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;-)

Sorry these are out of order. Here is our token gondola ride in Venice.

The view from the parking garage outside Venice....even the parking garages are lovely;-) And my new sunglasses Jay bought me as an early Christmas present. What a nice husband.

Jay and I spent a fabulous night in Venice while Lee and Barry stayed at our apt with Max. Jay was up early enough to see St. Marks square at the morning high tide.

The view from our hotel room;-)

St. Marks Basilica, yes it is amazing.

Somewhere else pretty.

We spent a day in fair Verona with Lee and Barry. Here are a few shots from inside churches and other beautiful places around the town.

Max blows the clown a kiss in Verona.

Lee and Barry below Juliet's balcony.

Juliet's balcony;-)

A few more pictures from Lee and Barry's visit. This is inside Teatro Olimpico just down the street from our house. It is an amazing old theater built by Andre Palladio. This is a picture of the set on stage.

Jay and Max race in the Piazza.

Max decided Lee's gelato was better and did not want to give it back;-)

On the way to Verona.

Saturday we thought we would go on a little outing to a lesser tourist destination: Bassano del Grappa. It is at the foot of the Dolomite mountain range and is famous for, what else, its grappa.

This is the Ponte del Alpini, which was designed by Palladio and rebuilt several times over the centuries, most recently after Italian Alpine soldiers blew it up in World War II, hence the name. A somewhat macabre fact about Bassano del Grappa is the Nazis strung up 31 local partisans from the city's trees when they left in 1944. Terrorism isn't new, you know. But the grappa is delicious!

Last week we had a great visit with Lee and Barry. On their first afternoon here we took them to our fabulous neighborhood park.

I love Parco Querini!

Max loves to try on shoes!

Here he is in mom's cowgirl boots;-)

Since moving to Italy Max has become quite the gourmet eater. Here he is dipping his bread in olive oil that he requested.

His table manners are not quite following in suit with his tastes.....He also now asks for bubbly water, green olives and Parmesan cheese, mostly using a combination of baby signs and a hissing sound for his l'aqua frizzante;-)

You're looking at the winning Halloween costume: Everybody loves Nacho, and nachos for that matter.