Saint Valentine's Day

This year I really wanted to celebrate Valentine's Day* but in a sweet, homely way. I was most inspired by this book, which I've been referring to often. I made templates of birds and used them to cut out bird biscuits which were strung up on our Valentine tree (it had a couple of red ribbon ties on it). I thought people might laugh or be puzzled over it, neither of which concerned me anyway as my main focus was the kids, but surprisingly it went down well. The kids were spellbound! Pretty soon they realised the birds were of the edible kind and began their usual pleading. We bargained that all the birds had to stay for a full day, then they could eat one per day. Naturally this quickly became three per day but they asked nicely each time and waited patiently when they were taken off the tree. Such is the power of biscuits.


The book has lovely ideas for festivals, special days and crafts. It's made me realise that since we now have our own little nuclear family, we can celebrate the things we want to, how we want to. Dan loves the idea too so now I'm planning our family calendar which will include those days special to us. Family and friend birthdays will be on it of course, Easter with its associated Christian days, plus National days from our respective countries.

In the past couple of years we've begun celebrating Christmas from Advent Sunday and I really appreciate the perspective this gives, as well as a structured time of anticipation and preparation. January this year was incredibly hectic but next year I'd like to finish the festive season with Three Kings cake for Epiphany on January 6th. When we heard about Pi day (as in π ) on March 14th, we thought how cool it would be to make pies on that day, or a cake with Pi icing - the amount of icing will be finite however!


Our calendar hasn't been finalised yet but really, I'd be more than happy for it to evolve as the kids grow and develop interests which they would like to include. Who knows what other interesting events we could be celebrating?


* Yes, this really should have been posted in February but we got sick just after these events took place.

Spring, where are you?

If any regular readers (I think there's 2 of you) have been wondering why it's been so quiet on the Italian front... the answer my friends was blowin' on the wind. The evil, cold wind that comes from Siberia and brings icy sleet, fresh snow and subzero temperatures. Just as we were getting optimistic about warmer weather and wearing T shirts, the new cold drove us back inside, back under 5 layers of clothing yet still freezing indoors.

The end result - we all picked up colds which turned into coughs and just to top it off, bronchitis. Since mid February, we've been coughing, sneezing and spluttering away. It's only been this week that we've felt really over it, which is a huge relief.

Now it seems as if the weather really is starting to turn. The cherry and plum trees are starting to blossom and we see more flowers and foliage every day. So hopefully this time, it's really happening. We're looking forward to getting out into the garden, weeding and planting in Zia Toni's garden, Toni being Dan's sister. The kids love visiting them for many reasons, not least being the new puppies born to their lovely dog, Maya.

In more exciting news we're planning to drive up to Hungary this week. If all goes to plan the next post will be from 1200km North East. We don't yet know if we'll go via Croatia or Slovenia. Originally we wanted to go to Innsbruck, Austria and visit the Swarovski Museum. A crystal dome, the largest crystal in the world, light displays reflected through crystals - what's not to like? Unfortunately their website told us they'd be closed till mid August for renovations. Back to planning.