There's No Place Like Rome for the Holidays

Just returned from Rome where we spent 19-26 December. It was really great; one of our most fulfilling vacations.

We really want to write a fair amount about the trip, but the number of pictures we took is overwhelming, not to mention we haven't fully unpacked yet. So, we're settling for a just a few pics of the hundreds, plus super brief stories.

Weather was fickle, ranging from needing hats & gloves to just long-sleeve shirts. We had rain (most afternoons), but some sunshine - but no white Christmas.

We rented a 2 bedroom flat. It was described as 'luxury', but that was a stretch of someone's imagination. The location and neighborhood really made the flat great. We were just 200 meters from the Vatican.

As we've said before, renting a flat just makes family life much easier than in a hotel. Having a kitchen allowed us to make pancakes a couple times, plus cook up decent suppers when we weren't bringing pizzas home. Yeah, Italians can really make good pizza!

We seemed to take advantage of and enjoy the buses and subway pretty well, far better than the old, deep metro of Paris.

What did we do? First full day was spent getting familiar with the city on a double-decker tour bus. The bus company had several buses rotating, letting us pop off where we wanted, then catching the next one. Maylia and her sister Erin did the same thing in Dresden last year, and since then we're big fans of the idea.

• Spent the next day going through the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel.
• Spent a day at a kid's museum called Explora, where exhibits are very interactive. We had booked this online far in advance since they allow just 6 or so families per 2 hour time slot. All kids had a good time there.
• Spent a day at the Colosseum and exploring the nearby Palatino. Not so exciting for the kids, but Maylia and Jeff really enjoyed it. Mattias does not like gladiators, nor men in gladiator costumes.
• Spent Christmas eve shopping at Rome's christmas markets. Definitely a step down from Prague's markets. Kids were happy with carousel rides. Mattias tried cotton candy for first time. Very happy little boy, until Ella decided he'd had enough of her cotton candy.
• Jeff attended Christmas eve mass in St. Peters (Vatican), delivered by the Pope. Almost worth the hassle of getting advance tickets and queuing 5 hours before mass started. Most interesting part was when a woman lept over the barricade at the pope.
• Spent Christmas morning at home, ripping through paper and boxes. Spent the afternoon at the Pantheon.
• Last day in Rome, we spent downtown at the Trevi fountain. We had seen a lot of fountains in Rome and elsewhere, but the Trevi is one big mama of a fountain! Kids surprisingly like it, too.

Overall, we're happy we reached all the tourist spots we hoped for, plus a few more 'extras' like the Explora museum, Rome castle and the markets. We had ordered or reserved most of it all in advance, which helped tremendously for planning.

We also figured on the flight home, this makes Ella's fourth country out of her 5 Christmases (US, Egypt, 2x Czech & Italy). So, now we're challenged to keep up the pace for her.

Okay, I have to throw some pictures on here ...and get to bed.

Us with St Peters behind us.

Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
Close-up of the ceiling
Inside the Colosseum
An idea of how HUGE it is inside of the Vatican's St. Peters basilica.
About halfway down a very impressive hall of maps, of the Vatican museum.
We did a few carousel rides over the week
The flight home
The rock star delivering his sermon

And, we can't forget to mention some new friends - Jamie, Heather and their kids, Issac and Zoe. While they're from Nova Scotia and share a lot of mutual friends with Maylia, they now live and teach in Kuwait. But they spent their Christmas vacation in Prague! Since the timing with our holiday was nearly the same, they used our flat for their home. It was nice coming home (to their home) to spend some time with them before they caught their flight back to Kuwait.

One last picture.... what our Christmas tree looks like right now, tonight. Yes, Santa came again tonight. So, we will have our 2nd Christmas tomorrow morning, since Santa couldn't carry most packages to Rome. This will be a big surprise to Ella and Mattias.

Yes, We Still Think of the Blog

A month. By far the longest we've gone without posting to the blog.

Okay, a lot's gone on since October, but that's no excuse to skirt our blogging responsibilities, right? Sure, right...

Here's some of our biggest events / time consumers / activities this past month:

• Jeff's work days are numbered. February layoffs will impact 5 out of 7 in his team
• Kids and/or Maylia have fought bronchitis or the flu since mid-October
• We helped celebrate Czech Repub's 20 years since Velvet Revolution & fall of communism
• Been to 3 friends' birthday parties (all 3 or 4 year olds)
• Completely skipped Thanksgiving (instead, Jeff had sushi with Czech & Venezuelan friends)
• Just put up our Christmas tree this weekend
• Last but not least, our dishwasher broke - (not Jeff, the proper one)

It's been busy, tiring and with a couple surprises thrown in, too. But we remembered the blog... and ....time for some pictures.

We put up our tree today

Went to a toy museum. Mattias was stuck at this train exhibit for a while.

Almost forgot - Ella and Jeff saw a goat run by. More fun were the police chasing it.

In the middle of thousands celebrating end of communism 17 November

Kids & Daddy (yes, that's Jeff) before he had to run to a 70's party

Had a sleep-over at Dylan & Bailey's house

Yes...Maylia REALLY Did Go To Lisbon...

And here's the proof! (I was thinking of sticking to the "what happens in Lisbon, stays in Lisbon"...but I guess I'll break down and share some of my trip with you.)

In summary, 4 nights and 3 days of amazingly fun times, long chats, dancing, sightseeing, relaxation, and yummy food with two of my favorite women in the whole world. No agenda. Just going where the day (or night) took us. What could be better? It was truly a "break" from my regular day-to-day life...and, I must admit, it was heavenly! Sleeping until noon, staying out until 3 and 4 in the morning. I was definitely Maylia and not "Mommy". Don't get me wrong, I adore my husband and my children, but everyone needs a vacation now and then. And this was it!

I can't end this post without highly recommending Lisbon (and most likely, Portugal) as a travel destination. Erin, Michelle and I were consistently wowed by the friendly service as well as the scenery.

Trick-or-Treat!

In true Prague fashion (for us), we were battling illness for Hallowe'en again this year. Luckily, it tempered our celebrations but did not completely knock us out of the festivities this year. Hallowe'en morning, Maylia and Mattias attended a Hallowe'en themed storytime, where Maylia helped entertain about 30 pirates, witches, princesses, and monsters with spooky stories and silly puppets. Here's Mattias in his goldfish costume that we're hoping he gets to go trick-or-treating in next year...

And sporting his super-cool Hallowe'en t-shirt courtesy of Grammy and Grampy (what he actually wore to the storytime).

After returning Mattias home for a nap, Maylia and Ella took off for a Hallowe'en themed birthday party for Ella's friend, Natalie.

We should also add that we warmed up for Hallowe'en by visiting a pumpkin farm and buying some pumpkins and squash. It was a very fun (and wet!) day with our friends Emily, Radek, Anna Lee, and Oliver.

And then Jeff and Ella attended a pumpkin carving party at our friends house (Valerie, Dan, Vinson, and Benjamin). Ella's jack-o-lantern is the second from left.

Health update: Monday (Nov 2), Jeff was to the doctor and learned he needed a round of antibiotics. Tuesday, Maylia returned to the doctor for a second round of antibiotics. Somehow, the children seem pretty healthy...knock on wood...not sure how...but we are so grateful! Hoping we'll all be healthy and back to our normal activities this coming week. Ella went to skolka 4 full days this week (8:30am to 3:30pm), since Mom was not much fun. And she also went to her drama class yesterday on her own (with her friend Natalie and Natalie's mom) - what a big girl! We're very proud of her!

Welcome to the World, Puran Ekya!

We are thrilled to announce the birth of Caesar and Sarita's baby boy. The little tiger arrived November 4th and all three of the Ekyas are doing very well. We're sure they are happy to have Sarita's mom, Anita, around to help. Either a very early riser or a night owl, Puran entered the world at 1:38 am, weighing in at 5lbs 11oz. It's cool that he shares his Lunar/Hindu calendar birthday with his dad. Puran is named after Caesar's father, and his name means "complete" in Sanskrit. Fitting, as we're sure Caesar and Sarita are feeling like their family is more complete with Puran in it. (For those that don't know, Ekya, Sarita and Caesar's chosen married name, means "unity" in Sanskrit. Cool, huh?)

Congratulations, Guys! Looking forward to meeting Puran on Skype sometime soon....