November

Nate returned from the field at the end of October and with only a month before he would leave again, we began taking advantage of our Italian home. We wine tasted with friends to some of the best wineries we have been to in the Valpolicella region (near Verona) and discovered our new favorite red wine, Amarone.

  We also traveled to Garmisch, Germany for a long weekend, hoping to enjoy the views of snow covered Alps and the charm of small town Germany.  Although, it was a wonderful and relaxing weekend, there was absolutely no snow :(  We have plans to return again later this winter in hopes of skiing and getting to enjoy those snow covered peaks (which at present are still rather bare for this late in the season).

No snow in the Alps:(

Bavarian dinner in Garmisch

Talented isn't he?

I love the mountains!

With Nate due to leave for Jumpmaster school in Georgia the day after Thanksgiving, we hosted Thanksgiving dinner the Sunday before.  I was a little concerned about cooking a large turkey for 8 in my small Italian oven, so we made plans to fire up the grill and try cooking that way.  With an Italian "leggy" turkey thawing in the fridge on Saturday, Nate and I set out to participate in the Army sponsored Turkey Trot at a nearby lake and wouldn't you know it, we won a turkey!  So now we had two turkeys to prepare:)  I ended up fitting the Italian turkey in my miniature Italian oven and armed with online step-by-step instructions, Nate grilled our winning Butterball turkey.... it was excellent!!!!  Both turned out great, but I must say, Nate will be in charge of grilling all future turkeys ( it was THAT good).  It was a wonderful holiday spent with several of our friends, eating, laughing and playing games.

"Turkey Trotters"

Italian turkey cookin'

Grilling our prize turkey

Proud GrillMaster

The Spread...Mmmmmm

And since we had already celebrated Thanksgiving the Sunday before, we had pizza from our local pizzeria on actual Thanksgiving and it too was delicious!

Looked out our window the day after Thanksgiving wondering what the noise was and we had hundreds of new "neighbors"

Next up, back in the states for the holidays!