Max and Chiara have a little bonding time;-)

Chiara poses with our friend Mallory next to her picture at the 52 Weeks photography Exhibition.

As many of you know, this last year while Jay was deployed I organized a photography project called 52 Weeks: A Year in the Life of a Deployment. Here I am at the opening night of the Exhibition.
Jay and I at the Show;-)

Here is a short description of the project. "Over the course of the past year, our husbands and fathers were deployed to Afghanistan. While they were away we documented what life was like without them. These photographs depict our lives as members of the 173^rd Airborne Brigade, stationed at Caserma Ederle. This exhibition consists of 52 photographs taken by wives, children, and extended family during each week of their loved one’s absence."

The opening night was great and lots of Americans and Italians have come to see the exhibition. After the holidays I will get it all up online with the descriptions and narratives for anyone who is interested in seeing the complete project.
Here are some of the amazing ladies I had the pleasure of working with who helped make this show possible.

This is the first photo of the exhibition, Jay and Max saying goodbye when Jay deployed.
The space that we were able to use is a beautiful gallery in a 500 year old Palladio (famous Italian Architect) Palace.
One of the panels.
Yes that is Chiara;-) My official week for the project was the week Chiara was born. As the curator I added a few other photographs to help complete the story of our year.

Christmas Tree lighting at Caserma Ederle

A few minutes before the garrison Christmas tree lighting, Santa popped in for a quick photo and totally amazed the children. Meanwhile, it was the Christmas tree lights that had Jay completely amazed. Electricity can be fun!

Chiara is off to a good start eating solids and now that she has figured out that you don't have to stick your tongue all the way out to get food in your mouth things are going a bit smoother. She also already has her two bottom teeth, our little overachiever;-)

Max takes advantage of Dad's post Thanksgiving food coma and enjoys a comfy lounger.

Happy Thanksgiving!!! We are all very thankful this year to be together as a family;-) And enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving at our friends the Mettler's house with delicious food made by three families and two turkeys, one grilled by Jay and one smoked by Abbey's husband. Yay the dad's are all home;-)

Our Italian friend Francesca enjoys her first American Thanksgiving.
Abbey, LaVonna and Jay get everything ready for the table.
Jay with his delicious grilled Turkey;-)
The kids table. Max, Ludoviko, Alberto, and Carson, not shown Cash, Athena, Chiara, and Zoe. There were 8 kids in all and 7 adults....Sorry no picture of the adult table, we were enjoying our food too much and forgot.....
Chiara and Dad. This year all the dads were at Thanksgiving! Yay!!!!!!

Yes, Max FINALLY got a haircut, although we had to trick him into it. Yesterday when I picked him up from school one of the class assistants had put a little barrette in his hair to hold back his bangs. His teacher was very apologetic, but I decided it was really time to do something about his ever expanding mop. I have tried to get him to cut it for about the last 3 months, but every time we went near the barber shop he cried. So, last night in the bath I told him I was just going to cut his bangs since they were hanging in his face. Jay went and got the scissors and I quickly cut his bangs and then proceeded to cut all around his head.
It is not the best haircut he has ever had but it is certainly not the worst either. And now he is ready for family portraits;-)

Life is a bit more adventurous now that Dad is back in town;-)
Max and Dad work on some art projects.

Waiting for Dad. Chiara hung out with some of her fans,
showed off some new almost sitting up skills and
chatted with Mary about the last year.
Max made some noise.
And ate Burger King with his friend Logan who's dad also arrived last night;-)

YAY!!!!
DAD!!!
DAD!!!
DAD!!!

Yup he is real, not just a computer screen any more.
Yeah, I think I like this guy;-)

Getting Ready!!!!

We have had 3 days of pouring rain in Vicenza and on Sunday night the river that runs through the city overflowed, leaving over 20% of the city flooded especially the area around our apt. This picture is the bottom half of my street.
We have electricity now but we went about 36 hours without and I was starting to think we might have to jump ship and head to a friends house if it did not come back on soon. This is the view from behind our apt.
No we do not live in Venice, but you might wonder from this picture. I was pretty surprised to wake up to this view Monday morning just before our electricity went out.
Max and I spent some time on an abstract painting for Jay's return in about a week. We are happy the electricity is back on and now can better prepare for his homecoming.

Meanwhile Chiara discovered she has a tongue;-)

This year we went to a Halloween birthday party. Max picked out a dragon costume then decided he was scared of the hood and didn't want to wear it....... Chiara was a flower and I was an angel.

We all had a great time with Nana and Papa visiting us.
These are a few pictures from our Saturday morning at Teatro Olimpico.
Max had a good time running around being silly with his new hat that he picked out while shopping on line. And Barry did a great job capturing it all.
I can't remember exactly what we were laughing about here but looks like it was pretty funny;-)