New Year's Eve

New Years Eve plans have changed over the years. The idea is no longer to ring in the new year with a bang, but to ring it in as quickly as possible so you can go to sleep. We had a really good time at Scott and Noel's house. It was a very "kid friendly " environment so we did not have to worry about Alessio. Actually, We did not have to worry at all about him. He had the most energy of the bunch. He had a great time playing with all of Aimee's toys and made it all the way to midnight. In the end we wished everyone a happy new year and were asleep by 12:45.

Name Day

Some of you may know December 26th as Boxing day but it has always been St. Steven's day to me. Growing up it would mean an extra gift. Bonus! But now it is not about the gifts but just another reason to have a good time. This year my mom had to work both Christmas eve and day but she was off on December 26th. So much to Gabby's disappointment she had to make the long arduous trip back across the bridge to Westchester. We had a good time but as always the queens clan had to leave early for a variety of reasons.

Christmas Day

Christmas day

Well Christmas day came and fortunately Alessio woke us at a reasonable hour (8:30). We [metaphorically] ran down the stairs and saw all the presents under the tree. Alessio still is not into Christmas. He unwrapped 4 gifts, tried to re-wrap 1 and then took off to watch 'Sesame Street'. Here is a short clip. Deanna and I opened the rest of the gifts and had a relaxing morning even though 16 people were coming for dinner. We prepared a lot of stuff before hand. Deanna set a really nice table. And the menu was fairly easy. Everyone had a good time. There was a little bit of organized chaos when we exchanged gifts with our 'Secret Santa' and you had to watch out for the children's conga line but that is what makes the holidays special.

Click on the picture of Alessio above to seem some more pictures from christmas.

Christmas Eve

We went down to the motherland (Queens) for Christmas Eve. Gabby and Rich put out a really nice spread. Alessio had a really good time running around with the kids. He took a couple of spills on the two steps to the family room but lucckily they still bounce at this age.

Of course Deanna took some pictures ...

Christmas eve

Chatting on the phone

Warning! If you call the house you might get an unusual response. It seems that Alessio is growing more interested in using the phone. Here is a clip of his current phone skills. Make note how well he uses the call waiting feature. I have no clue who he is talking to but if you are the one that he hung up on, then please call back.

Silent night. .. not tonight

This weekend we attended the 2nd annual Ryan Christmas party. As always Sandie and Dan were great hosts. We had lots of fun mingling with friends, eating and drinking. This year we brought Alessio. He was not himself since he is still teething but he did manage to make a couple new friends. One, of many things, that I love about Alessio is that he is adaptable. We let him stay up an hour past his bed time but then he when right to sleep in the pack-n-play. This gave us a few more hours to actually be a couple. We even got to sit and watch Sandie and Dan's wedding video. You might think that would be boring but drinking and making fun of people dancing is very entertaining. Very funny. Thanks for the wonderful time!

O Christmas Tree

We decided to put up a fake tree this year because we did not know how Alessio was going to react. Which means, will he pull it down or eat the needles? So far he has not been too interested in it.

What we did not expect, was that Deanna would be taller than the tree! It it just a temporary tree. We borrowed it from Sandie. I like it, but Deanna calls it our 'Charlie Brown' Christmas tree.

Click Here to see our collection of ornaments from around the world.

New World

Well, It's official! I have joined the blogging world. Got the idea from a good friend of mine in Basel, Derek . It is a great way to keep all our friends and family up to speed with what is going on in our lives. Maybe nobody will ever read it but it gives me something to do. Of course I get a little help from Alessio.

Cape Cod

Despite the cold weather and the cold that Deanna had, we were able to make it to Cape Cod to visit our dear friends. Lauren, Andy, Kaya and Shea were in the US!! They extended an invitation to visit them at Lauren's mom's house. We had a great time, walked on the beach, played board games, even visited the Cape Cod potato chip factory! It was such fun to see the kids play together and have a few good laughs. Alessio was a brave boy with Levi, the Great Dane, but Deanna was even braver. we caught a couple of beautiful sunsets. I was also able to test out my latest gadget, the GPS. It made the drive fly-by.

Click here to see some more pictures.