Turin and Piedmont Wine Country

Feeling settled and ready to explore further, coupled with a lack of snow at our local ski hills, we decided to venture out again and head south to Italy. Steve has been talking about getting to the wine region of Piedmont in Italy since arriving, so we finally decided to spend a couple of days there. We decided to use Turin as home base and stayed in a nice hotel at the center of the city. We spent a day in Barbaresco and Barolo tasting wines and walking through the picturesque small Italian villages. Kate took a liking to the 2007 Barbaresco's and the breadsticks. Our pasta intake was impressive. The next day we walked to the main square and toured the Egyptian exhibit at the local museum. It was an impressive collection and well displayed. We collectively thought of our friends in Egypt and pray that that country finds peace for its people and that the country's treasures are kept in tact. We again are reminded of how blessed we are. On the way home we stopped in at Settimo Vittone, the pre-immigration home of Maria's family, and at Chamonix to pick-up some cured ham and walk around one of our favorite ski villages. A fantastic weekend and a location we will visit again.

New Years Eve 2010

We celebrated and gave thanks for all of our blessing in 2010 and welcomed 2011 with Karsten, Uli, Leonard and Lena Marie Vierke, our good friends from Dubai who now live in Hamburg, Germany. We have a wonderful visit with them, full of skiing, iceskating, celebrating, watching American football and relaxing in front of a warm fire. Both families had a wonderful time with each other.

Skiing Begins

Our family ended its 3 year hiatus from skiing (I am excluding our trips to Ski Dubai) over Christmas holiday. We started with a few days of skiing and ski lessons at Le Crozet in the Jura mountains in France to get our ski legs back. We were joined by the Veirkes, whom we met in Dubai and now live in Hamburg, Germany.  The slopes are only about 35 minutes from our house to the parking lot. Later during the break we spent two days in Chamonix with our neighbors the Trentini family. Kate was skiing after 4 hours of lessons and going town moderately steep immediate slopes after 6 - her instructor Fabian was an amazing teacher. We all love skiing (though the kids are not wild about the falling part) and keep hoping for more snow.

Christmas 2010

We decided to stay in Switzerland for the Christmas this year. We were blessed to have Pamela and Henry be able to make the trip from Brussels to join us. We followed existing Woolley and Vittone traditions (presents on Christmas only and eating tons of butter and cream), and added Santa tracking via the internet to our Christmas experience. We hung stockings, left carrots and cookies for Santa and his reindeer and began Christmas day with eggs benedict – with extra hollandaise, of course. The kids wish for a white Christmas came true as we woke-up to a beautiful snow fall. We had a wonderful time relaxing with family, celebrating and giving thanks for all the beauty in our lives and world.