A Late Christmas

Once again we are reminded that Christmas is not the date, the place, or the gifts, but the connection between hearts. Wishing everyone joy and blessings.

Puzzled

Today we tackled a 3-D puzzle of Venice, Italy. It took the combined effort of three people about six hours to complete, barring a quick pop and fudge break for sustenance. The detail in the puzzle is incredible; I can almost hear the lapping of the water...*sigh*

Snowed In

D. and Dad worked on this puzzle while I baked cookies and made fudge.

5 People, 4 Batches of cookies, 3 Cameras, 2 Pups, and 1 Big Ole Bird Later...

After sleeping in the next day and cycling through showers we hit the city at the early hour of 4pm. Shopping on the agenda we headed to Soho, jumpin' on the subway...

Merry X-Mas mom, here's the best we could do for an all kid pic


Alright, Alright, Fine!

Stopping at Housing Works Bookstore for some hot chocolate.


Indulging in a bottle of wine and pizza in Little Italy we decided to pick names for Christmas

A Sarah Smile

Head towards Time Square

How many logos do you see??

Struttin' in Times Square long enough to say llllets go

Leaving Times Square we headed to Union Square for more shopping. Being a bit shopped out ourselves J Bro and I took refuge in a bar while the others checked out some more stores.

J Bro

Sister D

Sister S looks smiley and happy but inside she's excited to sit after two full days

Thanksgiving Kirby Kid Style: A Brooklyn Loft Welcome

Thanksgiving day in Brooklyn started out as any normal Thursday for an unemployed person. Waking up by the sun and getting jumped on by puppy dogs. From there Daph, J bro and I began the pre-thanksgiving loft prep. Cleaning ensued since a new addition to the puppy family created double the hair!

Soon I left to run last minute errands in the city while J-bro went to pick up Sister S & J as Daph tackled the Thanksgiving Feast.

After getting multiple texts about Sister J staying on the plane since it went on to Rome, i was pleased to see both of my sisters already relishing in a glass of wine after I came home from errands.

Bottles of wine cracked, neighbors stopping by and after many rounds of basting with a soap dispenser later(pics on hold due to a sister D error), the turkey finished around 11pm. Compliments of Daph and J Bro, the menu consisted of Collard greens, bread, turkey, squash, yams, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. To say the least, we all fell asleep in a heavenly bliss.

Built by J-Bro, claimed by Cinder...

2 couch kickin' it

95th Birthday Fun

J and S treated Grammy to her first ever spa day. J and Grammy started out with Estee Lauder makeup sessions at Macy's then S and Grammy went in for a spa pedicure at Misbehaven. Although she felt everyone was going to "too much trouble," Grammy thoroughly enjoyed everything. Of particular note was her nail polish color choice. She chose Tasmanian Devil, which she calls "The Devil Made Me Do It." Now she wonders what her podiatrist will think at her next appointment! Our day ended with meeting Dad for dinner at La Casita and then homemade ice cream and marionberry cobbler at home.

PUMPKIN CARVING

Begrudgingly, I carved up two pumpkins for our front porch the night before Halloween. Hubby, D, is always quick to enlist me in this annual endeavor, but I always moan and groan about the mess and effort it requires. Now that the kids are gone I thought it was more trouble than it was worth, but I was surprised to find that Mom, who has since turned 95, really enjoyed my efforts. In fact, although I did the scraping, cleaning, and cutting, she designed the sexy, pouty pumpkin on the left and became quite involved in its transition.

Salute Italia

Venice & Rome

Here is my final email. Again I have no idea where I last left off especially because this computer won't let me go to my blogspot to check. So bear with me:

Yes, Florence was unanimuously not our favorite. It was hot and muggy and caused crankyness. The last night was finally cooler, however we were both glad to be on our way to Venice. Venice was amazing. The water was gross and it smelled, but in comparison to Florence anyway, it was paradise. Our moods immediately changed and we were instantly intrigued by its nooks and crannies. I dragged J to a couple of modern museums. This was my favorite in part because it was the latest things that I have gone over in my Art History courses. It was also a nice change of pace to everything that we have seen here. I respect their motives more than the artists during the renaissance period, but I will respect the artists of that period more than I ever will the modernists. Either way, it was exciting to see. Our hotel was awesome in that we could open our window and instantly see a small side canal which gondaliers were continuously using. The whole concept of seeing water right up to the bottoms of doors was just plain wild! We did tons of walking around and still checked out the neighboring islands. This was definitely an awesome city to end in. I think mainly because it did not feel like a city. Overall, I have instantly fallen in love with all the places that do not feel like cities. They are the ones that I will remember forever. Jen left early this morning to catch her plane. I, however, stayed behind and enjoyed the day. Again it was odd to be by myself. Nonetheless, I walked all over Rome. I just recently had my last and my favorite Italian meal of Tortellini Bolognese (sp?), of course complimented with a glass of red wine. Drawing and writing ensued. I will definitely miss this life of doing whatever I feel whenever I feel, but unfortunately a part of me is ready to take what I learned and apply it to my own life. Watch out people because I'm comin' back! Feel free to give me a call after Wednesday of your time! I hope all are doing well. Keep, Keepin it real!

D (kirbs)

DON'T DROP THE SOAP!

Siena, Pisa, Lucca, Cinque Terre

Here we are again at long last with the email. I have no clue as to where I left off so I'm gonna just start typing. Siena was amazing with its picturesque features. We stayed in a bed and breakfast that was amazing. Jen and I got a private wine tour as well as enjoyed a 4 course dinner with the rest of the residents. This was awesome, since each dish was customed to a traditional family style with wine from their personal vineyard to compliment each specific dish. Seriously, we were greeted with a glass of white wine the second we walked in and it kept going until the dessert wine which complimented the biscotti at the end. Man! Being an alcoholic in Italy is challenging! Here we also had issues of getting lost. We started walking in to the central part of town which was explained to be a good 50 minute walk, when Jen started feeling uneasy about the direction we were going in. Mind you, she is not even the one holding the map! So we follow nothing more than her 'gut' and we turn around and go a separate direction. We walk forever and finally ask two boys where we are. I should have took it as an instant hint when they started laughing hysterically. One of the boys tried to explain in English where we needed to go. Finally the other boy said the only thing he attempted to say in English: 'We are here'. He wasn't even pointing on the map!! Let’s recap: I go in the correct direction. We switch because Jennifer's gut tells her to, and she leads us off the map. Perfect!

We ditched Siena to head towards Pisa. Here we drove with newlyweds whom we had befriended at dinner. This was a poor choice, since the ride made my breakfast have an upward battle with me and was almost about to win. I was so incredibly happy to get out of that car. However, Pisa was not a town of our choice. There was a united consensus to leave as soon as possible, because it was so saturated with tourists it kind of leaked the fun out of the town. You immediately felt like a target to get ripped off. This was an amazing choice since we headed to Lucca, which turned out to be a really fun town. Here we walked around where they had mass amounts of tents with a Saturday market feel. Here's a shout out to Justin, because there was this 3 man band that was playing guitars and a fiddle. They were awesome! I tried to record some of it. It was the coolest bluegrass-hick-whatever that we like to listen to at the Viking! We also caught a mass here, which was very unique, as well as when we were getting dinner we stumbled into a piazza that had a stage set up. Of course we grabbed a table as close to the stage as possible and waited to see what would come of the event. Multiple Italian bands ended up performing 2-3 songs each and then switching bands. All of the bands were boy bands, which of course meant a lot of teasing ensued. I think the epitome was when one guy started busting out Hey, Mr. Postman that we couldn't stop snickering.

Poking an umbrella at Pisa

We left Lucca around 11am to head towards the Cinque Terre. Again we had to jump trains to get there. Hmmm....based on our rough history, this did not look good. Nonetheless, we had no choice but to tackle the challenge straight on. Two unnecessarily bought tickets, a lot of questions, and 6 hours later, we finally arrived in Riamaggiore (the First of the Five cities in Cinque Terre). Here we befriended a group from Australia. They are, quite honestly, a kick in the pants. We bonded over our frustrations with the trains and our knack for messing up. Then, one of the ladies disappeared when the train finally came. All of us jumped on except for her husband who was waiting for her. The doors closed and there she came up the stairs with ice cream in her hands. An hour of waiting and they missed the train because the wife went to buy ice cream for everyone. Let’s just say the husband wasn't very happy, but Jen and I on the other hand couldn't help but to laugh at them. Vernazza, 4th of the 5 cities, is absolutely beautiful. We decided to spend our day splitting a bottle of wine on the rocks. This whole open container thing freaks me out, but when Jen bought the bottle of wine the guy was already opening it for her and handing her dixie cups. Italy Rocks! I got another watercolor done that night. However, it got so dark that I couldn't see what colors I was grabbing; let’s just say, its a very interesting image. I'm sure the wine helped ;)

Me doing a watercolor in Vernazza

Today was an extremely exciting day! This was the day that we were to hike the Cinque Terre. We got up and took a train to the 5th city where we decided to start. From here we set out on our trek. The trail was extremely interesting, to say the least. It was a good thing that we started with the hardest section first because I don't think we would have made the entire 7 mile hike otherwise. That's right 7 miles. Hard to fathom? Oh I know, let me say it again: seven miles! And I swear it was uphill the entire way! It was a beautiful trail and tons of fun for the first 1-2 cities. From there we hit the heat of the day, which pushed us over the edge. We ate gelato when we could, but even gelato wasn't helping the motivation factor. A guy behind us pretty much summed it up when he said, “What'd you do today?” ‘Oh, I climbed a FRICKEN MOUNTAIN!' It was definitely a good 5 hour hike. I made a choice to take the boat back to Vernazza. It was one of the worst decisions I have made the entire trip. The water was so rough that it, again, had Jen and I dying to get out due to the urge to puke. We crashed in our room for a bit, dying to take a shower but both too fried, weak, and now seasick. I try to take a shower, but the widest the doors will open is still not enough for any natural human body to fit into. Nice. Just what I needed. Let’s just say everything was very awkward. Now we are shopping and having fun buying stuff that is local to the Cinque Terre. Until Jen makes the comment, “Can we run this stuff back to our room?” Sounds easy until you remember that it’s another 100 stairs to get there. Bright idea after a 7 mile hike uphill! lol Welp, that’s all for now. I've definitely earned my dinner tonight and I’m more than ready to eat it! Florence is next, with a Venice finish. Hope everyone is well and having a blast! Peace.

- D

Showing the narrowed path of the 7 mile hike

The "after" picture of the hike, damn we look good! (don't know why its so dark)