Christmas in Italy

We had no seating problems on this leg of the flight. The seats have no leg room, so my knees hurt from being bent the whole time. We stayed awake for dinner and I played some Sudoku until I was too tired to keep my eyes open and then proceeded to sleep much of the flight away, which I think I slept better this time around. After a not-so-warm breakfast, we landed fairly quickly outside Venice. We could see some of the tall towers and islands around Venice through the fog as we landed.

The airport seemed fairly empty so once we retrieved the luggage (of which mine was really wet, but luckily just on the outside) we basically walked straight through customs. I have my second stamp in that passport (my previous one has many more) but it is so faint it's hard to tell where it is from. It was raining and quite chilly but the airport is pretty nice. I did run back in for a warm drink while we were waiting. When I asked if they had a mocha (I thought that would be Italian!), the guy didn't know what I was talking about. I was afraid the coffee would be too strong. I asked then for coffee and chocolate. He still didn't know what I was talking about. A girl tried saying something for me, but they had nothing like that, so I just went with a cappuccino. It was incredibly good.

Andrew picked us up and drove us back, a long way (closer to an hour) to his home. I always find it so interesting to look out the window and see the sights of life from a car. It was very overcast and foggy, but the homes had that very typical Italian feel of the tall boxy build and a tile roof. The trees were leafless but green grass sprouted along the roadside much like it is doing at home right now.

We stopped at the Aviano airforce base, hoping to be able to get passes to go in on Wednesday to see where Andrew worked. They didn't want to give out the passes though, so we aren't sure if that is going to happen. It is a NATO base, so I do think that would be interesting to see.

I feel terrible since my voice was fairly non-existent. I could talk, but it was pretty raspy and took a lot of effort to speak loud enough to be heard and for it to have continual sound. Here I am, about to enter the home of someone I've never met before (Angela - I'd met Andrew but not his wife or two of his children), and I can't speak much and I'm sick! They are truly kind to just let us stay anyway, and especially with me in this state. We offered to get a hotel and stay there until I was better, but they wouldn't hear of it.

Angela had laid out quite an array of snack foods for us around lunch time. The meatballs were especially good, I thought. I was so tired, so I went up to take a three hour nap, after enjoying the food with the family. We played some legos with the kids (and I created a little scooter jet I was driving with Hannah on the back...you need to use your imagination to see it because it's a little more on the abstract side). We also exchanged some gifts, and I received a stocking full (and so did Chris) of Italian food stuff. I'm looking forward to taking that home to cook when I return.

Dinner was a feast of ham and pineapple with several side dishes. The little boys are really very cute from ages 2-7. After dinner we played hot potato with them, also really fun. They were very good sports. The big event "we" (really, Chris and Andrew) were waiting for was the Lakers game at 9pm. As they watched the game, I was able to FaceTime with the family on my iPad while they opened gifts. It was quite entertaining to watch it over the iPad. My brother Brian set up his computer. My niece, Alicia kept coming to dance in front of it, or putting her stuffed dog up to "lick" my face. I tried to get my nephew, Harrison, to throw some of the goldfish from his stocking into my mouth, but he wouldn't fall for it.

I was glad I was able to be there when they tried to figure out how the youngest, Bethany, had gotten outside into the backyard. They weren't sure at first until they saw her repeat it by going out the doggy door! They moved the computer so I could see her crawl back in and then my brother, Kevin, showed me the shots on his camera, which were even funnier. It was nice, it was as if I was there in the room watching. It was great. I was on it for at least an hour. That was really nice since I was sad to not be there on Christmas and realized it would be another two years before I could be with them again on Christmas Day (since we only have it every other year on the actual day).

I rejoined the boys for the end of the Laker game, which to their delight was won by the Lakers. Shortly after we ended out day, although since my nap had re-energized me I wasn't all that tired, still I needed to get over this cold and find my voice somewhere in dreamland.






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