It's the most wonderful time of the year...

I have always loved Christmas, with all of the lights and decorations all over the city. But this year was special to me because we got to put up lights for the first time! For the last several years, we've had our condo and I've put lights on the patio, but that's not quite as fun. Last year we were in Italy for a couple weeks, so we didn't do lights, but this year there was no excuse! I have to admit that Garth wasn't into it at first, but he actually ended up loving it and is already excited for changes next year. My dad came over and they hung them quickly and they look really good. It was a lot of fun. I got on the roof for a short time and I didn't like it-kind of freaked me out, so I let the boys handle it instead. I just supported them from down below.

The next day, the Roger's, and the Moss' came down to Visalia for the Candy Cane Parade. After a yummy Masarus dinner, we headed to the overcrowded streets of downtown Visalia. It was a cold night, but it was so much fun to sit and watch the parade. It was really fun seeing some of my students participating in our school float, or dancing, or in boy scouts. What a fun way to start the Christmas season!!

Then last night, Garth and I went to the Visalia Christmas Tree Auction. We had a really fun time. There was wine and food from all the restaurants around Visalia. It was so fun sampling all that food! The trees were gorgeous and went for a lot of $--all for a good cause!!

This was the tree that our school decorated to be auctioned off. Each student in the entire school (400ish) decorated an ornament with glitter, paint, and sequins. The tree skirt was made from each student's hand print that was traced and cut out. It was beautiful and it won the "Most Creative" award!

Some of the other beautiful trees...

Baby Shower for Madison

Last month, Jenny and I threw Erin a baby shower for baby Madison. We had a great time being with one another and Erin just looked beautiful! We can't wait to meet Madison in February.

Halloween 2009

After much debate on what to be for a Halloween party, a wonderful teacher at my school let me borrow these costumes she made by hand several years ago!! They were a hit. Yabba Dabba Doo!

Tahoe

This past week we went on our annual vacation with all of my family. This time was a little different, however, because Garth wasn't able to make it due to work, and Aunt Rochelle and Uncle George were in Alabama. We missed them dearly and hope everyone will be there next year. Tahoe was gorgeous and we had a great time. The house we rented was absolutely beautiful and we took advantage of the spa, but not the indoor pool so much- it was kind of chilly. Anyways, it was a great week spent with my wonderful family. The weather was gorgeous, but we also had a day where it was rainy, windy, and overcast. I loved sitting in the spa when it was all stormy outside. So fun!

cousins hanging out

Cousin Andon at the beach

Mom and Uncle Craig playing games

Family game time

Leslie and Christy posing in the sauna

Indoor pool

upstairs loft and pool table

living room

I heart Erin

2 weeks ago I got to go to San Diego for a very short visit with my grandparents, but I was able to see my great friends Heidi and Erin. Erin is pregnant with her first baby and she is just beautiful. I love her growing belly...so fun!!

cute baby belly

cute friends

last stop--VENICE!

Finally, 4 months later, I updated our last stop in Italy! I can't believe it took that long, especially since we loved Venice so much. I have heard that in the summer Venice smells like a sewer, but in December it was lovely. No bad smells for us. It was truly an amazing city to visit. The whole city is on the water and there are no cars, motorcycles, or even bikes allowed. There are little bridges that go over the canals and it was just beautiful.

Below is the view from our hotel window...absolutely wonderful! We had incredible views of 2 different canals and a view of the rooftops. We had a lot of windows in this hotel. It was the best hotel we stayed in on our trip.

From our hotel window:

These are the portable sidewalks that they keep on hand for flooding. About 2 weeks before we went, Venice had terrible floods-the worst in 30 years. People were wakeboarding in St. Marks Square. Good thing it was all gone by the time we got there :)

The oh-so-popular gondolas

A cool picture Garth took. The black bird is painted on the bench.

Rialto Bridge

This cargo boat is how all the businesses get their supplies. The ships pull up and use a dolly to deliver the supplies to the stores. It is a lot of work. No wonder everything was so expensive!

View from Rialto Bridge

Other side of Rialto Bridge. It was such a beautiful day, but still so cold!

See, I told you it was cold. Look how bundled up this family was!

St. Mark's Cathedral

We went to Murano Island, where much of the Venetian glass is made. We went to a glass factory, where we watched a man make a glass horse. Here is what he started with...

He started pulling at it to make legs...

And, look at his masterpiece! He made it look so easy. It was incredible.

Scary mask. Venice is known for their masks. In Venetian history, masks were used to hide someone's identity and allowed people, for example, a servant and a noble person to be seen as equals. They were all over Venice and there were some pretty creepy ones, but some absolutely beautiful ones as well.

The Bridge of Sighs (which was being restored). This famous bridge connected the prison to the interrogation room in the Doge's Palace. It was named the Bridge of Sighs because prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice before being taken down into their cells.

According to Rick Steve, this is the first digital clock in the world. Right above the round dial, there are two little rectangle windows with a statue in the middle. The window on the left had the roman numerals III and the windown on the right said 25. Pretty cool!

This was on New Year's Eve. This was the celebration in St. Mark's Square. The theme was "Love" and they had disco balls in the shape of a heart. They had 2 actors performing silly skits and a band that played fun music. People were getting quite carried away with their champagne bottles and when the countdown happened, you had to cover your face because of the flying corks everywhere. It was so inceredibly crowded, but so much fun. Right before it was midnight, it began snowing!!! It was amazing. We got to watch an incredible firework show, while it was snowing, on New Year's Eve, in Venice. Could it get much better??

During the show...but before it snowed.

Here's the view from our window when we got back to the hotel. So beautiful.

The snow covered gondola's the next day...

St. Mark's Square the next day...you can't really telll, but it was a mess with beer bottles, champagne bottles, trash, and slushy snow.

I love this picture.

Garth and I on Rialto Bridge.

We spent the last day walking around snowy/slushy Venice and got some cool pictures. Then because it was so cold and wet, we stayed inside the hotel, read, and relaxed. It was perfect. We enjoyed watching it rain and we just relaxed. A perfect end to a perfect trip.


Now...when can we go back?