We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a very happy and safe New Year! This was the first Christmas we celebrated without our families and although we missed everyone terribly, it was kind of nice to start our own little traditions with Bella. On Christmas Eve, we went over to our friends, Ryan and Miranda's, house for French hot chocolate (yummy!) and came home fairly early so that Bella could go to bed at her normal time and we finished wrapping up gifts. On Christmas morning, Bella woke up and was happy to see all the presents under the tree. She started unwrapping her gifts, and since she is my daughter, she would put every little piece of wrapping paper in the trash bag before tearing any more ;) She must already know what a neat freak i am! Bella was blessed with so many gifts from Santa and our families and she is having a blast playing with all her new toys and watching her new movies.
The day after Christmas, we took a little drive with some other friends up to Mt. Etna so that the kids could play in the snow. There wasn't as much snow as we had hoped, but they loved playing in it nonetheless.
On New Year's Eve, we went back to Ryan and Miranda's house, where we stayed up playing games, eating lots of food, and drinking delicious Sangria! We were spending the night at their house, so Bella went to sleep around 10, but woke up just before midnight so we got to wish her a Happy New Year! Then, we went out to their backyard to watch the fireworks up on Mt. Etna.
Yesterday, we took another little trip with friends (this time on a little train that goes around the bottom of Mt. Etna). We stopped at a little town named Randazzo, where we had a great lunch, then walked around a bit, and saw some beautiful churches and a little castle.
We can't believe we've been in Italy for over a year now! Time goes by so fast, and we are so excited to see what 2009 has in store for us. My mom and sister are coming to visit for a week this month and Brian's parents will be here for a couple of weeks in March. We can't wait to see them - we miss everyone back home so much! We still hope to get a lot of traveling done this year (hopefully a roadtrip through Spain, then maybe Greece in the summer and then Belgium and London this fall/winter).
We hope you all enjoyed the holiday season and have a wonderful and blessed new year!
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1 comment:
hi bella! it looks like you had a wonderful christmas with your family. we miss you guys very much and hope to see you soon. a nova date sounds great and we'll look forward to it. hope 2009 is a great year for you all.
love,
jackson (and fam)
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