Our first big snow in Vicenza. I actually did not realize it would snow this much here....Italy is full of surprises!

I took both of these photos off my bedroom balcony. Max and I leave tomorrow to spend Christmas in Rome with my Dad and Ann! Merry Christmas to everyone;-)

Tree lighting ceremony in downtown Vicenza. I love that older couple who got trapped in my photo! I think they must of been looking at the clock tower captured in the next picture.

We were pretty impressed that the lights were strung all the way up the clock tower.....well, I was impressed....I think Max was too;-)

And there was this watery sort of light reflection on one of the big Palladio buildings in Piazza Signori, bellisimo!

Today there was an outdoor Christmas Market on my street. Max and I bought a fried bread thing that had lemon sugar sprinkled on it, it was delicious and totally spoiled my lunch;-)

I asked Max to say cheese and he decided to make funny faces, yes he is definitely a Baker boy.

Then he decided he was pretty funny.

Lately he thinks almost everything he does is pretty funny. I am happy he is so amused with himself;-)

Last week I took Max to see some Christmas caroling on base and the lighting of the Christmas tree. Here Max enjoys some hot coco.

Then he decided to try to make friends with some older kids.

The lights finally came on!

Max wanted to check out this snowman, but then decided that it was best to keep his distance.

Then we ran into Max's friend Jacob and they played with a snowflake pinwheel.

Max agreed to take a picture with Santa as long as I was with him, but he was clinging on to me pretty tight.

Just a cute picture of Max and Mom;-)

Today in Max's art class the teacher wanted the kids to make reindeer with their hands and feet.

Max was pretty excited about getting his hands and feet in the paint so he did not stop at 2 hand prints for the horns and

and a foot print for the face.

After Max was happy with the number and placement of his hand and foot prints he added some eyes, a nose and marker.

...a little more over here and perfecto!

His finished piece!

Look at all of those teeth!

Ok Athena get up now....

Max and his friend Athena play.

Aren't they cute?

Hmmm what's next?

Max wants to help all the time in the kitchen these days so I said he could help cutting the bread for the Thanksgiving stuffing. Yes, he has gotten quite good at saying cheese!

He was pretty excited about helping and very focused on cutting.

Then he realized the bread was pretty tasty....

And none of the pieces that got cut made it into the bowl:-)

Because I have the biggest table of my downtown friends I decided Max and I should host Thanksgiving. Unfortunately having a large table does not mean you have a large kitchen or oven for that matter, so my friend LaVonna (standing at far end of table) offered to make a turkey, which was delicious.

LaVonna's daughter Athena thinks about what she is Thankful for;-)

Mallory reads stories to Abby's kids.

Max, Athena, and Carson watch "Little Einsteins" and wander around.

As some of you may already know, Jay deployed this last week. We were sad to see him go, but hope that his brigade can do good work in Afghanistan and help to bring more peace to the Middle East.

Max and I are very proud of him.

And we made it in our local newspaper;-)