was familiar with American Thanksgiving and turkey and all that. But when he and his brother came to our house, they said they really only have seen it on TV.  Luckily, they were ready to try new foods and brought their appetites. It was like having two Marks for Thanksgiving!  They were really impressed by the turkey, which was funny to me because it was only 10.5 pounds.  I figured we didn't need a huge one for only four people and I didn't think I could fit one much larger than that in my little oven.  It did look pretty though.

As I finished cooking and set everything out, Robbie explained what everything was.  We had just about everything--turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, applesauce, cranberry sauce, corn, green bean casserole, rolls, and pumpkin pie.  The only thing they had tried before was the mashed potatoes and corn.

We had a great time eating and talking. It was a really fun night, and it was cool for us to be able to share a little of our American culture with our Italian friends. I was happy to have cooked them their first Thanksgiving dinner.  They stayed for awhile and we talked, were entertained by Michael, then they packed up some trays full of leftovers (because it's not really Thanksgiving without leftovers!) and headed home.

Although it's a little late, Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family back home! We hope you had as wonderful a holiday as we did.

Germany: Heidelberg Castle

We arrived in Germany and were lucky to be able to stay in our friends' house rather than the hotel.  Not only did we have a kitchen, a crib, a bathtub, and toys for Michael, but they also left us a list of places to go and restaurants to eat in.  Not knowing how busy Robbie would be once work started, we wanted to try to knock stuff off the list right away.  We went to eat the first night in Kaiserslautern, a good-sized town near Ramstein Air Base.  We got there a few minutes before the restaurant opened and played around a little in a small plaza we found near the restaurant.

On our second day in Germany, we decided to drive down to see Heidelberg Castle.  We'd heard good things, the weather was good, and Robbie just had to go in to work to check in.  First, we stopped at a Mexican restaurant our friends recommended to get a little taste of home.  I think if we had eaten there in New Mexico, Arizona, or California, we wouldn't have liked it very much but since it had been 3 months since we had any Mexican food, it hit the spot. 

Michael was so funny--we sat down and they brought us some chips and salsa. He watched us each dip a chip in the salsa and eat it.  We gave him a chip and he picked it up and started reaching for the salsa. Robbie and I both grabbed to get the bowl away from him since he spills everything but he somehow got past both of us, dipped the corner of his chip in the salsa, and ate it.  He loved it! He was so cute dipping his chip, licking the salsa off, then reaching out to dip it again. The only time he spilled was when the waitress brought our food, and we both got a little distracted. Robbie and I were so impressed that he figured out exactly what he was supposed to do and acted like he's known how to eat chips and salsa forever.  It was cute.

After lunch we drove to Heidelberg.  The castle is huge. It makes our Ferrara castle look like a guest house.  It was situated up on a hill, so we had a bit of a climb to get up there. It was worth it.  The views were amazing and the castle itself was pretty impressive. 

It looked really cold and windy outside as we were driving, so we bundled Michael up.  It ended up not being too bad, but he looked so cute in all his winter gear!

This is one of my favorite parts of the castle.  There was a circular tower kind of thing, but a big piece of it had come apart and just fallen off.  I don't know if the picture really does it justice, but the piece that's laying diagonally with all the foliate growing on it  was once attached to the rest of the tower.

There was a really pretty courtyard with views of the city and the river below.  We walked around here and let Michael run a bit before heading inside.

Once inside the castle walls, there was another courtyard.  You had to go on special guided tours to go inside the castle, and Michael doesn't usually cooperate with that kind of thing, so we walked around and did what we could without going on the tour.

One of the coolest rooms had these giant wine barrels. We looked at the barrels, walked around a little bit, then Robbie and I tried a wine they had and Michael and I shared a German soft pretzel.

We went out to another balcony on the other side of the castle and got some more pictures of the city and views.

We had a few extra minutes before we had to head back home and I had seen the steeples of a couple of churches I wanted to go see before we left, so we headed back down the hill into town.  I was disappointed that one was closed and there were people doing some kind of filming in the other so we couldn't go in and look around in either of them.  It was fun to walk down the pedestrian street and see the shops and street performers.

Then we walked back to the car, took a couple more pictures of the castle in the late afternoon light, and headed home.

I wish I had more posts about Germany.  Robbie's schedule was great for going sightseeing, but the weather didn't cooperate with us. It was cold and rainy the entire time we were there.  I was especially disappointed to miss seeing Trier, the oldest city in Germany with a lot of Roman ruins.  We drove up there one day, but by the time we got there the rain was really coming down and we didn't want to drag Michael around in the cold.  We did make it to Saarbruken to go to a mall one day, then when our friends got back we split up for an indoor playground/shopping day. 

It was a fun trip. It was nice to be in a place where everyone spoke English again and we could get some of the foods we missed (Baskin Robbins! Stuffed crust pizza!). Michael and I did a little exploring in the town where we were staying, played in the park, and found a nice walking path.  The good thing about a two year European assignment is we'll have plenty of time to go back!