All I Want for Christmas Is . . . --Woche 41

I did it!!!  I finally made dinner rolls that turned out beautifully!  This is something that I have been working on for at least 15 years, with this being my first successful attempt.  You can see how tempting they were, as the kids and Dan couldn't keep their hands off them long enough to even get the picture. 

Some other good news:  We officially started a new family tradition this year!  Dan is now taking each of the kids out separately for their Christmas shopping.  Usually we would probably do this in December, but the kids are very excited this year.  Dan and I have been working on getting all of our shopping done early so that we can enjoy December--(a little brag note here, we are 95% done AND wrapped--the 5% left being finishing up Dan's gifts, and wrapping the gifts that are sitting in Indiana, waiting for Dan to pick them up).  The kids have caught the same bug.  They wanted to get all of their shopping done early too (before Thanksgiving, if possible).  Dan came home from Antwerp this week, and jumped immediately into the holiday mood.  He has been out on three dates this week, none of which were with me!  The kids all had lists of things that they had come up with on their own to give their siblings.  I love how the Christmas spirit of giving rather than receiving is really coming alive in our home.  Dan's favorite quote of all the shopping trips was from Deagan, "When Grandma opens this, her eyes are going to pop out and she is going to pee her pants!"  I don't know what it is, as I love the suspense just as much as any of the kids, and I can't wait to see if I pee my pants too!

On that note, I thought it might be fun to document exactly what the kids are all wishing for this Christmas.  It is fun to see how some tastes change, and others don't.  So here goes:


Dane's Top 3:  I would like Lego Galactic Titan, Lego Battle for Ninjago City, and Magic Cards
If Dane could have one wish come true, it would be:  Having all the Lego sets in the world and having them all made so he could play with them and not have to search for missing parts.
Dane's favorite holiday tradition is:  the advent calendar.  He loves that Austria has really cool ones with really cool toys (like Lego).
If Dane saw Santa Claus on the street, he would say, "All I want for Christmas is more Lego and whirled peas".
If Dane could be a character in the nativity, he would be "one of the three kings, because they are smart and they were kings."
Dane's biggest fear at Christmas time is: He won't get any gifts!"
Dane's favorite Christmas song is "Carol of the Bells".
Dane would be sad if he missed, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, on TV.
Dane's favorite Christmas treat is:  Homemade chocolates
It just wouldn't be Christmas without "Grandma--or her gifts".


Dyllan's Top 3:  Kidizoom Smart Watch, Animal Hat Panda, Brown Boots
If Dyllan could have one wish come true, it would be:  to get a sister. 
Dyllan's favorite holiday tradition is:  When I go shopping with my dad.
If Dyllan saw Santa Claus on the street, she would say, "Is that really him?"
If Dyllan could be a character in the nativity, she would be "Mary, because it would be fun to hold a baby.
Dyllan's biggest fear at Christmas time is:  not getting presents
Dyllan's favorite Christmas song is "Silent Night"
Dyllan would be sad if she missed, White Christmas, on TV.
Dyllan's favorite Christmas treat is:  chocolates
It just wouldn't be Christmas without "my family".

Deagan's Top 3:  Playmobil Western Fort, Mini Ipad, Playmobil Falkenritterburg
If Deagan could have one wish come true, it would be:  to get the Western Fort from Playmobil
Deagan's favorite holiday tradition is:  opening presents
If Deagan saw Santa Claus on the street, he would say, "Can I please have a candy cane?"
If Deagan could be a character in the nativity, he would be "A king, so that I could be rich and help people.
Deagan's biggest fear at Christmas time is:  KRAMPUS!
Deagan's favorite Christmas song is "Jingle Bells"
Deagan would be sad if he missed, "Scooby Doo" on TV.
Deagan's favorite Christmas treat is:  Cranberry Pecan cookies and caramels
It just wouldn't be Christmas without "Santa".

Danyon doesn't really have favorites yet.  He really enjoys music, balls, and especially CARS!!!  I'm pretty sure his favorite Christmas song is "Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum, Santa's run off to the Caribbean"--that or "Grandma got run over by a Reindeer"--its so hard to tell at so young an age.  So far he has eaten every Christmas treat we have put in front of him and has really become quite the treat monger.  He tries to steal a treat whenever he can.  He has his mom's sweet tooth, for sure!!  When we all sit down at the piano to play, he needs to be right in the center, playing the piano with us, or sticking his head in Dane's saxophone whilst hooting along.

Dan's Top 3:  Single speed commuter bike, Tracht, Pictures of kids for the office
If Dan could have one wish come true, it would be: to get the whole month of December off to hang out with the family
Dan's favorite holiday tradition is:  oysters on Christmas Eve
If Dan saw Santa Claus on the street, he would say, "Ho, Ho, Ho"
If Dan could be a character in the nativity, he would be "a shepherd boy because then I could hang out with sheep and see and hear the angels sing.
Dan's biggest fear at Christmas time is:  not making it home in time for Christmas
Dan's favorite Christmas song is "Silent Night"
Dan would be sad if he missed, The Racoon's Christmas on TV.
Dan's favorite Christmas treat is:  Grandma Baker's Chocolates
It just wouldn't be Christmas without "music".


Allynn's Top 3:  Tracht, camera lens/gear, Hair removal system,
If Allynn could have one wish come true, it would be:  to have peace and harmony in our home always.
Allynn's favorite holiday tradition is:  this was a hard one to pick, as I LOVE all of our holiday traditions, but sitting in front of the tree, with just the Christmas lights on, a fire in the fireplace, Christmas music playing softly, and just time to sit and be grateful.
If Allynn saw Santa Claus on the street, she would say, "Hey, Dan--Go over there and see if we can meet the reindeer!"
If Allynn could be a character in the nativity, she would be "the sheep because there are no speaking parts, and I still get to go and see the Christ child."
Allynn's biggest fear at Christmas time is:  I forgot to get a gift for someone I love.
Allynn's favorite Christmas song is "that is practically impossible to choose, but I do love Guard Him, Joseph quite a lot."
Allynn would be sad if she missed,--not just sad, I would be devastated, if I missed Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas" on TV.
Allynn's favorite Christmas treat is:  any one that's in my mouth.
It just wouldn't be Christmas without "Christmas lights and my family."

Merry Christmas and Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope I stay "on a roll" with my bun streak through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas--Wochen 39-40

You might wonder why I have a hard time getting the blog posted each week.  I have a lot of help, which can slow the process down considerably.  The past couple of weeks have been pretty crazy around here.  Dan went to the U.S. for a week.  That left the kids and I here to hold down the fort.  Things went pretty normal for us.  Dan had a hectic time at work.  It was hard to get all of his meetings, plus our house repairs, as well as all of our shopping done, but somehow, he managed.

Dane played in his last soccer tournament of the year.  His team played really well and made it to the final match.  Dane's team played a little better than the other team, but the other team got some pretty lucky bounces and it ended up being a tie.  So, they ended up doing a shoot out.  The other team was able to pull off one more goal than we were, and so our team got second place.  It was still pretty exciting.

Dan and I have spent a lot of time choreographing and teaching some teenagers a dance for their cotillion party.  We had never heard of a cotillion before this.  According to Filipino tradition, when a girl turns 18, she has a big birthday party (huge party, think wedding).  They have a huge dinner and then cake, complete with cutting the cake pictures.  There were 2 photographers and a videographer.  They have an entourage, much like bridesmaids and groomsmen, with matching dresses and suits.  There is a father daughter dance.  There is also a whole program, where the girl is presented with 18 roses from 18 different boys in her life that mean something to her, and she dances with each of them for a few moments.
Then the birthday girl is presented with 18 candles from important women in her life.  Each woman tells the birthday girl some sentiments about how the girl has been a light in her life.  After the birthday girl goes and blows out each of the candles.  Next, she is presented with 18 treasures.  Eighteen influential people in her life are chosen to give her a gift (if our kids do this, we will pick wealthy, perhaps influential people :)).  Each presents her with the "treasure" and gives her advice for the future.  The birthday girl and her entourage do a first dance (the one we taught them).  This girl's theme was Disney.  She wanted to dance to "Beauty and the Beast" and "When Will My Life Begin", so we taught them a fox trot and a swing.  There were 5 couples all together, and they did a nice job on the dance.  We spent several hours and weekends trying to teach them the dance, and could have used a couple of more weeks to get it perfect, but they did okay.

Yep, 24 days of beer.
 Bob and Doug Mackenzie
 would be proud

Dan and I were able to get most of our Christmas shopping done and wrapped!  I don't think that I have ever been this organized in years past.  It is a little disappointing that I don't get to participate in the Black Friday shopping, but because there isn't one here, the stores put things on sale for the entire months of November and December.  Some stores will try to do doorbuster sales in December, but it never gets as good as Black Friday.  It will be very nice to be able to sit back, relax, and enjoy December. While we were out shopping, we found some interesting things.  We found some tights.  What would be interesting about those, you might ask?  Well, we found them in the boys section of the store.  After a certain date, you will be hard pressed to find any Austrian boy not wearing these under his pants and socks--no matter the weather.  The kids' German tutor explained to us that when the weather warms up (for an Indian Summer) after it has already cooled off, the Austrians get really upset.  They call it headache weather.  I, personally, enjoy the warmer weather, and think that they get headaches because they are wearing too many winter clothes, sweat, then get dehydrated.  Just as a side note, the Austrian room temperature is warmer by a couple of degrees than the American room temperature of 72.  This poses another heat problem when you have so many layers on.  Another interesting thing we found was an advent calendar.  They were put in a bin right next to all the kiddie ones.  I hope that no kid accidentally picks the wrong one!  They do have several really cool advent calendars--not just chocolate like we have.  They have some that have jewelry, toys, Lego, Playmobil, nativities of all kinds, wooden toys, etc.  They even have several mystery ones.  You get one clue per day to solve the mystery on Christmas Eve.  Several are books, with 24 chapters.  Then they also have several cool advent calendars that you can fill yourself.  It's fun to see all of the different ones.

I have been teaching a lady in our ward how to quilt.  She is so excited to be working on her first quilt.  She has the sewing bug already and is not even done with a full square yet!  It has always been a dream of hers to have her own quilt.  As a result of this, the neighbors Halloween party, and us teaching the dance to the kids, we have acquired 3 boxes of Merci chocolate in less than a month.  The kids are pretty excited and think that it should continue!

The stores are starting to get all of their Christmas decorations out.  The city is starting to put up all of their lights.  Things are starting to get very merry and bright!!  Dan and I were walking the streets of downtown, and stumbled onto our first Christmas market of the year.  It was late on a Friday night, and it was the first weekend that any Christmas markets were opened, but there were still several booths open.  Of course, our favorite was the Langos booth.  Langos can make my mouth water, just by thinking about it!  We are listening to Christmas music almost full time now.  All we need to do is add snow, but hopefully, not until Dan has been to the States one more time, and Grandma gets here!  Since we are having Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year, we have decided not to decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving.  I know that is what we normally do, but last year, we decorated a couple of weeks early, since there is no Thanksgiving here, and we were heading home for Christmas. 

Happy Halloween--Woche 38

I think that it goes without saying that we spent most of the week preparing for Halloween.  I had finished most of the costumes before our trip, but still had Dane's to finish.  We also had signed up to do the Trunk or Treat at the school.  We had to get some supplies ready for the car.  We were also able to squeeze in a soccer game from Dane.  His team won.  He just has one more final tournament and the school soccer season is over.

We had a hard time finding carving pumpkins here.  We could buy them from the school for 10 euros a pumpkin, but we felt like that was a bit pricey.  We thought we would take our chances with what the stores had to offer.  Well, after searching 3 different stores, we had an array of smallish and smaller pumpkins to carve, but we got the whole pile of 7 for under 15 euro. 


 "Sweet Relish" condiment packet

Dane decided to do Gandolf.  It turned out pretty well, though the pictures don't do it justice.  Dyllan and Deagan went for the more traditional pumpkins.  I went for the hungry pumpkin, and Dan ended up just doing a decorative pumpkin.

The kids got to wear their costumes to school.  They had a costume parade and some fun parties.  We decorated our trunk for the trunk-or-treat.  Dane really wanted to scare kids again this year.  He decided to be a chained up scary guy.  When kids would reach in a grab the candy, he would jump and say "Rahhhh".  He had a pretty successful night.  We gaged it by the number of candy pieces we found on the ground from all the kids jumping and dropping their candy.  The kids enjoyed the carnival type set up for the party in the school gym.  Dan and I dressed up in our "Stoic the Vast" and "Tough Nut" costumes.  No one recognized us.  Several people had to take pictures of us.  Some would ask permission and others would just try to take them very slyly.  Unfortunately, we didn't take a picture of us.

Danyon absolutely hated his costume.  He cried every time I put it on him.  So, we waited until the last possible second to get him in his costume.  He cried again when I put it on him.  However, it took just one piece of candy (a tootsie roll) to get him to stop crying.  He learned really fast that if he got candy while he wore the costume then, it wasn't so bad after all.  He wore the costume the rest of the entire night.  He kept it on after we got home.  He even watched a movie in his costume.  When it was past time for bed, Dan started to take the costume off and Danyon cried and cried. 

It is still pretty weird to not go Trick or Treating, so it was nice to get to go to the school.  Although the Austrians really have a hard time with the whole Halloween concept.  Of all the people to come through the line, the Austrians were the ones who didn't like Dane scaring their kids as much.  There were only 1 or 2 people upset at us this year, but a few people remembered our car as the "vampire from last year".  That made our day.  This year, they sent out a website of different ideas to do to your car to decorate.  They had a better turn out than last year.  However, one lady was trying to hand out apples and carrots to the kids.  I think that despite her effort, she left with full baskets of both.

It seems like Fall is the time that we like to take pictures.  While we were on the cruise, we were able to get some family pictures done.  These are the first professional pictures that we've had done since Danyon was born.  Several of them turned out well.  We're excited to get to put new pictures of the family in the hallway.  You'll probably all see them in the Christmas cards if I get them sent out this year.  As we are not heading home for the holidays, we might not get them sent.  Postage from Austria can be pricey!  So, just in case, enjoy them now!

Hola! From the Spanish Riviera--Woche 36-37

I picked up Dyllan and Deagan from swimming lessons on Thursday evening and headed downtown to pick up Dane from his soccer game (they lost, but mainly because the 6th graders all got to play this time, as it was a friendly match.  The coach is really good at giving all the kids a chance to play when he can).  Next, we headed down to the airport to pick up Dan.  Dan had been in Madrid all week for meetings.  We all piled in the car at the airport and were on the road by 7:15pm.  Dan drove until a little after midnight.  We didn't reserve a hotel, as we didn't know how long we'd be able to stay awake.  We decided to just sleep in the car.  After a couple of hours, Dan and I were both pretty uncomfortable.  And we were awake again.  So we got back on the road.  We drove for a couple more hours before pulling over again.  We slept a good hour, and then were ready to head on.  Dan thought it had probably helped that his body was still operating on Spanish time (dinner starts at 9:00 and goes to midnight).  Although we did most of the drive in the dark, we did get to see a lot of the coastal regions of northern Italy in the morning light.  We made it to our dock in Savona, Italy with plenty of time to spare.  We boarded the Costa Fortuna and we set sail!

Our first two days, we spent exploring the ship.  We found several differences between this European cruise line and the American ones we had been on.  For instance, we went to dinner and were handed our menus.  A couple of minutes later, our waiter (never introduced himself), came over and looked at me with a pencil and paper in hand.  He never said a word.  I looked back at him with a quizzical look on my face.  He responded with a, "So."  I gave him my order and he went around the table getting everyone else's, all without saying a word.  Later that meal, Dan was eating his salad, and crunched on something hard.  He pulled it out of his mouth and found it to be a piece of glass, broken off from another dish.  He told the waiter about the glass in his salad.  The waiter picked up the glass, looked at it, put it back on the plate, and left.  There was no apology.  There was no mention of getting a new salad.  He didn't say anything!  The next night, I found a piece of Saran Wrap in my salad.  I pushed it aside and didn't even mention it, as it wouldn't have done any good.  I have to say, that the food tasted very good.  All the kids meals were brought first so that they didn't have to wait.  That was very nice.  We found the food availability to be lacking.  There is no buffet open at dinner time, and eating at 6:30, by 9:00, you are ready for a little dessert or snack.  This is not possible on this ship.  No food is available after dinner, except for a pizza place that you have to pay per person to eat there.  That was disappointing.  At the end of the week, we also wanted to switch the credit card that we were using for ship board credit.  This was just not possible to do. What?  They hadn't charged the card yet, but could not change it because it was pre authorized.  Tell me why they couldn't pre authorize a different one because they sure couldn't explain it.

Our first stop was Malaga, Spain.  We booked an excursion through the boat because we really wanted to see a Flamenco show while we were in Southern Spain, the home of Flamenco!  We started out the tour with a barf on the bus, courtesy of Danyon.  We hid it pretty well, and were able to still continue.  We got to a bull fighting ring.  They had opened the ring and small museum inside just for our group.  We got to see how they make the ring to look like the sun.  It was cool to see the different outfits on display, the different bulls mounted on the wall, and the various pictures of injuries and other mishaps.  It was a good way to see different aspects of this tradition without having to see the whole gruesome thing.  Dyllan and I missed some of the museum because of more barfing from Danyon.  Since he didn't have a fever, we assumed he was just motion sick as he had been on our last cruise.   

From the ring, we headed up to the castle.  We walked around the castle grounds a bit (this time, Dan got puked on again).  After the castle, we headed downtown.  We got to do some souvenir shopping for 10 minutes, then headed to the tiny basement theater, opened especially for our group, again.  We watched the private Flamenco show.  There was one guitarist, one singer/clapper, and two dancers/clappers.  It was a pretty intense show based on technical ability and true technique of the dance.  The kids thought it was okay, until they tried to do some of the moves.  It took 20 seconds before they were winded, and our show lasted 45 minutes.  They were a lit more impressed after that.  By the way, no more barf until the bus ride back to the ship.

After getting back on the ship, Danyon seemed to be doing much better.  But on our way to dinner, he got his fingers stuck in the elevator door when the doors opened all the way.  I couldn't get them out.  Dan had to wedge the elevator door to the side in order to free his fingers.  We did get them out before his fingers were crushed and broken, but it still hurt.  He made Dan hold his hand the entire time we were at dinner.  If Dan tried to let go, even for a second, Danyon would whimper and grab Dans hand and fold his fingers back over his wound.  After dinner, we were awarded another barf from Danyon.

The next day, we were hoping Danyon would be feeling better.  We only booked two excursions and they were on consecutive days.  Our port was Casablanca, Morocco.  Dan didn't feel like we could wander around at will in this port.  With our family of six, we wanted to make sure everyone was safe.  However, our tour didn't leave until 2:00.  We had all morning in port with nothing to do.  We didn't want to waste our time in port, so we headed out on our own to find a taxi.  We got off the ship to find policemen everywhere, blowing their whistles at people trying to get into the dock area.  Other people on our ship, told us that they saw that mess and turned around and waited for their tour.  We, however, found the group of legitimate taxi drivers and hired one for the morning.  Our taxi was a Mercedes (1970s model) with fold down seats, rusted off arm rests, and door handles that could only be opened from the outside. The seat belts were long gone.   Having traveled in places like Turkey, we weren't too shocked, but were still a little leery.  The traffic in Casablanca was incredible.  It was a huge mess, with everyone out for themselves.  Cars are everywhere, people are everywhere. Cars will pile all around each other waiting to turn, we turned left from a right lane.  It was all crazy chaos. Dan wouldn't even think of driving there. First, our driver took us to a rug store. 

We found a handmade Berber rug that we liked because it was different than anything we had seen in Turkey.   Then our taxi driver took us to a pharmacy where we could buy Moroccan Argon oil products.  Then we were off to the third largest mall in Africa.  It wasn't a huge mall, and it had a ton of high end stores that we couldn't afford.  We couldn't believe that we found a Laduree shop with macaroons.  We bought some and enjoyed our taste of Paris in Casablanca.  After that, we headed back to the ship to go on our tour. 





Inside the Mosque

All the walls were carved in stone like this one,
with tile mosaic on the bottom third.

Our tour started off with going to some royal residence.  The building took ten years to complete and was incredible.  We weren't allowed to see everything in the building as the King was in town and different places were closed.  It was interesting to see young people lining  the streets to welcome him in town.  He is liked by the public, partly because he has decided to only have one wife and has passed some laws encouraging others to do the same.  Then, we headed to tour the largest mosque in the world besides Mecca.  It was interesting to see.  Twenty thousand people can pray within the walls of the mosque all at one time.  They even had tape on the carpets so that people would kneel in a straight line.  Outside there was room for another sixty thousand to pray in the courtyard.  Apparently, all spots are filled on Friday, during Ramadan.  It cost 600 million euros to build and was built solely on donations from the public.  The building is in a beautiful location, right on the coast, and in fact, is built out over the ocean. 



We drove out to a resort area of Morroco to see different vacation villas.  Prices are really high (millions of Euro for a very small villa).  We drove out to a Catholic Church to see some stained glass designed by a French artist.  It is the only Christian church in all of Casablanca.  That is amazing, since it is a city of six and a half million people.  Danyon was not as impressed, as he got sick again on the bus after the church.  Dan brought towels with him, and was able to catch most of it.  We stopped at the local market to do some souvenir shopping afterwards, but the prices were higher than what we had seen earlier that morning.  We were anxious to get Danyon back to the boat.  That night, I wasn't feeling well either, so I stayed with Danyon while everyone else went to dinner.

The main market had over 60 fish mongers and the same amount
of butchers all in this enclosed space.  The neat part was that it
didn't stink in the market at all!

The next day, we were in Cadiz, Spain.  We wandered around the downtown and enjoyed window shopping.  We hit the beach and spent a relaxing day playing in the sand and in the Atlantic Ocean.  The ocean is far colder than the Mediterranean Sea.  Dan found a bakery and bought a cake for me for my birthday.  The kids and Dan sang and then we all ate cake and other pastries on the beach.  As I was fed up with Dan's long hair, he stopped at a Spanish speaking only hair salon.  He got what might be his shortest haircut yet.  But, it looks great! 

We tried to find our way back to some shops to pick up some souvenirs, but most of the shops were closed for siesta.  Back at the boat, Danyon barfed again.  Dan was getting angry about being puked on (for those counting, five direct hits), I was getting tired of scrubbing barf all out of clothing and blankets from a tiny sink in our room, and we were all getting a little worried about Danyon who was losing tons of weight and getting very dehydrated.  So Dan stayed in the room, while the kids and I went to dinner.  I still wasn't feeling one hundred percent, so it was a quiet night.  And at one point all the kids left the dinner table at the same time to go use the bathroom.  I was left alone at the table for several minutes.  Happy Birthday to me!

 

Where were we again?  San Francisco?
Nope, Lisbon!!

The next day, Danyon barfed in the morning.  We decided to take him to the doctor on board, as he was starting to get listless and not himself.  The doctor told us that Danyon had food poisoning and until his stomach got rid of all the offending parts, he would continue to throw up.  She gave us some medicine for him.  Within a few minutes of taking the medicine, Danyon was feeling remarkably better.  We decided to take him off the ship and into our port for the day: Lisbon, Portugal.  We wandered around the streets and picked up some souvenirs.  Dan bought me a new watch for my birthday.  We found some handmade knitted ponchos for Dyllan and I.  Since we were in the land of the rooster, we even got a painted rooster to display in the house.  The rooster is a symbol of faith and good luck.  We took it easy as Deagan was also not feeling well.  He also barfed, but not entirely on Dan.  He hit the sidewalk and Dan's foot, well protected by his flip flop.  We wandered around the town.  Dan gave up on his seafood lunch, the number one thing he was looking forward to on the cruise.  Deagan puked again, in the street, so we headed back to the boat.  After resting the whole afternoon, everyone felt better and we all went to dinner together.  Deagan, Danyon, and I all had to leave early.  I don't know what food it was that made us sick, but it was something we all ate on the boat--as we all got sick after spending 1 1/2 days on board.  That part of the trip was miserable.  We did decide that we would like to spend more time in Portugal.  Anyone up for a trip during Spring Break??

We found this in a store.  It
made Dan furious.

We had another day at sea.  Danyon threw up one more time--just to make things fun and to give us more laundry to do.  The activities on board were not very plentiful.  The kids club stunk (Dyllan's words).  They only spoke Italian to the kids and although they did speak German to Deagan, Dyllan was not so lucky.  I tried taking the kids to an arts and crafts class, but was informed that the kids could not do the project because they didn't have enough supplies (we are talking about crepe paper and straws).  Also, the craft required scissors and staples.  Those items were far too dangerous for Dane to handle.  I was disgusted with the fact that kids couldn't do the project and went to complain at customer service.  It was like talking to a brick wall.  They said it was for the children's safety that they couldn't do the craft.  However, it was not written on the planer for the day that it was for adults only.  Conclusion:  we loved our cruise and feel blessed that we were able to see all the places we did, but with the food poisoning, lack of customer service, mediocre entertainment, and general disregard of any manners or tact from anyone on board, Costa:  Never Again!!!!  You couldn't even get water at dinner without paying for it.  Luckily, our travel agency gave us a water package as one of our perks, but getting the staff to fill our water glasses was like pulling teeth.

The next day, we spent half a day in Valencia, Spain.  We had to take the city bus into town.  We wandered around the streets looking at all the fun buildings and shops.  We found horchata there.  Instead of making it with rice as the Mexicans do, they make it from chuffa root.  It tastes a bit like almond milk horchata.  We enjoyed it.  Dan again passed on all the really good looking Tapas, for the benefit of the rest of us.  We really didn't have much time in port and a lot was closed again, for siesta.  Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the boat.  We did get to stop at a store and pick up a Flemenco skirt for me.  Not that I will start to learn the dance, but the skirt will be fun to wear anytime for any kind of dance.

Our last stop was Barcelona, Spain.  Again, we only got half a day in this port. I'm really glad that we had done this city before because there wasn't time to do much of anything.  We promised the kids another beach day, so we spent all our time in port at the beach.  It was only a couple of hours and it was early morning, at that.  We found the people at the beach to be wearing much more clothing than our first visit.  I got a foot massage from a lady on the beach, and Dan got a back massage.  On our walk to the beach, Deagan noticed some green birds on the sidewalk.  I don't know what kind of birds they were, the only green birds I know of are parakeets, but it was cool to see a flock of green birds.  It made us feel  like we really were in the tropics.  We were sure glad that we had done our souvenir shopping before Barcelona as the prices were double what we paid in Valencia.  We were back on the boat in time for lunch and one more jaunt across the Mediterranean before docking back at Savona. 

We didn't get into port until late morning, about 9:00.  We were one of the first people off the boat.  We had a long drive ahead of us.  We wanted to get most of it done in the day light so that we could see all the scenery we missed on the way down in the dark.  It is still very surreal to me to say that we spent our day driving through northern Italy.  The mountains were absolutely gorgeous.  It was a fun way to vacation and we wouldn't mind driving to our destinations more often.  Italy doesn't use the vignette (autobahn pass).  They still charge tolls depending on how far you drive on their freeways.  To cross most of Italy as we did, it cost us about 49 euros each direction.  Although we don't have a Ferrari, Dan still picked up some good driving skills and got us home in good time.  The kids and Dan are not really excited to be getting back into routine tomorrow, but the good news is, everyone seems to be feeling back to normal!