mercoledì 30 dicembre 2009

A glimpse of our Christmas...



It all started with Christmas biscuits making on Christmas Eve. Ely had the idea to prepare cinnamon flavored biscuits for all the poeple (relatives and friends) we had to meet these holidays. In fact it was a good idea and it was fun. We baked loads of biscuits!!! And they turned out very good also! ;)


On Christmas Eve we also had to face a little emergency, because our cat Rufus didn't feel well. He started to have problems with breathing and so we took him to the veterinary clinic in town for a visit. And it wasn't for nothing. It happened that he had some kind of allergic reaction and that provoked the partial closure of the oesophagus...poor Rufy. Moreover they found on the X-ray that he had some kind of a swollen gland between the lungs and the heart. They made exams and it shouldn't be anything to worry about, but we are giving him medicines once a day to see if it could be a lung infection taken when it was a wild kitty and maybe had it passed from her mother. We spent a very bad moment though. It seemed it could be something worse than what it really was.

We woke up with some snow on Christmas day. But I also woke up sick! I felt really bad, probably both for the cold taken the day before and also for the stress caused by the Rufy thing. However we had a planned huge Christmas lunch at Ely's parents with all the relatives and - despite Ely would have wanted to stay at home with me - at the end we went together to the lunch. Ely was very happy to stay with her parents, the food was great and I enjoyed the company of everybody until I fell asleep on the couch because of the fever. I spent all the 26th in bed or on the couch watching movies we rented the day before. All this laziness never happens usually...so despite I was ill, it was nice to be cozy at home, doing nothing. Just resting. Great!


On the 27th I felt much better and we went to visit my grandparents and relatives in Creto. They prepared us a fantastic polenta carbonera for lunch and we spent the day all together. My grandfather wanted to show us some old photos and it was nice to see them together.
This week we were back at work, but this is a short working week because on New Year's Eve we will be closed until probably Jan,6th.

This New Year's Eve we have planned to spend the night - as tradition of these last 2 years - at my best friend Andrea and his wife Monica's place near Brescia. We will be some couples, all taking some kind of food and we will wait the coming of the new year eating, chatting, playing games and having fun together. For a perfect start of a new year full of expectations and plans for me and Ely.

Happy 2010 everybody!

giovedì 17 dicembre 2009

And the winner is...

...Ely! With this photo:

She won 1 out of the 10 prices for the 10 best photos that now are displayed at the Pojer & Sandri winery in Faedo (near Trento) in an photographic exhibition and journey about wine, harvest and wineries. The photos in the exhibition are 62 and Ely has these other 2 displayed:

This last one is my favorite...I like the light and, just for a chance, the colors of the items are the same colors of the Italian flag.

Ely won a set of 3 bottles of wine and a fantastic selection of balsamic vinegars with different flavors (like apple, cherry, blueberry, cinnamon etc...)...that's better than money! ;) YUMMY And now we have a big print of the winner photo displayed in the house...

Now Ely blushes when I call her "photographer", but in my opinion she actually is considering her improvements and achievements in these last few months.

domenica 13 dicembre 2009

Belated 10 on 10 December :: Craft Fair in Milan

How could we miss the last 10 on 10 of 2009? Nooooo way! So here it is our belated installment for this month, about the craft fair we went to visit yesterday in Milan with both my family (except my brother) and Ely's family. It was fun to walk around this huge fair (they say it's the world's biggest craft fair with more than 3,500 stalls!) with crafts and food from all over the world. It was also the perfect occasion to buy some Christmas gifts for the family and friends. And, of course, something for us: fantastic olives from Puglia, lemons, mozzarella and caciotte from Naples, a little olive tree in a vase from Provance (France), soaps from Provance (France), pain briochè and madeleines from France, a tie (for me!) from Naples, earrings for Ely from Sardinia (Ely is suggesting me while writing:"very similar of those Rebekah made some time ago!") and a pair of danish slippers made of the same material as duvet, very warm and comfortable for this time of the year (Ely couldn't resist them!).

1. Upon arrival at the Milan-Rho fair

2. Entering the fair

3. All together...(except me, taking the picture!)

4. A stall selling waffles (cialde) with Nutella

5. Christmas decorations from Germany

6. A stall of sweets

8. Origami at the japanese stalls area (every country was also showing and teaching their arts and crafts to visitors. Very interesting!)

9. Learning how to make an origami (here with my teacher!)

10. A jazz show. We loved it!

Merry merry Christmas everybody!!!

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Buon Natale a tutti!!!

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Froehliche Weihnachten!!!

lunedì 7 dicembre 2009

This is the time...

...to decorate the house for Christmas. This year - because of our kitty Rufy - we have decided to buy a new artificial Christmas tree and new not-breakable decorations (made of metal, wood, plastic or fabric). The result is a new romantic Christmas tree, pretty old style.
We love it.

...to eat Christmas sweets with a hot tea in the evening. This is a fantastic mandarin cake we found at the local Christmas Market. YUMMY!!!

More Christmas things to come! ;) And Rufy is just expecting something fun to play with! :)

Meeeoooowwww!