One of the great things about our hotel was that breakfast was included, and served from 7AM-12noon every day (it’s like they knew we were coming)…so we could sleep in each morning, wander down to breakfast – which would generally be pretty empty by the time we got there and enjoy the spread and the patio all to ourselves. We’d have croissants, Italian meats and cheese, fruit, yogurt – Aaron would have a cappuccino (or two), and then we would head out for the day. Our first day of exploring we literally walked out of the hotel and just randomly picked a direction. Walking without any specific destination, we found a number of beautiful churches and campaniles (bell towers). One of the churches was putting on Vivaldi concerts in the evenings, so we bought tickets for later in the week. We continued to wander and found ourselves in the area of the city that used to be the arsenal. There were these huge warehouse buildings right on the water and one of them had been converted into a gallery, so we went in and checked out a modern art exhibit. At the end of the day we headed back towards the hotel, stopping for some gelato on the way of course .

So, here are the photos from our first day in Venice. We arrived after an overnight flight and took a private water taxi into the heart of the city. It’s a total splurge, but such a great way to come into the city. We sped across the lagoon and then took the Grand Canal to the southeast section of the city, where we were staying. After we got dropped off, it was a short walk down some narrow alleys to our hotel, Hotel Le Isole. We got a great room that had a huge window at one end and french doors with a little balcony at the other and overlooked a little canal. It was perfect. Gondoliers would float by, sometimes singing, sometimes playing the accordion – we felt instantly immersed. We unpacked, got cleaned up and went out in search of our first meal. After dinner we explored a little bit and then returned to our hotel, exhausted, but excited to get out and really see the city the next day.

Hi all, yes we did make it back from our fabulous vacation in Venice. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos to post yet, but they are coming. Aaron is trying to teach me some new software for photo editing and you all know how good (insert sarcastic tone here) I am about change and learning new things. Anyway, so it’s a little slow going – but we are working on it and we will have tons of photos to share. In summary we had an absolutely wonderful vacation. Venice was fantastic. The photo above (I cheated and used my good old Photoshop to edit this one) is of us arriving in Venice, by water taxi down the Grand Canal.

I am very happy to announce that James, Chrissy and Alice are moving to Massachusetts! James recently got a job as a producer at WEEI – which I am told (since you all know I don’t really stay up on sports) – is a well-known Boston sports news radio station. The logistics and the move are still in progress, but he started the job last week. We are thrilled to have them all local and very much looking forward to spending more time together. And it turns out that James’ office is less than two miles from mine, so we are hoping to have some lunches together. I am truly overjoyed.

So just for the record, that paltry snow storm we got at the end of February does not count as snow. Any “storm” in which I can see my grass through the snowfall afterwards does not count. As far as I am concerned this whole winter is forfeit. The ground isn’t even cold enough for snow to stick, hence my brick path above. Massachusetts’ winter without snow is ridiculous. I am expecting either snow in July or next winter to provide significant snow to compensate for this oversight. Hmrph.

I planned a little birthday surprise for Aaron. I set up a dinner with his nieces Emily (who is at Tufts) and Molly (who is at Brown). I told him only that I wanted to make a reservation for dinner on his birthday and that he shouldn’t make any plans. It wasn’t until the day of, when I picked him up after work that I let him know we were having dinner with Emily and Molly, in Providence. We went to a restaurant called Chez Pascal, a french inspired bistro and had a great meal. It was a treat for both of us to have the time to talk and catch up with Molly and Emily. The evening was a great success. We hated to bring them back to their respective schools, but we’ll definitely do dinner again soon.

A few weeks ago we flew out to Portland to spend some time with our friends Bonney and Patrick, to meet their new son Calvin and of course visit their older son Rowan. We had a laid back visit hanging out with the kids, venturing out a bit in Portland – hitting a few shops, a few parks, etc. Rowan is a great little guy with tons to say. And Calvin seems to be pretty easy going. He basically oscillated between eating and sleeping and was quite accommodating to our eating out by sleeping through entire meals without stirring. It had been quite sometime (more than 8 yrs) since Aaron had been back to Portland and the city has become quite a foodie paradise since then – so we spent much of the visit hitting as many of the eating highlights as we could pack in. Bonney and Patrick laid out a pretty ambitious tour – including food carts, charming cafes, packed, out of the way places and downtown-city restaurants. And I have to admit, the food did live up to the hype. It was a great visit and we hope to see them again soon.

Amy and Joe read to their kids every night at bedtime. When we are over visiting, we happily participate in this routine. Justin gets to pick what he wants read and by who. Recently we were over and he asked me to read one of his current favorites – Shark vs. Train This album is a series of photos Aaron took while we were reading. (Be warned, there is a scary one of me pretending to be a shark :)

Being an aunt makes me happy.

I thought it would be a fun night out for Mom, Amy and I to take a cooking class together. So I did a little research, found a local place and signed us up. Unfortunately, the class was a total fiasco – unorganized, horribly mismanaged and worst of all there really wasn’t any teaching or learning. The three of us tried to make the best of it though and enjoyed each other’s company and the absurdity of the situation. Mom made ginger poached pears, Amy made a rustic tomato and carmelized onion tart and I made apple crisp. Mid-class Mom was asked to help out another attendee make roasted vegetable napoleons (apparently the two chefs running the class couldn’t be bothered). At the end of the class we ate what we all had cooked – there were 11 of us in the class – the food was ok, nothing great. Needless to say, we won’t be returning. At least we had each other.

The day after Christmas Aaron and I hosted what has become our annual brunch for my entire family. We cooked up a big meal – Aaron’s famous latkes, tomatoes stuffed with sausage, egg casserole, fried donuts, fruit salad, bagels, yogurt filled strawberries, etc. “Entire family” now means 15 people and it looks like Aaron and I are going to need a bigger dinning room – but we all squeezed in had a great afternoon together. We opened presents and played with the kids. My siblings tried to get all their children to sit still, all in one spot for a photo – which was quite entertaining (see the photo above). I included a series of these photos in the album. We do love being able to host everyone at our place.