W9 of Y7

Getting ready for Christmas

This week has felt very Christmassy!! :)

Whitney and I attempted hot cocoa bombs....  nailed it!

We did a little better with the Christmas Cookies than we did with the hot cocoa bombs

One positive to being in the middle of a pandemic is that you can do things online that you normally would have to spend a lot of money to go to in person.  We watched the entire Nutcracker Ballet online.

One of my projects at work was to deliver and decorate Christmas Trees for the 100+ people who are in quarantine for Christmas.  The elementary kids made really cute, homemade Christmas decorations that made the trees look extra special!

W8 of Y7

Uganda!!!

The big news this week was that Connor got his mission call to the Uganda, Kampala Mission in Africa!!!

He opened the email while he was on facetime with us

We were all so surprised and excited!!  

So much to learn about this new and fascinating country!!

Quarantine

We got a call from Public Health letting us know that Aiden's best friend tested positive for COVID and Aiden had to go in and get tested that day.  Luckily, he tested negative but he still has to quarantine at home for 14 days anyway! 

This picture was taken ONE DAY before his best friend (on his left) tested positive.  These 2 are together all day long at school and on the bus.  I am convinced if it wasn't for their masks, Aiden would have definitely tested positive too. 

Since all of Aiden's friends were also contacted and quarantined for 14 days they all played video games together during school hours, all day, every day!  They loved being in quarantine! lol!

W7 of Y7

Mammaw

We had sad news this week.  My 90-year old Mammaw has had health issues but was staying strong and healthy enough.... until she got COVID.  The virus was the last straw and she passed in her sleep. 

I was so happy to be able to say goodbye

Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving 2020

We spent Thanksgiving Day cooking and feeding Soldiers on the base who couldn't leave to go home this year, as well as, several Families and Soldiers in quarantine. 

After delivering all of the food we thought it would be a good day to go to the Mall.   All stores are closed on weekends here and since Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Italy we thought it was probably the best day of the year to go!

We were wrong... it was too crowded.  Every store had a line of people waiting to get it.  So much for Christmas shopping!  It was still fun to see all the lights though!

We celebrated our Thanksgiving the next day.  Just the 4 of us!

So happy that we got to talk to Connor.  

He was fortunate enough to spend Thanksgiving with Jeremy's brother's family in Utah. 
So grateful he had family to be with. 

W6 of Y7

Patio Project

Jeremy has taken on a project to fix up our back patio so it is more useable space.  So far we are loving it!!

W5 of Y7

 Veterans Day 2020

Jeremy and I got up early and ran the steps on Monte Berico with my friend from work.  It's a killer!

Beautiful Vicenza!

W4 of Y7

Anime

Whitney has gotten into Anime.  So, I'm learning about a whole new world!

We drove 30 minutes to go to a store that sells Anime stuff... that is serious committment!

These 2 allowed me to follow but I was sure to keep my distance

Whitney is such a good artist!

W3 of Y7

Halloween

Halloween was different this year (Thanks COVID!), but we were able to still have a pretty fun holiday!

I organized trick or treat bags for about 1200 kids at school on Friday before Halloween

We had our local radio station (AFN) come to record all the fun and bring their mascot with them!

The best part was that I got to see Whitney dressed up with her friends!!

Whitney had a friend over to celebrate on Saturday by carving pumpkins

Aiden's pumpkin....  he's too cool I guess

Traditional mummy dogs! 

Jeremy set up a fire for us to roast marshmallows! 

S'mores with Reese's! 

Despite the Italian decree forbidding trick or treating ("an American stunt that is a monument to imbecility"), we still had a few (all Italians).

We didn't let COVID completely take our Halloween this year!!