girls' getaway to Taormina

Welcome back from MLK Day weekend, everyone!  Hope you kicked back, relaxed, and enjoyed the weekend wherever you are.  We laid very low here at home other than a couple of hikes into the valley and some evenings with friends.  And we twiddled our thumbs and waited for this baby to come, but... he's staying put for now.  Oh well!

I've been wanting to share these photos with you from now two weekends ago.  It all started when I woke up on Saturday morning and saw an email from my friend Emily, who was on her way to Florence with her family and wanted advice about flying with a runny-nosed toddler.

I turned to Elliott and sighed, "We don't travel anymore!   We used to go somewhere every few weeks but now we just stay at home.  Which is fine with a baby due any day, but... I miss it."

"Well," replied my husband, with a twinkle in his eye, "what if I told you that you were going on a trip today?  That your friends are whisking you away for a girls' weekend in Taormina?  That you are going to spend the whole day shopping and eating in nice restaurants and getting a massage at a spa... and that you're staying overnight in a hotel there, too?"

Umm... whaaaat?!

But he wasn't kidding!  My friend Bethany had secretly arranged to take her two pregnant friends--me and Becca Arthur--to Taormina for a little last getaway before both our babies are born.  (Becca is due in May with her fourth child, a girl!)  Bethany had arranged the whole agenda herself and would be picking me up in about 2 hours.  Time to pack my bags!

We spent the whole day just as Elliott had promised: wandering around the beautiful Sicilian town of Taormina (which I have blogged about before here and here), eating delicious food, and browsing through stores that we would never enter with our rambunctious toddlers!  It was a beautiful gift of a day with two dear friends.

We shopped for pottery in our favorite artist's studio.

Fruit made entirely out of marzipan!  Better to look than to eat.

I love these hand-painted tiles for each profession!  I am "la mamma," Elliott is "il veterinario."

Mini cannolo with pistachio cream.

Cool design idea: display your wine bottles on old roof tiles.

Sicilian ceramics.

Becca and me at lunch in a lovely little restaurant overlooking the water.

 Later we ate granite at our favorite little shop.  We chose mandarin and raspberry.  So fresh and fruity!

The photos ceased after this as we left Taormina to drive to our hotel, where we relaxed that evening and all got amazing massages.  Later we went out for dinner, but unfortunately at this point I was starting to feel ill.  I had no idea why, but then around 1am I woke up and made a beeline for the bathroom to upchuck.  Sadly for me, the stomach virus (which has been ravaging our whole community these past few weeks) appeared to have struck at the worst possible time!  I took this photo from bed in our hotel room the next morning as I tried to keep a cup of tea down and read a book while Bethany and Becca enjoyed breakfast downstairs.  

Bethany got a call from her husband that morning and learned that her own two boys were also losing their breakfast from the same bug!  Oh well... it was home and into survival mode for our two houses for the next couple of days.  An adventurous end to a relaxing weekend!  Thankfully it didn't dampen the spirits or mar the memories for me.

Thank you so much, Bethany, for arranging such a fun weekend for us! 

Christmas Eve brunch at our home

Buncha munchkins, aren't they?!

We have a huge farmhouse table in our kitchen, a wonderful bonus that came with our house here in Sicily.  I love to fill it up with guests as often as seems feasible; the table is just so empty (and such a good collector of odds and ends!) when there are just three of us eating at it all the time. 

For Christmas Eve, we invited our dear friends the Arthurs and a family we don't know as well to come over for brunch.  All of us contributed family traditions to the Christmas meal: Monte Cristo bake from Jaime, sausage and egg casserole from Becca, and these cinnamon rolls from me.  With fruit skewers, fresh bacon, juices, hot wassail, and big cups of coffee, we feasted! 

All the kids clearly loved being together from that first cup of juice to the last minute of The Muppet Christmas Carol (which they are waiting for in the photo above).  Meanwhile we adults spent hours around the table, nibbling on just one more delicious bite and exchanging life stories, travel wisdom, and how to acquire Polish pottery for the best price (Jaime and I are great lovers of this pottery!).

The truth is that if we were living back in the States, all of us would probably have spent Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day at our parents' homes.  This long and leisurely brunch make "home" seem not so far away, which I think is always true whenever you make someone your favorite dish, join hands with them in prayer, and linger long at their table.

Were you away from family this Christmas?  What did you do to make it memorable?  With one more Christmas ahead of us here in Sicily away from family, I'm eager to hear suggestions!

IKEA thru Instagram

Around here it seems like people make their IKEA shopping lists over the course of a month or two before braving the store to stock up. My friend Becca and I were in that boat, needing storage bins, holiday wrapping paper, potted ivy plants, plastic kids' dishes, etc.  Earlier this week we joined forces and took off for the endless, winding halls of IKEA, kids in tow.

You know you love IKEA when your kids start playing with amazing toys 

as soon as they walk through the door.

On the right: Lucas prepares a meal for Lena as she patiently waits.

(Of course in reality this scene lasted for about 0.4 seconds, or however long it takes my phone to snap a picture.)

Ah, the toy section, where both parents and kids can spend ever so long.

The ice cream machine in the cafeteria is a huge highlight of the trip.

Anticipation... and joy!

(And the perfect t-shirt.)

Beautiful Christmas decorations, IKEA.  You win.

There's a happy face!  

(I actually don't think she's ever had her own ice cone before... and she would not share with her mama.)

And there's a tired one.  

Time to roll out.

N.B. My husband thought I should inform you that this is not a sponsored post by IKEA or Instagram.
#inmydreams 

"Happy Thanksgeebing bach!"

Oh Thanksgiving, how I do love thee.  The food, the family, the whole concept of taking a day to give thanks.  Once a year everything slows down as home, family, and friends become the heart and center of the day. 

Elliott and I had discussed our Thanksgiving plans about a month ago and I asked if we could "fill up the table."  Our huge farmhouse table is wonderful for craft projects, collecting odds and ends, and feeding the three of us at one little end, but it comes into its fullness of purpose when filled up with friends.  Elliott said, "Sure!" and we extended invitations to our community group and a favorite Italian family to join us for Thanksgiving Day.

I spent much of Wednesday and Thursday preparing: baking apple pie, prepping the turkey, cleaning the house (with Elliott's patient assistance to my insistence), and setting the table.  This was my first time to host Thanksgiving and the first Thanksgiving I had ever spent away from my parents and siblings.  I was anxious that everything would go right! 

But then, as I was rolling pie crust on Wednesday afternoon, Elliott and I were treated to a magnificent rainbow.  It turned into a full-bowed triple rainbow with a half-rainbow beside it!  Such a beautiful reminder of God's covenant faithfulness as I move away from being a daughter and fully embody my new life as a wife, mother, hostess, and friend.

hot spiced cider in Polish pottery mugs

cute boys before our meal with baked Brie and crackers... and wine too, apparently

 Some people we love very much.

 

Almond cookies from our Italian guests (and they brought espresso for afterwards too!)

 Dessert // apple pie, vanilla ice cream, and pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting

Who doesn't love some dessert?!

 I love the citrus in this apple pie... mmm...

Lena was fascinated by Baby Benjamin, which is a good sign for when our baby arrives soon!

Our sweet kitty, who found a quiet corner of the dining room where she wouldn't miss a thing... or not.

Thanksgiving Menu 2012

Baked Brie in Cut Mangoes and Honey with Crackers

Spinach Appetizer Balls

Fruit Salad Cups 

    

Lemon Butter and Thyme Turkey from Style Me Pretty's Thanksgiving Guide

 Brown Sugar Glazed Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows from Epicurious

Classic Gravy from Style Me Pretty's Thanksgiving Guide

Steamed Green Beans with Butter and Salt

Mama Woodworth's Classic Stuffing 

Classic Yeast Rolls

Whipped Potatoes

Cranberry Sauce

Christmas Wassail // Hot Spiced Cider

Local Wines (of course!) 

Sparkling Cider

 

Deep Dish Apple Pie from the Barefoot Contessa

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cinque Terre :: Monterosso al Mare

Our last day in Cinque Terre... and did we want to visit one last town?  We decided to swing through Monterosso for lunch on our way back to Milan and a flight to Sicily.

Little did we know what a treacherous road we were about to go down!

We snaked up and down the green hills of the coast, passing through tiny little clusters of houses and shops, villages too small to be considered one of the "cinque terre" towns.  The view from the tops of the hills was amazing: a horizon that melted into the sea, cathedral spires nosing the clouds, bright orange nets spread under olive trees for the picking season.

However, as the road twisted down towards the coast numerous times, the scenery changed.  Water collected quickly and formed dangerous rivulets, then streams, then rivers.  At the bottom of the valleys we felt like we were in a war zone; there were barricades everywhere.  This is why parts of Cinque Terre have disappeared in mud slides in 2011 and 2012, and why the Via dell'Amore was closed between the towns, and why there were so many warning signs on the roads... and perhaps also why we were the only cars on it!

A few times I looked back and saw that the earth had washed away underneath the outer edge of the asphalt.  If we had been driving too close to the edge... would the road have fallen away beneath us?

I was actually trembling when we finally parked in Monterosso al Mare and realized it was because I had been so tense in the car.  What a relief to step out into such a quaint little town and have nothing more on our minds than where to find some lunch!

 Farewell for now, Cinque Terre.  Maybe we'll meet again... in the summertime?