Tree Decorating Time

Our first Christmas Tree as a family was bought in 1978 and it was real.  For the next 20 years we cut down our Christmas tree, as a couple, with nieces and nephews and then with our own children.  Every year was a memory.  The 1st time we cut it down Jim took a gigantic big ax, the man at the tree farm looked at us as if we were aliens, asked us very nicely to put our ax back in the car and he would lend us a nice little saw.  LOL, chances are by the time Jim chopped the tree down with his ax there wouldn't be a needle left on it.

We went to tree farms that were farmers fields, you wandered around found your tree and took it home, hoping it wouldn't fall off the roof.  Then there were the ones with the sleigh/hay ride, gift shop and hot chocolate.  And yes one year we did sneak bailey's into our hot chocolate.  Buying a tree turned into a picture with Santa, an ornament, a donation to their charity, etc.

Timber, yes we had our share of trees crashing to the ground in the middle of the night.  Never figured out why but our best answer was hammer nails into the wall and tie the tree up, some of them had a nice little floating feeling to them.  We couldn't even blame the trees falling on the cats.  Zacky was the only one who used to climb the tree.

Having 3 children, all with minds of their own and especially when their mind usually voiced an opinion that was the opposite of their other sibling.  Trying to get 3 of them to agree on a tree became mind boggling, I started to think if I could get them to agree I could work on a peace accord in the middle east.

Then came the years of "do we have toooooooo".  Once we got them all in the car, it became the fastest tree cutting in the world.  Basically walk into the field, look that one's green, we'll take it.  The boys wanted to get back to hockey and Rachel wanted to take her time.  Now the boys vs the girls.  I'm sure some of our excursions could have been used for a "Simpson's" episode.

Around 1998 after 3 years of the "Mud Tree", rain, trees covered in mud and the boys being in hockey tournaments every Christmas break, we finally broke down and bought an artificial tree.  It's been perfect it goes up December 1 and comes down January 5.  No watering.

The children grow up and go off to University, have their own homes and Rachel even has her own tree this year.  Our tradition has evolved into the family tree decorating come for dinner event.  This year we took it up a level and added in "craft beer tasting", thai food and baking.  Jim and I are very blessed, it was an entertaining day starting with breakfast and a little tiff over ordering the food and who carried the most boxes up the stairs kept us all normal this year.

Even the cats joined in the festivities
A selection of our craft beers, one was called "bah humbug"

Boys weren't happy the Bills lost

David giving his valued "advice".  

Even our decorations are filled with memories.  My 1st ornament was given to be by my mom in 1978 - "yes the 1st Christmas Together", and one every year after that until she passed away.  Holiday ornaments, don't think there was a holiday we went on either as a couple or a family where we didn't bring a decoration home.  It is such fun listening to the kids remember the holidays when they pull out the decoration.  And moan at the ones Jim and I are now taking on our own again.  LOL

Sitting last night Jim and I are thinking maybe next year we will start cutting down our tree again.  O:)  Merry Christmas everyone.

Busy Day Today

Lots to do today, wondering if I will get it all done.  Packing, Working, Nails (oh to get my nails done when I am not thinking of 1000s of things to do).  Where to start?  Maybe shut down my blog and turn off my email.  That's never happening lol.  But I will cut down my facebook visits to one every couple of hours.  lol

Time to take Stanley's advice, maybe ponder everything over a nice cuppa coffee..... 

Magical Muskoka in the Fall

Every year as October approaches, I am totally amazed at how our world is transformed as the trees start changing.  First go the pines, our property was totally orange from all the pine needles that had dropped, and then the trees start, the reds and yellows on the Maples, yellow birches and not so bright but still colourful oaks.

Saturday had a bright sun which added a beautiful blue to the sky to contrast with all these wonderful colours.  This is at the Lake Joseph Golf Course.  It was very hard to focus on the golf with all the beautiful colours.  Luckily I didn't lose any balls amongst the leaves.

Even Ollie enjoyed the leaves, the cats were chasing them around as they were falling from the trees.

It really is a wonderful time of year and perfect walking weather.  Now that the cottage is closed, I'll have to rediscover the beauty of Aurora.

Enjoy this beautiful fall in Ontario.

A Surreal, Beautiful Country, can't wait to go back

Believe it or not we did find a few more touristy things to do on our last day in Rome.  

Circus Maximus, the main chariot racing arena and also where Christians were crucified.  Basically just a BIG bowl in the ground.  We then walked from here up the river past St. Peter's basilica to Castle Sant Angelo.  It was rebuilt by Hadrian around 10 ad, supposedly as his tomb.  it was then turned into papal apartments and a fortress.  It costs about 10 euro each, but well worth the cost, it has been turned into a museum with artifacts from Pompeii, some urns dated back to 500 bc.  There was a fair bit of filming of Angels and Demons here and wonderful views of the city. 

A Sunday in Rome brings out the brides, in some areas there were 2 or 3 of them getting pictures done.  Magical settings with the ruins in the background.

Piazza Navona was another area used for the filming of angels and demons, there is a large fountain here by Bernini used for the film.  Enjoyed a lovely couple of hours here having lunch and a little wine.  Lots of entertainment and artists selling their wares.

Another full day of walking.  For dinner we headed back to the pantheon, for us it was the most magical spot, it is a small piazza with the Pantheon towering over you.  As we finished our dinner a huge thunderstorm with lots of lightning and great rumbles hit the square.  Luckily the restaurant we were at had great umbrellas, didn't get a drop of rain on us.  

Just some general tips and things

• The public toilets have no seats, 
• The Sorrento peninsula and the Amalfi coast don't really seem to have beaches per se, it is basically a cliff, so wherever it does go down to the water it is a harbour and rocky, but oh sooooo beautiful.
• Pizzas in Sorrento area are a little doughier, the Rome ones were more flatbread, very flat.  I preferred the Sorrento.
• Always have a camera or iphone with you, even at night, the squares are lit up beautifully.
• Meals are large, a lot of times Jim and I shared a caprese salad, individual pastas and shared a meat, veal our favourite.
• In Sorrento, Jim ordered a steak, his choices were medium or well done, he asked for it medium rare, the waiter said "you mean red". It was pretty much raw.
• Lots of gypsies, most looking for money, but they weren't rude.  At the Naples train station were 3 little girls, aged for 4 to 7, they chased people down, skipping, laughing and pulling at their skirts begging for money, they were adorable.  When they were given some, back to momma they skipped, it was a game to them.  Lol
• They don't really use a lot of garlic.
• Their veges are seasonal.  For a big city I was surprised, fig season was finished, asparagus season was coming to an end, but oh my fresh mushrooms were just coming into season.  Even olives were rare.  
• There was only 1 restaurant where I feel we got taken advantage of, it was in Piazza Populo and probably the most expensive restaurant we were in, not only did they charge 4 euros extra for fresh mushrooms even though the menu didn't mention that.  They also put a large tip on the bill.
• Always check or ask if the tip is included.  A little extra is always appreciated.
• Keep change and 5 euros around, a lot of times they will say "no change".
• Bus driver driving around one of the busy squares, smoking a cigarette out one window, while talking on the phone, no Bluetooth for him.
• Cab driver with the soccer game on the tv in his cab, the GPS going, and he was also answering the phone.
• Lots of smoking, still a smoking lounge at the airport.
• The Chiantis are marvellous and very reasonable.  
• Out of the ten meals, we only had one inside, and that is because it was so busy.
• A Chinese couple at our hotel asked the concierge to make a dinner reservation for them, he asked when, they said 6, he said you mean lunch.  No they meant dinner.  We never got to a restaurant before 830, and locals were still coming in at 1030.
• There are a number of different neighborhoods in Rome, all very different.  If you can, try and visit all of them.

What a wonderful place, I never felt unsafe, even wandering around at 1230 at night with my hubby filled up with limoncello.  Our hopefully 1st, great adventure

Arrividerchi Roma, we'll be back. 

A catch up day in Rome

What a wonderful day, yes we caught up on all the touristy things that we managed to miss on our walkabouts.

The Trevi Fountain.  Memories of Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck surrounded us, along with the what seemed liked 5000 other tourists there today. 

The Spanish Steps, so anticlimactic, bit a wall of people around both of these attractions.  The amazing thing there was no grumpiness, everyone was in a wonderful touristy mood.  And I didn't once worry about pickpockets,  helped that I had no pockets :)

And today was a day of lots of people watching.  We met a lovely young man from Sydney, Australia, he is working on his doctorate at the university of San Diego and was at Tuscany for his sisters wedding.   Truthfully it is very difficult to meet someone from Italy, it seems like 99% of the people you meet are tourists.  

 One of my favourite spots in Rome is definitely the Pantheon, built originally by Agrippa, a general of Augusta and then rebuilt by Hadrian.  It is considered one of the most perfect buildings of the world, 141 feet high and 141 feet diameter, it is definitely the oldest building in Europe and NA still standing and being used, now a Catholic Church.  

There are so many churches, the opulence of the churches was overwhelming.  They say at the Vatican that everything you see that is gold coloured is gold, gold paint, gold thread, gold leaves.  Every painting on every wall and every ceiling is a masterpiece.  I am pretty sure that this church is sant Ignazio, according to Fodors - "few churches are as gilt encrusted, jewel studded or stupendously stuccoed" as this one.  

The best part of the day was doing some people watching

Still don't know how he did this ....

Tonight we went back down to the Pantheon and had dinner in a little cafe under its 2000 year shadow.  Even the street hawkers added a little magic to the night, they had these little laser whirligigs that flew up into the sky and looked like shooting stars.  Magical.

Ancient Rome

Started off our day walking again, our hotel seems to be 5 km from everything, we figure we are averaging 15 to 20 Kms a day.  Now I know why they can eat so much pasta and red wine. Lol

The streets of Rome themselves are just so beautiful, here are a few pictures that hopefully will give you a feel for the city

Vendors everywhere selling souvenirs, scarfs and bags, fresh fruit including coconut and water.  There are also drinkable water fountains all over Rome that you can fill your bottle up or even just bend over and drink right out of the tap.

Stairs everywhere, go up walk a few 100 yards and go back down.

All around the city there is still excavation going on, they figure they have only uncovered about 30% of the sites.  Now they have to accept that some will never be uncovered because of the city being built on top of so many.  One interesting fact they have now found is that the city was founded by Romulus and Remus, if Romulus hadn't killed Remus, the town would have been called Rema. They were actually real people not just a myth.  

We took Fodors advice and went to the forum first.  12 euos each gets you into both the forum and the colosseum.  Hollywood did a pretty good job of interpreting and bringing  to life the way it was 2000 years ago.  

These were real places with real people living real lives.  There were huge class distinctions, the rich and everyone else and then the slaves.  

The colosseum was so large it just dwarfed you.  

The day started with the beast fights.  It ran with the efficiency of a play.  100s of rooms to keep the beasts, criminals and gladiators in.  They used cages and pulleys to get the beasts up to the floor.  The choreographer was expected to make the hunting and killing into a historical story with props and everything.  Then they stopped for lunch.  The next act was the killing of the criminals and then the gladiators came out.  One figure you hear bandied about is that 30000 gladiators were killed over its history.

Our first subway ride

As we were walking around yesterday I remarked to Jim, "why are there so many cars and vespas when they have such a great public transport system, buses, subways, streetcars", then we took our 1st subway ride.  Wow, felt like I was in Japan at rush hour.  Push shove to get in, don't breath and then push shove to get out.  But everyone was very good natured about it.  Yes, even Jim.  :)

Back for a quick change of clothes and off to piazza del Popolo and a lovely restaurant on the square called Rosati.  

Ciao