Happy Thanksgiving, Y'All!

Finally, a moment's rest. Well, sort of. Helping cook a few items for my mom-in-law's spread. (Lauren, you will be happy to know I referred to the cranberry-raspberry sauce recipe on Domestic Goddesses today), making my first attempt here.

It has been an insane past few weeks of highs and lows. Ian is looking for new work; we went on an amazing trip to Italy (we took something like a 1,000 pictures-literally), and immediately when we came home, I had to close three newspapers in a week's time. No problem!

I'm seeing if Ian can rig a slideshow on here, if not, I'll post a url for pix. They came out friggin amazing. The trip was incredible. Ian, Chris Cocking, Amanda and I flew out Nov. 3, joining up with Rossana, Alessandro and Julian, and stayed with her parents in Grossetto in Tuscany, Carla and Loriano (dad in Tuscan is Babo) for a week, and probably picked up a good 40 words or so of Italian. They were the most wonderful hosts, we felt like part of the family, visited with lots of family, too. Lots of cheese, wine, and espresso! We rented a giant Peugot van and drove all over-two trips to Florence, Etruscan castles in Livorno (Populonia) and other tucked away villages (Chris and I both loved the town Massa Marittima-when I imagined what Italy would be like, this was it for me), and drove to a northern beachside town, Follonica, where some of Rossana's family lives. (Roe, you would die in Florence, it is an orgy of leather market shopping everywhere-unfortunately, we couldn't go nutso on that department this trip, but one day, next time!, not to mention there's the Uffizi, where there was a cool DaVinci exhibit.) We took the train to Rome and went to the Vatican (I can't even begin to describe how overwhelmed we were there, the size, the artwork, the history.) We also went by the Trevvi Fountain, the Forum, the Pantheon, and the Colosseum (Amanda's personal fave)...all in one day!

So it is nice to have a real day of rest, back home with the family. Will write more soon.