An Italian Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving 2011 is one for the books. Yes yes, if I had my druthers, I would always spend my holidays with my family, but with this nomadic lifestyle that just ain't possible! Sadly Italians do not honor one of America's greatest holiday's (you think they would jump on board because they love closing up shop and taking time off work!) so we still had school and volleyball when an ideal day would have been solely focused on cooking, drinking and eating.

 Let's just say I have NEVER been so busy on Thanksgiving.
-Woke up a little before 7 to prep the bird....little did I know that prepping including PLUCKING the remaining feathers from the big guy.
-School: explained in Italian the significance of Thanksgiving...when it came to the point where I had to say "Native American" Caylin and I just made the noise. Success.
-Post learning your girls were wild in our skinny little kitchen
-Volley scrimmage at 6, of course lasted longer than anticipated so we didn't get home till after 8 and had to sprint around the kitchen to get everything finished while our guests arrived.

Guestlist:
Tripod of hostesses
Pappa Gilroy (america)
Saso (Italy)
Andrea (Italy)
Matt (America)
Anna & Walter (Italy)
Valentina (Italy)
Lucy (UK)
Vince (Italy/UK)

Menu:
Turkey - prepped by Kelsey, monitored and carved by Pappa G
Stuffing - Kelsey
Green Bean casserole - Meghan
Cheesy Potatoes - Caylin
Mashed Potatoes - Kelsey
Gravy - Kelsey
Salad - Matt
Stuffed chicken things - Saso's Mom
Succotash - Pappa G
Pumpkin Pie - Kelsey
Apple Pie - Caylin
Nut Pie - Caylin
VINO

The food was amazing, the company was great and we all had plenty to be great-full for!

This was our "thankful" door where everyone had to write about what they were thankful for :)

A Perfect Saturday

Captains log: Saturday November 19, 2011 = food, "family", LAUGHS, volley, winning, food, LAUGHS, boozes, booze + games.

I'm not sure I could rev up a much better Saturday than the one I had yesterday. I got to sleep in until after noon! (thanks to this little gem of a thing called school, I have to wake up at 7:45 5 days a week......not really for me....especially when I have practice every night till 11). Then I was hittin the kitchen with Caylin to prepare our weekly brunch (more like linner). We had quite the guest list: Our UK's: Vince, Lucy, Jennifer; Alex (joining us from Cali) and Mamma and Pappa Gilroy. Charlie Gilroy and Lucy had quite the battle of wits, that had the rest of us in shambles...adding valuable minutes to our lives. An obsurred amount of gay jokes were spewed.

Next stop: volleyball game vs. Palmi (going into the game we were tied in points and had a couple of Brazilian "stars") Stellar performance from team America and we took the win in a dominating 3 sets. Even our setter put in effort! So happy with the teams performance!!

For our evening festivities, we had dinner at Wallace's, a fun Irish pub. At one point Chumbawamba came on and we got very excited and made a mini music video at our table....and we wonder why people think we are drunk all the time? Then we met up with the rest of our crew for some chatting and drinks. The real fun happened when we got to the wine bar and decided to start playing THUMPER. Once everyone got the hang of it we had 13 people around in a circle playing and the entire bar watching us. Such a classy game to play while drinking our wine.

Loving this new "hot streak" I'm on....Passport has arrived, winning volley, flights booked for the holidays, credit cards in the mail and should be getting my package in the next 2 days...I will really be able to give thanks on Thursday!

Adventures

These last 2 weeks I have had a few great 1 day adventures around Italy with some pretty rad people....

Adventure 1: Scilla con Caylin, Tanner & AJ (Caylin's cousin and friend visiting from Spain)

We hiked up to the old castle which had an amazing view and then just walked around the town for a bit where we met an awesome dog that followed us all the way back to the train station...good ol' Rosco!

A couple of days later I was off to Rome on a mission to get a new passport! Night trained there with Valentina (not something I would recommend. Let's just say a giant fat man with stinky feet snoring the whole way, is not the ideal way to travel.) After GREAT success at the US embassy in the morning we had a couple of hours before our train left back to Reggio, so we had a power tour of Roma trying to catch as many sights as we could...

Victor Emmanuel Monument in Piazza Venezia

The Oh So Glorious Colosseum

Trevi Fountain...threw my coin in and will be returning to Rome soon

The last little day trip was to Pentedattilo, an abandoned town in the mountains about an hour outside of Reggio. Meghan's parents are visiting and staying in a B&B where our main man Steve works and puts together tours around, so that's how we stumbled upon this little gem. 

Seriously one of the coolest places I have ever been. I've been lucky enough to see some amazing and famous sites thus far, but this was pretty crazy because we were the only one's there and could climb through these old houses and castle surrounded by a spectacular view. My only regret of this trip is that I didn't dress properly. Not to worry, my 10 year old instincts took over and I was climbing (dangerously) on everything with my sandals and blazer. 

Mom and Dad: please get here so I can take you to these places