Sammy's Birthday and Christmas Day

Christmas Eve has been a special day for the Bedells for years (John proposed to Ann on this day). Last year, though, was an extra special Christmas Eve: Samuel was born. So, it's now one year later and we celebrated Sammy's birthday. Grandma's visit was great enough, but he also enjoyed a few gifts and a proper chocolate birthday cake!

Christmas day was equally special for Sammy, not to mention Thomas. We enjoyed watching them open their presents, and had a wonderful quiet day at home. A nice roasted dinner, too much chocolate, and a relaxing evening made it a nearly perfect day. Also, although we had a mix of sun and showers on Christmas day, the ground was covered in deep snow the following morning!

Happy Holidays to all of our freinds and family!

Grandma comes to Visit

We're happy to announce that we have another visitor to our home in Italy.  Ann's mother, Louise, (otherwise known as Grandma) has come for a 10 day visit.  She'll spend Christmas with us, and we'll then do several days of sightseeing.  We're enjoying her company, and she's had the chance to see a little of our neighborhood and life in Italy.  So far, she's said that the food is better than expected, and the climate is rearkable (with sunny warmth in the day, but snow at night).  

Christmastime Sunday

We spent this Sunday preparing for the arrival of Grandma Harder, who will be spending nearly two weeks visiting us in Italy. It will be great to have a guest for Christmas, which we'll spend at our home. We then plan to take a trip and do some sightseeing.

Since today's weather was beautiful (sunny and unseasonably warm), we also made a short outing to the Christmas Market in Varese. The streets were full of people, and countless stands sold traditional Christmas gifts, along with local foods and treats. There was an ice-skating rink, vin brule and chestnuts, and plenty of Santas. The city's gardens were also decorated, and carols played on the PA system. The day really put us in the spirit of the season.

Lastly, we had to post a photo of one of the notorious 'Hanging Santas'. These are undeniably the most popular Christmas decoration in northern Italy. They are outside of many homes and businesses, and their oddness (not to mention ubiquity) is just a little creepy.

The Return of Beautiful Weather

After nearly a month of rain, sleet, snow, fog, drizzle, and generally sloppy weather, we're all glad that the sun has returned.  It's been warm, clear, and absolutely beautiful here for the past two days.  We couldn't resist posting a photo of the sunset.

Seasons Greetings

Here's our little family holiday portrait.

Christmas Market

Today Thomas' school had a Christmas market where all the classes make things to sell. To start off the market the classes all gather and sing Christmas songs. Thomas was looking forward to this as he wanted Ann to hear him sing and also to buy lots of stuff. Unfortunately, the weather for this event did not cooperate. It was rainy, cold, foggy and overall just dismal. But the Christmas market was quite nice. There was a plethora of hot food to eat, soda and water to drink. And for the parents there was copious amounts of hot spiced wine to keep them warm as the market took place outside under the shelter of one of the building overhangs. Ann found some books written in English and Thomas found lots of chocolate to buy (see above picture of Ann and Thomas' loot). They had a great time.

Snow Day for Thomas