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.