Ciao, Happy Birthday, and Vrolijk Kerstfeest!

Enjoy getting caught up on our last 2 weeks...our visit to Italy, Ben's birthday, and early Christmas festivities.

On Wednesday, the 12th, we had a playdate with Sara and "baby Andrew", as Ben calls him - even though he just turned 1. Sara's husband was offered a job in Japan, so they will be moving from Amsterdam ex-pat life to Tokyo ex-pat life in January. Wow, what a change! We will be sad to see them go and wanted to be sure we got in some play time before it slips away.

Also from that week, I have a funny Ben story to share. We were having afternoon snack time, and he asked to see pictures of his grandparents. So, I set one in front of him, and he, of course, started smiling and calling them by name. Then, and here's where the funny begins, he puts his cracker up to the picture - he was sharing his snack with PePa! Hilarious! He tried to share the strawberries too, so that frame needed a good cleaning when he was done. As you can see in the second photo, I am properly teaching my son how to use a fork. :) (Even more impressive, he actually was able to pick up a strawberry that way!)

And now the travel log begins. We left early on Saturday, November 15th for Milan, Italy - Ben and I were joining Greg on a work trip. Our flight left at 9:40 a.m., and since Ben was turning 2 years old on the day of our return flight, we had to buy him a seat. We hated spending the money (almost the same cost as our tickets), but we had to admit that it was nice having the extra space. We had a beautiful view of the Alps as we came into Italy. We landed around 11:30, then we took a cab to our hotel which was about an hour away. As always on work trips, this was a really great hotel, great location too. We loved the Last Supper painting hanging over our bed, Greg said that now we didn't have to bother going out to see the real thing - and at least I could take a photo of this one. :)

After getting settled, we headed out for some sightseeing. The weather was gorgeous - bright blue skies and the temperature felt very mild compared to recent days in Amsterdam. We even had our coats off! Our first stop was the Milan Cathedral - known as the Duomo. The Duomo is said to be the 4th largest church in Europe and has the world's largest collection of marble statues with the golden Madonna statue on top of the spire - the symbol of Milan. Begun in 1386, it took nearly 500 years to complete. Amazing!! The detail was truly incredible.

Our stomachs were growling, so we stopped for a quick bite. We then saw the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele (photo is of an entrance archway), which is reputed to be the world's oldest shopping mall. Seems like that would make sense with Milan being one of the world capitals of design and fashion. We saw lots of expensive shopping, so we did lots of looking in windows only.

We went inside the Duomo next, just as beautiful as the outside - the marble floors, the stained glass windows. Ben has become a big lover of visiting churches; he loves hearing how loud his voice can echo. :) So, we don't get a lot of time to sit and take it all in, but we did get a sense of how grand this church truly is.

My favorite "exploring a new city" thing has become - "what can I climb?" So, I was thrilled that we could climb to the roof of the church to see the Milan skyline. Well, there honestly wasn't much to the skyline, but we got to see the amazing detail of the roof up close. And, Ben loved that he could run around a bit. I know that doesn't sound safe, letting a toddler run around on the roof of a building, but I assure you that we were all well-contained. This experience was definitely my best Milan memory.

Near the Duomo and the Galleria is the Teatro alla Scala, one of the world's most prestigious opera houses. We obviously didn't get to enjoy a performance, although Ben would have happily joined in their song - but we did stop for a photo. We had pizza/pasta dinner near there - what else would we have on our first night in Italy? Very tasty!

We were planning to get an early start on Sunday morning to Lake Como, but Ben had one of the worst nights he has ever had, including newborn days! He woke every 1-2 hours, wailing and inconsolable. Just what you hope for when staying in a hotel, right? We still don't know why - upset tummy, stuffy nose, over-tired, molars? Anyhow, we slept in just a bit, until 7:30 (yes, that is sleeping in for us these days). We took the 11:25 a.m. train to Como, and Ben had a great time on the train. Apparently, this kid only needs 2 hours of sleep a night. ?? We arrived a little after noon, and we were surprised to see George Clooney meet us at the train station!! Gotcha!! He owns a villa on the lake, so I do admit to keeping an eye out all day for the real thing - no such luck.

While I was enjoying Milan, it definitely had the feel of a big and more industrial, business city. Como, however, is a small town and exactly what I pictured Italy to be. Buildings with shutters and flowers in the windows. The building in the first photo below is actually painted with all this detail, how fun! Como also has a Duomo cathedral and town square (piazza), and we had lunch outside at a great little cafe. Ben had fallen asleep at this point, so we just wandered around the city for a bit...enjoying the gorgeous weather, doing a little shopping, and taking photos of anything that struck me.

Ben woke up about 3 p.m., and we hopped on a boat ride to see a little more of the lake. Besides being a sucker for a great view from above, I am a double sucker for loving a great view from the water. Lake Como is beautiful, and it was a perfect day - the sunshine, blue skies, the mountains, and the colorful foliage. I was quite envious of all the magnificent homes we saw at the water's edge, could not imagine having this view as your front or back yard. After our boat ride, we took the train back to Milan, grabbed some pizza, and had some play time at the hotel before bed. A fabulous Italian day!

It's Monday morning, and we all slept much better last night! Good thing, since today was work day #1 for Greg. After breakfast and watching a bit of Pooh & Tigger in Italian (Ben doesn't seem to mind), Ben and I walked to the Giardini Pubblici, the oldest park in Milan. We hadn't been walking long when I spotted some great playground equipment. It was another beautiful sunny day, and we played on the swings, slide, with the rocks and leaves for almost 2 hours! The playground was quite full now, so we wandered through the park and found a spot for a snack. It just so happened that a small carousel was in view, so Mommy got suckered into paying 5 euro for a handful of rides on the carousel. Worth it though - Ben loved being the train conductor and giving love to the horsey - although it was quite traumatic having to say bye bye to the horsey. We had a great morning - and we were hoping Daddy was having a good day too.

We stopped for lunch, then back to the hotel for nap time. Greg got back around 5 p.m., and we walked back to the Duomo Piazza for shopping and dinner. We found a 'football' store, and as we were looking around, we came around a corner to this huge wall of soccer balls. I thought poor Ben was going to explode...ball! ball! ball! ball! So, needless to say, instead of walking away with a book from Italy (we have bought him a book from most of the places we have visited), we walked away with an A.C. Milan team ball.

We had dinner (more pasta, Greg was in heaven!) and then enjoyed seeing the Duomo and Teatro alla Scala lit up at night. We were debating between the roasted chestnuts and gelato for a little after dinner treat. It was a chilly evening, so we chose the chestnuts, which we've never had before. Not bad, but I don't think we'll pick those over ice cream ever again - our curiosity had been satisfied, but our tummies weren't. :(

Tuesday was work day #2 for Greg, and Ben and I put on our adventure hats and figured out the public transportation (metro) to visit the National Leonardo da Vinci Science and Technology museum. It's not the actual transport that makes me uneasy, it's the ticket purchasing since each city does their own thing - what do I buy, can't read Italian, do I need to validate the ticket?, etc. This turned out to be pretty easy, and we found the museum with only one wrong turn on the walk from the station to the museum. (I have also become quite a skilled map reader - and very bold at stopping a pleasant-looking man/woman for help.) I had heard the museum was very kid-friendly, and it was - but for older kids, probably 6 years+. We still had a great time - lots of big things to look at: a carriage, a printing press, a pendulum. Ben loved studying the 'shiny diamonds' as he called them (a display that showed the different cuts, brilliance, etc. of precious gems). It always amazes me that even the museum building itself was really beautiful - with a fantastic courtyard in the center.

We metro'd back to the hotel, and I admit to succumbing to McDonald's for lunch. It was sort of tucked out of the way and not busy at all - a surprisingly quiet and pleasant McD's experience. Ben made friends with one of the employees- and was thrilled to get a balloon. I have to say that Europeans seem to really love children; Ben gets free stuff wherever we go...lots of candies and toys. We napped, Greg finished up at work, then back to Duomo for dinner. Today had been much colder and cloudy, so we didn't stay out too long.

Wednesday, the 19th...our last day in Milan...and Ben's 2nd birthday!! It is really hard to believe that our little man is already 2! And what a life he is living right now, huh? :) Because we had stayed at the hotel for so many days, the host and wait staff in the hotel breakfast room knew us and loved seeing Ben every day. And Ben loved eating the cocoa krispies - a "only when staying at a hotel" treat. It was almost sad to leave, we feel like we make new friends...

Our plans for the day were to visit the Santa Maria delle Grazie church, with Leonardo da Vinci's famous Last Supper painting next door in the convent (need reservations). We had the hotel call for reservations earlier in the week, but they were sold out for today. We still wanted to go see the church, so we hopped on the metro after getting packed up. The church was built in the 1400's and seemed very simple compared to the Duomo that we had seen for 4 days now. Still very beautiful though.

Before leaving, we stopped in the convent to see if there happened to magically be tickets available to view the Last Supper. There was a sign posted "sold out", but I asked the woman behind the desk anyways. She said she had an opening at 10:45 - it was 10:30 now. Hurray, we'll take it! So, we were enjoying the sunshine in the piazza, talking and walking to kill 15 minutes. Ben looks up at me and says "shoes off". I can't remember how much of this I have shared, but our son is notorious for kicking his shoes off - he catches the heel of the shoe on the stroller footrest and they pop right off, no matter how tight we tie them. Very annoying and we try to get him to stop, but we had gotten pretty good at keeping an eye out for this. (Reminder, we had only lived in Amsterdam for 1 day in April when he kicked off a shoe on a train and we lost it.) Well, he was right, he had kicked his shoes off. We had basically been walking in circles, so we start to look around the piazza to see his little white sneakers laying around. No luck...the only thing we could figure is that someone had stolen them. :( Ugh! We were pretty bummed - disappointed that we hadn't noticed and disappointed that someone would steal shoes from a child in November. But, all we could do was chalk this up to another crazy story to tell on the blog and try to enjoy our 'luck' at getting Last Supper tickets. (Anyone else see the irony? Probably wouldn't have lost the shoes if we had not gotten tickets...) :)

We did go ahead with our tickets and saw da Vinci's famous Last Supper. It was painted from 1495-1498 on a large wall and because of the painting method he used, it has not withstood the test of time very well. It went through a major restoration process from 1978-1999. Another interesting fact, bombs dropped during WWII destroyed much of the convent, but the wall with the Last Supper survived. Even with the lost shoes incident, we were really glad we were able to see the painting in person - what an amazing piece of art! (Obviously no photos allowed, so here is one of the entrance.)

A short walk from the church is the Castello Sforzesco. Original construction began in the 14th century, but Duke Francesco Sforza began reconstruction in 1450, and it was finished by later generations. It now houses several of the city's museum and art gallery collections. We didn't have a lot of time to see the collections, but we did get to walk around the castle grounds, a really impressive structure. The disappointment was still running a bit from the lost shoes as Parc Sempione is a large grassy park behind the castle - and we would have loved to let Ben loose for a little fun in the sun.

We took the metro to the Duomo piazza for a great lunch - panini, risotto, and (finally!) some gelato! We figured the birthday boy needed a little bit of sweet, right? It was incredible!! A perfect way to end our time in Milan! Back to the hotel to grab our bags, cab to the airport. Ben had a great time running around the airport in his socks (which were black by the time we got home) before our 5:15 p.m. flight. Walked in our apartment at 8 p.m. - and we all collapsed!

We know he got to spend his 2nd birthday eating gelato in Milan, Italy (which was a far cry from last year's birthday ice cream cone at McDonald's in Streamwood, IL), but we didn't feel like Ben got a proper celebration with all of the travels on Wednesday. So, on Thursday, I made "breakfast for dinner" (eggs, pancakes, berries, toast, etc. - Ben loves big breakfasts like his Daddy!). He opened his gifts from us - a small table and chair for coloring, reading, crafts - and a wooden train set from IKEA. Best 6 euros we have ever spent - he LOVES it!! (I think Daddy loves it too!)

Let the celebration continue!! We would have loved to host a big party for all of Ben's friends, but because of our travel schedule and the size of our apartment, we thought it would be more sane and intimate to have a small little party at Hard Rock Cafe with our friends, the Podulkas. They met us on Friday night for good ole American style food, party hats, and ice cream! Ben and Ryan are good buddies, and it was so fun to watch them giggle, color, and eat. The Podulkas got Ben some Ajax (Amsterdam 'football' team) gear - a t-shirt and ball, very sweet! I think we are officially done with celebrating our baby's 2nd birthday - although he loves to sing happy birthday to himself (wish you could hear him sing 'happy birthday to Benjamin' - so cute!), so we may be 'celebrating' for some time to come.

From one celebration to another...Saturday was a Christmas day for us. We spent most of the morning being lazy, we never get to do that! During breakfast, we heard it start raining...then hailing...then snowing! It didn't snow very long, maybe 5 minutes and left just a dusting (this photo is our courtyard). I know we see snow all the time in Chicago, but there was something very fun and romantic about seeing our first Amsterdam snowfall.

We left home around 11 a.m. for some Christmas shopping and to visit Sinterklaas at De Bijenkorf (department store). And now, for a new installment of Getting to Know Amsterdam - the story of Sinterklaas:

On a Sunday in the middle of November (November 16th this year, we missed it being in Milan, I was enormously bummed!), St. Nicholas, known as Sinterklaas in the Netherlands, arrives in Amsterdam. Around 11:30 a.m., the steamboat from Spain docks by the Central Train Station across from Sint Nikolaaskerk. Deafening salutes and ringing church bells fill the air, as the mayor welcomes the good saint before he mounts his white horse. The fun begins at noon with a big parade: Sinterklaas accompanied by many Zwarte Pieten (black Peters - Dutch name for the Moorish helper who travels with St. Nicholas), brass bands, beautiful floats, officials in cars, and colorful groups of jesters, cycling clowns, and more. Thousands of pounds of sweets and pepernoten (small hard spiced cookies) have been put in burlap sacks for the acrobatic Piets to throw to the crowds lining the streets. The parade winds along the Damrak to the Rembrandtplein coming to an end at the Leidseplein. Here, around 2:15 p.m., from the balcony of the city theatre, the Stadsschouwburg, Sinterklaas addresses crowds of children and their parents. Thus begins "Sinterklaas Season" when Sinterklaas and his helpers travel around the country, visiting hospitals, schools, shops, restaurants, and even homes during the three weeks before the main Sinterklaas celebration. Sint and his Piets seem to be everywhere at once, asking about children's behavior and listening through chimneys. On December 5th (the eve of St. Nicholas' day), the most important night of the Dutch holiday season, the children leave their shoes out with carrots and hay for the horse. In exchange the Piets put candy or a small gift in the shoes to be found in the morning. (In researching, I also found that it was actually Dutch families who settled in New York in the late 1700's that brought the tradition of Sinterklaas - Santa Claus - to the United States.) The actual Christmas Day festivities are much quieter here, with church service and a family meal. They also have a Second Christmas Day holiday on December 26, which is a time for visiting extended family.

I know that was quite long, but I thought you might enjoy hearing a bit about the holiday season here in Holland. We are excited to be here for December 5th, so Ben can leave his sandals (no more shoes, remember?) out for Sinterklaas. :) We did make it to De Bijenkorf, but the Dutch don't really "line up" very well. So, it was quite a mob to see Sinterklaas, so we just enjoyed the scene for a bit and then went on our way. Outside the store is a little holiday "village" that has been set up - with a small ice skating rink and oliebollen stands (literally oil balls, these are huge donuts with powdered sugar - traditionally eaten at funfairs and on New Year's Eve - and amazingly yummy!). As we were buying our donuts, it started hailing again! We got Ben covered as fast as we could, but he still got pelted with the wind being so strong. We got our oliebollen to go and made our way home to enjoy them in the warmth of our home.

Last, but not least, Greg got all packed up and left for Hong Kong on Sunday (the 23rd) afternoon. Just a few days before we left for Milan, he was asked to speak at an Aon conference there. He was very honored and couldn't pass up a chance to visit this city! I heard from him today (Monday), and he arrived safely after the 12 hour flight. He speaks on Tuesday, then flies back to Amsterdam on Wednesday. We plan to eat our turkey day dinner at Hard Rock Cafe - they do turkey with all the trimmings, including pumpkin pie! I feel like I'm cheating or being lazy, I even made Thanksgiving dinner when Ben was just 4 days old! But, with Greg getting in late on Wednesday, and then we leave for the German Christmas markets early Friday morning, we didn't really want the mess or leftovers. And, rumor has it that it can be a challenge to find a turkey here, and I haven't seen any canned (or fresh) pumpkin...what's Thanksgiving without turkey and pumpkin pie? :)

We wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy family, friends, and all of the things you have to be thankful for! And, happy shopping for all those nuts that can't wait for Black Friday (Greg is seriously bummed to be missing this, while I am glad that we are thousands of miles away from the madness!) Tot ziens!!