Ciao tutti! My apologies for having gone so long [yet again] without posting here. Truly, we’ve been having a ball with all the festivities we’ve enjoyed in the past several weeks.
Since my last post I’ve shared several meals with various friends, taught kiddos at the family convegno [seminar] in early November, had two Thanksgiving celebrations [one with Harding; one here at the Bible School with English students and other friends],spent ten days in Poland, put up my [actually, it’s Harding’s] Christmas tree in the living room, listened to American Christmas carols, eaten TONS of chocolate gifted to me by my students, worn the new outfit mom sent me for my Christmas gift and played in the snow. Check out my photo page for the albums I’ve recently uploaded! As most of you know, a picture says a thousand words.. more than I could accurately describe here. Nevertheless, I’ll let you in on a few of the specifics of the past two months here.
First, the two Thanksgivings. Since the Harding kids left for free travel before the real Thanksgiving, there was, naturally, a party one week prior to the actual holiday with all the traditional food and some not-so-traditional activities. We decorated huge tables and made Native American “headdresses” and Pilgrim hats and bonnets. 
There was a “Hayride with Sandro” which involved a makeshift trailer filled with hay, just big enough for two, being pulled by a lawnmower driven by Sandro around the grounds of the villa and a very special reading of “The Ugly Pumpkin” which tells the story of an oddly shaped pumpkin who learns he’s actually just a regular squash.
The next week was spent preparing for the Thanksgiving bash we were planning for our English students and other friends at the Bible School. After inviting everyone, we were expecting around 40 people so we made a TON of food. I used some of the same decorations we used at Harding’s party to decorate our tables and the evening was a huge success. Although many of the people didn’t know one another before coming, everyone got along really well and the room was full of chatter and laughter the whole time. And the Italians seemed to like our American cuisine just fine! [Serving American food to Italians is always a risk!] Having so many people around certainly provided consolation for the fact that I wasn’t to spend the holiday with family. After both of these celebrations, and lots and lots of food, I was pretty content. : ) 
Our trip to Poland was a lot of fun, also. We spent the first week in Sopot with Molly and Mike Dawidow who have the Sopot International Bible Institute, where they teach the Bible using English, much like we do here in Italy, though they use a very structured curriculum that they wrote themselves that we were privileged to get to use while we were there. In addition to teaching English, we visited the surrounding attractions, like the Old Town in Gdansk and Malbork Castle. For the remainder of our time in Poland, we were in Warsaw. We were able to visit with our friend Ivo and got to see the Warsaw Rising Museum which was remarkably interesting.. a place I’d love to see again. There is so much history in Poland.. it makes for a very intriguing and enjoyable vacation spot. I’d recommend it to anyone!! One more thing about Poland: the food there is ah.MAZ.ing. We had zero bad experiences there. If you want to read about a few stories of our visit to Poland, read Emily’s latest blog post!!
Ok. Christmas. I have to admit it has barely felt like the season I look forward to every year.. mainly because I haven’t spent it with family this year. Nevertheless, we have enjoyed snow, I have a beautiful tree and decorations and several people have had us over for holiday meals. We hosted an English movie night for our students the night it
snowed, showing “The Polar Express.” We had a ball making Christmas cookies and other goodies for the church members and seeing Florence all lit up on Christmas Eve. I’ve missed everyone at home, but I guess a girl has to grow up sometime!! : )
So now for the time being Emily and I have cancelled English lessons for the holidays and are enjoying some time off.. but I’m looking forward to the new year and all the things God has in store for me. I pray that everyone has had a safe and happy holiday and will have a blessed beginning to the coming year. Peace and Love to all!!
