Our Roman New Year

So much for the once a week post...

The highlights of my past few weeks were the holidays. Duh. I guess that's a given. Mine were especially great since I got to spend time with Dick without his textbooks and we had a great time.

Before I begin with the holidays, I got to go to NY and attend the Heisman awards gala. I ended up leaving my dress on the plane and had to make a quick dash to Macy's to get a new one. But other than that it was a fun time. Getting to spend the evening with some friends was the best part and we got to meet Geraldo Rivera himself, big mustache and all.

We started off the holidays in Colorado for the New Year. His parents just finished their new house and had the whole extended family over. 17 people one day, 13 the next. The house is awesome and spending time with his brother and the rest of his family were the highlights.

From CO we came back to Chicago for a night and then headed off to spend the New Year in Rome. After a few difficulties with Alitalia and our flight there we had such a great time. The Colosseum, the croissants, the wine, piazza's, the pantheon, the weather, Tuscany, and of course the good company made it one of our best New Years ever. We had seven days and got to spend it with our friend's Brian and Jen. My favorite sight was the Colosseum and just hanging out in the piazza's with the markets of fresh vegetables. I love the pizza, gelato, cheese,the good tomatoes. We started out everyday with a cappuccino and a proceeded to snack and eat a number of foods throughout the day ending with a dinner #2 at about 11pm. I had to brace myself before stepping on the scale yesterday.
I have never seen a more rowdy New Year. We spent it in the Piazza de Popolo where there is this big statue in the middle. We stationed ourselves by the statue and as midnight approached mobs of people came but they surrounded the statue leaving a large 'zone' in the middle of empty space. This was where all the fireworks went off, cherry bombs and more. There were all these fireworks that would be illegal in the USA that kept going off. In order to get to the bathroom we had to run through this 'zone' and we would look for a firecracker that had just gone off and go that direction as quick as we could. It was crazy. But a great way to bring in 2009!

On New Years Day we rented a car and drove to one of the hill towns in Tuscany which was awesome. Just to see another part of Italy and experience a small, local town was great.

We are now back in Chicago and Dick has started back up with school. We are busy moving, just a few towns closer to his school and to the city so it's only about 15 min away. We are taking a trip or two every day and will move all our large furniture on Sat and be fully moved in. It is a much smaller place so we are making many trips to Goodwill but the place is great and we can't wait to move in.

I swam for the first time yesterday in a few weeks and boy am I out of shape. I am going to ease myself in lightly by only swimming once a week this week and starting out with a few doubles next week. I am going to be here for most of Jan which I am excited about. I have a number of different things I am doing in the Chicago area and then only one night gone for a speech in lake Tahoe. I am anxious to start in some sort of routine once we are moved.

Right now it's back to continue packing up the boxes. Such fun.