The Christmas Present

The first video gaming machine came into our house on Christmas. Of course, it didn't work the first day, guess it was God teaching Cameron patience. Anyway, we have been playing it a bit here are there and there are EXTREME restrictions on it for Cameron. Though it seems everytime Cameron comes in from playing outside, Randy and I are playing it.

Merry Christmas 2009

We are in Sicily for our second Christmas. What a wonderful time we are having. Cameron and Anne went to Midnight Mass in the town of Mineo. It was 2 hours long and we spent most of our time trying to find in my Dad's Missal, the English version of the readings and prayer, but it was still GREAT!!!

We woke up this morning to a beautiful tree with many presents underneath, but always the first thing is Cameron MUST put the baby Jesus into the manger. Anne made a breakfast casserole last night and we popped it into the oven this morning. (It was good).

Cameron woke up an hour earlier than we expected, going to bed a 2am is a bit hard. After getting Skype set up with Anne's brother John, we started opening presents. We all opened our presents, but ..... Cameron's last present was a big box. We sent him on a Clue Finding hunt. The first big present under the tree had a rhyme that was a clue, which sent him to the backyard. The next clue into the stairs, then out to the truck, then over to a neighbor's house where Cam is dog sitting (we figured this was the best way to do his job and enjoy Christmas). This box had a huge rock in it all wrapped up and had to carry it down the street :) The final clue sent him up to his bedroom and a Wii was under his bed. We all had a good time. Cameron got Legos, videos and Nerf Guns; Anne got a robe, scarf and bath stuff; Randy got some stuff for camping and bath stuff. It is 10am and we are ready for our nap.

Olive Picking

We had the greatest day olive picking, yesterday. We went up to our friends upper land and picked olives off their trees. They sell olive oil and olive products for their living. They made us lunch on the property which included sausage cooked on a very old clay roofing tile on a fire grandpa made.
First you lay tarps under the trees, then just pull the olives off the tree. Emilio and his dad, Salvatore, were up on ladders getting the upper parts of the trees while we were below taking off the lower olives. After they are on the tarp, you pick them up with as few stems and leaves as you can. Of course this is done as fast as you can on slopey hillsides. The weather was a bit over cast, but thank God it was cool and not too hot.
After picking from 5 or 6 trees around 50 kilos of olives, we went to the presses to see how cold-press extra virgin olive oil is made and even got to taste some right out of the presses.
We had an evening pasta at their house and then they gave us some fresh olive oil that was just pressed a couple days ago. This has a very strong olive taste and some yummy sediment, this oil is best for dipping your bread, not cooking.

Happy Thanksgiving

Today we spent Thanksgiving with our Sicilian friends at their house just outside the town of Mineo. It was a beautiful day. Randy fried a turkey and we had the other cooked in the outdoor Sicilian oven. Each was wonderful with a different taste. We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, 3 different kinds of pie and many other foods from all different cultures.
Thank you all for coming and of course thank you to Emilio and Mariska for having us over. We are thankful this year for good friends who become family.

Her second year with the Lord

Today is the anniversary of my Mom's passing through this life to Eternal Life with the Lord. Mom I love you so much. Thank you for being my confidant, my friend, my Mom and a wonderful Grandmother. You are missed in this life, but we shall be joined again at the time of the Lord's choosing. Please put in a good word for me and make sure you keep your last promise to Cameron, by making sure his Manson is filled with fruit!! :)

Cheer to a wonderful woman.

Greek Theater, Syracusa

While in Syracusa we went to the Greek Theater. We have tried a couple times to go, but each time it was closed. Today, it was open. Living here in Sicily has been a wonderful experience of living within history. Wow, what an opportunity. Who knew you could touch history. Today, we homeschooled the ancient Greeks. :) I LOVE HOMESCHOOLING!!! Everything is a learning experince.

Veteran's Day

Again, this year since there are no American Military Cemeteries here in Sicily, we have gone to a Commonwealth Cemetery. This year it was a different one in. It was located in the town of Syracusa. It was very small especially since we saw so many large ones in Europe. We paid our respects to those who have fallen in the name of peace.

We also took a picture by an old pill box just outside our military base. The rememberances of war are still all around us.

Camping Europe Day 14

Woke up: Tent camping, Rhine River, Germany

Drove: We drove all around the Rhine River Areas.

Did: Today, we drove up and down the Rhine River in this area. We stopped in many cute towns, for shopping, wine tasting, coffee drinking and just plain old relaxing. The best stop on this day was Rheinfled Castle.

Slept: Tent Camping Rhine River, Germany

Country Count: 3

Camping Europe Day 13

Woke up: Ramstein AFB, TLF

Drove: This is a two part question. 1) Truck goes to Auto Shop, 2 hours later auto shop says truck should not be driven and that we are lucky the wheel didn't sheer off while driving. Glad we were on German road which are the best in the world. 2) Rented VW wagon and decide to head on on the vacation.

Did: Ok here is where the story goes. Randy walks the almost 3 miles across the base, after dropping the truck off, to see if we can keep the room. Anne and Cameron pack up the room, but hope we don't have to leave with no where to go. Randy walks another mile to our room to tell us, no go, no rooms available for the night. The nice maids, tell us that they aren't coming back until after 1pm to clean the room and we can stay until then. Randy tells Anne the three options the Auto Shop gave us. The part is not available for a Ford F250 4x4 pickup truck in Germany. 1) Have a machinist make it 1,000 euro, but only 1 day. 2) Order from German company 800 euro ready in 4 days. 3) Order it from the states $450 USD 7-10 days shipping. We chose to order from the states and rent a car and keep going on the vacation. Randy took 30 days leave and we are at 13. We have time and well, might was well do a vacation we will never forget and never have to do again. We rent a car, in the AFB mall, and head out. The guy in the biergarten last night says we had to do the Rhine River and Randy remember a fairytale about Loreley. http://loreley-rhine.com/ Lets go. The wagon fits about 1/2 our stuff, we leave the rest behind in the truck. We make it to the Rhine and find a campsite, from our Camping Europe book http://camping-loreleyblick.de/neu/index.php?lang=english. It is beautiful here. Our campsite is right next to the river, the barges pass by and we can watch them making the treacherous turn at the Loreley Rock and at night the party barges go by. What did we forgot when changing from the truck to the wagon 1) table, we (Randy) have to cook on the ground. 2) Heavy jackets for Randy and Cameron, but we don't need them....yet.

Slept: Campingplatz Loreley, Rhine River, Germany

Country Count: 3

Camping Europe Day 12

Woke up: Barracks room US Army, Stuttgard Germany.

Drove: To Ramstien Air Force Base. We love driving. We stop if we seen interesting things or the travel guide or GPS says to.

Did: We stop in the USO in Stuttgard. http://affiliates.uso.org/stuttgart/ Wow it is nice. They copy us a bunch of camping info, give us maps and brochures about places to go and things to do. We stop in their exchange, buy more propane and a few other things (Anne found shorts on sale for $1 and bought 6 pairs for next summer). We have a name plate made for us their. Why does every one's exchange and commissary beat out ours :( why!! We head out with tons of information, but then Anne's fix it for the noise the truck is making (close the windows and turn up the radio) is no longer working. The truck really needs to get looked at before we head home and it is getting to be time to head back down. So we head off to Ramstein Air Force base. They have a large base and probably have a good, well stocked Auto Shop for American vehicles. We get a room, which by the way, is a HUGE 3 bedroom TLF (temporary lodging facility). The base in Ramstein is great, they have a mall and an exchange with many local shops and even a theater. Cameron goes to see a move and Randy and Anne hit the Biergarten in the mall, I mean the exchange area. ;) As we are looking at a map, a husband and wife, retired Navy, comes over and gives us hints about other places to go in the area before we head back. I think this is one of the first times that Randy and Anne pulled out a map and looked at where we were heading before we were on the road.

Slept: Ramstein Air Force Base TLF http://www.ramstein.af.mil/

Country Count: 3

Camping Europe Day 11

Woke up: Tent in Edelweiss Lodge.

Drove: Through Garmisch-Partenkirchen, through Ulm and into Stuttgart.

Did: We drive out of GP and the landscape is beautiful, but we were here last year and enjoyed this area, so we press ahead. Cameron has been so good. He hardly complains and gets carted everywhere with hours spent in the truck and is reading the "Chronicles of Narnia" series, some of which he is re-reading. We decide, if we get there on time, we will hit Legoland Deutschland in Ulm. http://www.legoland.de/In-the-park/Whats-new/Neuigkeiten.htm?lc=en We get there at about 1pm and wonder if we should wait and go in tomorrow, but remembering what a friend said, "this is a half-day park", we go in. There was hardly anyone there. We get on all the rides with no wait and some we just stay on and ride again. Cameron had a BLAST!! Again, we make sandwiches and eat at the truck in the parking lot. This truly saves us money especially in a place like this. Park closed at 6pm, we actually left around 5:30 with no regrets. We did and rode everything there. We press ahead to the Army Base at Stuttgard. Anne's cold is still bothering her, but the decongestants did well at Legoland.

Slept: We got a barracks room at one of the Stuttgart bases. Anne got banished to a room by herself because of the constant coughing. :) http://www.stuttgart.army.mil/sites/local/

Country Count: 3