Thanksgiving Times Two

Several people asked last week if we were going to celebrate Thanksgiving. Oh did we! Not just once but twice! Being overseas is a great excuse to celebrate an American holiday as many times as possible. :)

Obviously Italy does not take the day off on Thanksgiving, so the kids were in school until 4:30 and the rest of the country was whirling as usual. We did get the day off though, which we spent plucking our turkey and cooking it for our staff team, who all came over for a grand feast.

Though not entirely covered with feathers when we picked it up, there were still a lot that needed to be removed. Oh, and Cody also had to bust out a hammer and chisel to cut off its neck! So worth it though!

Turkey fillets are popular here, but you can only find whole turkeys at Christmas, and they are more the size of chickens. So we ordered one from our butcher. I think they were tickled to be providing a turkey for an American Thanksgiving celebration! Italians know what Thanksgiving is, and their constant impression is of a huge golden turkey being pulled from the oven.

At staff team, and several other American friends we know arrived at 7pm with almost every imagineable sidedish known. Thanksgiving is one of the events for which almost everyone I know imports some special ingredient needed to make a favorite American dish. We had green bean casserole, sweet potatoe casserole, pecan pie, and corn bread stuffing, among other things, none of which can you find the ingredients for in Italy. I can not tell you how good those American tastes were!!! Yum, yum, yum, yum!

To top it all off, we hooked our SlingBox up to our TV and watched American football during dinner. Truly, it felt like an honest-to-goodness American Thanksgiving. We all had such a great time.

And then on Saturday, we did it again! Our family went out to some friends of ours who are Americans working at Caterpillar just outside of Bologna. We have kids about the same and really enjoy hanging out together. Again, it was glorious. And so good for our kids! It was a great opportunity to talk about a key part of our country's history AND to talk about all we have to be thankful for.

A great Thanksgiving week, even in the midst of dearly missing celebrating the holiday with our families. We are so glad for how God provides, even in the seemingly little things.

The Chocolate Festival

Another bonus post! :)

While I was away (see the next post about My Happy Place), there was a huge chocolate festival held in Bologna. So on Saturday morning, Cody loaded up all three kids and went to see what it was all about. I thought that was an incredibly brave thing to do!

Among other things, they ate (drank?) liquid chocolate out of ice cream cones and sampled a few of their favorite chocolate designs. They really do look incredible. They got a camera for me (of course!), and then picked up a few other antique pieces. They were so impressive I had to take a picture.

My Happy Place

This is Lake Como. Thus far, in my 35 years of life, it is my very favorite place in all of the world. I am so glad God made it. I picture Him delighting in it every morning as the sun rises (and in the case of this picture, as the sun sets). It is about an hour and half train ride from Bologna (just east of Milan), and we hadn't been there since our Florence Summer Project trip three years ago.

This past weekend, I went there all by myself. I spent two nights staring at the water and mountains, taking a boat ride to Bellagio and exploring it for an afternoon, reading, praying, processing and just being refreshed. I slept until 8am for probably the first time in over two years.

I'll be honest and say the Lord is doing some hard things in our lives right now. He is digging deep into our hearts. It is infinitely good, and the other side is going to be an incredible experience of health. But the process is exhausting. And sometime painful. I had reached a place of feeling completely worn out. So my sweet husband made a way for me to have a retreat. I do not take his sacrifice lightly! It was a perfect weekend and exactly what I needed.

This is Bellagio. It's a small, quaint gem of a town.
It's set on some hills, so as soon as you get off the boat, you start walking UP.

Lake Como is one of three lakes in the "Lake Region." Como is the biggest city on the lake, but it is still pretty small. That is where I stayed. I loved being close to the lake! Water is one of the most relaxing things I know. Just watching it breathed refreshment into me. And to be surrounded by mountains at the same time! Como is only 15km from the Swiss border, and when it's clear, you can see the Swiss Alps. They are just incredible.

Can you believe this is real?! There were several places around the city where the ivy was changing color, and the colors were absolutely brilliant. I couldn't get enough pictures.

God met me in such a sweet way during my weekend away. I have never taken such a retreat, and I was a little nervous about investing the time and expense and returning in the same place I went. God did not let that happen. He really filled me up and spoke His rest to me. I am so thankful.

This is a street in Como. They had already begun hanging Christmas lights and putting up Christmas decorations--it was just beautiful (in Italian we say, "Che Bella!"). I loved that this street also included a red carpet!

Our Crazy Little Family

In an effort to take a Christmas photo, the troops ended a little restless. This is the best photo we have to offer! I keep waiting for a sunny day, but once November hits, they are few and far between.

I thought I'd share about our weekend. It was pretty typical, and shows a little more what our life is like. On Friday, we went over to Fabio and Alyssia's for dinner. They invited us "early" this time--7pm. We had the typical Italian meal. The first course was soup with homemade broth (a staple in most Italian cooking) and homemade pasta that were short little pieces about as thick as speghetti. The texture was similar to dumplings. So, so yummy. The second course was the shredded meat that came from making the broth, mixed with garlic, capers and yellow peppers. On the side were the potatoes and carrots also used to make the broth. Afterward, we opened some dessert wine and ate hot castagne (chestnuts), right off the stovetop. Castagne are everywhere right now and are a typical merenda (snack). Again, so yummy.

All was followed up by ripe clementines. The kids began melting down around 9:30, so we headed home. The highlight was Fabio's excitement over the Italian Bible Cody gave him. He had been thinking a lot about their conversation the previous week--even talking to his co-workers about it. Please keep praying for the time they will get together to begin talking about what he's read.

On Saturday morning, our tradition is to make homemade pancakes. Before importing syrup, we topped them with Nutella. We also recently discovered real American-style bacon, which is also greatly enjoyed with our pancakes. Afterward, the whole family spends the morning cleaning our apartment. This past Saturday, we went to our local McDonald's for lunch because we saw that Happy Meals are Star Wars themed right now. Such a little thing, but it's amazing how much fun that little treat was for the kids!

Saturday afternoon is spent working on homework for Hannah. Often her homework can take 3-4 hours. It's an event. This weekend, it wasn't too bad. That night we made homemade pizza and it was an early bedtime for the kids since we were out late the night before.

On Sunday morning, we have church together as a family in our home. Because of the lack of space available for protestant churches, our church here is not very family-friendly. So we have church at home and then Cody or I take turns walking the four blocks down to church to worship. This week at home church, we spent the majority of our time together writing a letter, color pictures and praying for the Compassion child we sponsor in Rwanda.

We finished homework in the afternoon and played the Wii a little. We got the Wii last winter when we were stuck inside for months. It has been so much fun for our entire family, and it provides a little exercise during the months when it rains for days on end.

Finally, we made cashew chicken (from a packet I imported) and egg rolls last night for dinner. Yum, yum, yum. We ended the weekend with extra reading before bed and an episode of Battlestar Gallatica for Cody and I after the kids were tucked in.

We turned in early, in preparation for a long week. A good weekend.

A Bonus Entry

I saw something this week I just had to blog about. . . if only I had had a picture!

Obviously pizza is big here. :) Usually, you order one pizza per person. They are about a foot in diameter, but the crust is really thin and toppings aren't very dense. They're always cooked in a wood-burning oven. Common pizza toppings include: sausage, prosciutto (ham), bell peppers, mushrooms, artichokes, and salami. You can also get toppings such as potatoes, sardines, egg, tuna, and hotdog.

Well, this week our team went to a new restaurant, where they offer a pizza for three. I've never seen this anywhere else. It was as big as any pizza I've ever seen in the States and it had a much, much thicker crust than the typical Italian pizza. It comes with buffalo mozzarella, garlic and cherry tomatoes, but you could add any topping you wished.

Upon leaving, we passed a table where they had ordered the pizza for three topped with hotdogs and french fries! Yes, hotdogs and french fries! And they weren't McDonald's fries either--we're talking huge steak fries (actually, our STINT gal from the Netherlands said they're Belgian Fries). Wow. Definitely a first. Can't say I'll be trying it any time soon. . . but I know where you can get it if you're interested!

Living the Gospel

There is not a day that goes by that I don't pray for our friends Fabio and Alyssia to put their faith in Christ. They have become so dear to us, and I want so much for them to understand how much God desires to have a personal relationship with them.

In the past month we haven't been able to hang out with them because of commitments Fabio had at work out of town. It's also been in the past month that Cody and I have been knee-deep in the hardest place we've ever been in personally. God is working so much out in our lives, but it's also just really, really hard.

This past week Cody has been fasting, and wouldn't you know they called to see if we could come to dinner. We said we'd have to hold off this time, but Hannah could come over to play with Alice. When Cody went to drop her off, Fabio was so concerned for him and for us. We had decided that we would share as openly as we were able with them, and use the opportunity to demonstrate to them how we're trusting God to provide true, lasting healing.

In what Cody shared, Fabio was really stunned at the depths of which Cody was going to hear from God. (Ironically, his words were, "You are such a good person for that doing this" . . . what a great opener to share how just the opposite is true, and that is why we so desperately need God!) The rest of the evening was filled with spiritual conversation and ended with Fabio wanting to read the Bible. He and Cody are going to get together this week to start talking about it. Praise God! We trust that God will speak mightily to him through His Word.

One of the central issues Fabio is struggling with is how the church (the Catholic Church) can know the motives of people's hearts, thus being able to declare them "good enough" for heaven or not. What a great question!

We also learned even more about the still continual influence of the Church. I had mentioned in a previous post about how they had just enrolled Alice in catechism. We were honestly shocked because we had never heard them talk about church before. We learned that parents feel "forced" to do catechism because of the ramifications for their kids when they grow up. For instance, one day if Alice wanted to get married in a religious service, she would have had to have gone through catechism.

Please continue to pray for this precious family! Please pray for the Holy Spirit to be working powerfully in their lives. Pray against the schemes of the enemy to distract them from pursuing God's truth. Pray for their eyes to be open to the God who wants to know them personally.

Our First Italian Road Trip

This past weekend was our first chance to take the car out on the open road and experience a "road trip" Italian style. Our annual Fall Staff Conference was held in Pomezia this year. Pomezia is a small town (almost a suburb) just south of Rome and is roughly 450km (280mi) from Bologna. So, we packed up the car like we've done in years past and headed out.

The first new experience for us is that almost all the major freeways (autostrade) in Italy are toll roads. So, from Bologna to Rome and back was roughly $65 just for tolls. Also, because the Autostrada is a closed system, there are only so many places you can pull off the road for food and gas. For Jen and I, these were noticable differences which required some adjustments, but for the kids it still boiled down to the unviersally asked question, "Are we there yet?" It's been a little over a year since our kids have "road-tripped" and have subsequently lost their roadtrip muscles. I don't think we had even left the Bologna area before Gavin began to verbally wonder when we'd arrive.

While the more famous German "Autobahn" is known for it's high-speed access, the Italian varient definately has limits very similiar to the States. 130km (80mph) is the max speed in most areas though it varies. But, unlike the States, there are very few stretches of straight road. For me, it's really a joy to actually "drive" versus pointing my hood in the right direction and setting the cruise control. For the rest of family, motion sickness is becoming a more common friend. :) The stretch from Bologna to Florence is very twisty and snakes through various mountains.

Once we arrived in Pomezia for the conference, our family had a great time. It is such blessing to gather with other missionaries and be encouraged by sharing stories of similiar experiences, hearing from the Word, and a enjoying a little downtime. This time is especially encouraging for our kids, as they get to play with their "American friends" for a few days. One afternoon is dedicated entirely to the kids, as all the staff put together a "Fall Carnival" full of games, food, music, candy, and fun. For Jen and I, it's a time to gain focus and encouragement as we move forward in ministry. We are only together with all the other Italian staff twice a year, but those times really are a breath of fresh air for us.

After receiving such rest and input, it was a huge blessing to be able to get back into our car and drive home, instead of taking a shuttle to the train station, occupying kids for a three hour train ride and then bussing back to our apartment. We actually arrived home not physically exhausted! We hope you enjoy the pictures!

Gavin went at a Knight but got transformed into Spiderman at the face painting booth.


Is he not the cutest little pirate you've ever seen?