A Guamified Christmas!

Well I love to brag that I tend to be healthy as a horse but of course that only comes back to bite me in the bootie. And boy did it ever! Christmas outdid me this year as I've been down for the count the past four days with the flu. Fortunately it came after the holiday and not before!

We had a nice Christmas here in Guam. It was my first away from home but I'd say being surrounded by so many friends helped tremendously. So did cooking for 20. I took on my dad's Italian Christmas tradition and along with my fabulous husband, we cooked shrimp linguine for our friends on Christmas day. So delicious and easy to make!

 LCG Christmas Eve Service: Christmas at the Caves, complete with a manger scene! Although I wasn't aware there were carabao back in the day...

(yep that does say Bud Light Ct...OOG)

Dinner at the Chance Villa...Buon Natale!

 Given the strange angles of my house, I did my very best to get everyone in this picture:

We had tiramisu, cookies and pecan pie for dessert!

The kiddos!

We went diving with our friends the Fishers and Phillips' the day after Christmas. We dove a couple of great locations on Guam, everyone says they found a cool octopus. I did not. So either they're pulling my leg or the darn octo climbed back into his hole before I could swim over.

Overall, a great Christmas! We pack out in two weeks but not without a trip to Palau. More on that to come!

Adventures in Candyland!

Well one of my big projects of the year is now behind me. I was tasked with organizing the squadron Christmas party this year...again! Planning started in August and along with a few other ladies, we worked pretty hard to get this all together, epecially considering we live on Guam with it's "abundant" source of party resources! Let's just say we kept Oriental Trading afloat this quarter.

The theme this year was Candyland and what fun that was!! Seriously, who doesn't love candy? Or more importantly, what kid doesn't like candy? My friend Julie tasked herself with a mission to find enough candy for 100 children. Since she has a toddler and hungry labrador I had to keep all the candy in my guest room...disgustingly tempting for not only me but my poor dog who would go in there every day to sniff around. My guest room and soon my house was filled to the brim with decorations, craft supplies and of course candy! Poor Colin was a trooper!

So this past Friday 15 of us showed up after work to turn a very industrial space into an imaginary Candyland. I must say trying to decorate an aircraft hangar is one of the more challenging things I've done lately! With the help of some awesome sailors we set up countless tables, chairs, a bounce house, an obstacle course, Santa's corner, food table and of course, the candy buffet! We managed to get it all setup in 2 1/2 hours, of course pizza and drinks is always a great motivator. :)

The festivities began Saturday morning. One thing I really am happy about this year is that we were able to rope in a bunch of the single/childless pilots to help with the party. This way the wives can help with the pre-planning and then be able to be with their children during the party. 

The kids started arriving at 9:00am and eventually we had 100 kids and their parents taking part in crafts, games and the candy buffet around the hangar. At 9:30am the children had a big surprise fly in. Santa himself hitched a ride all the way from the North Pole to come visit the children.

 I would like to say they were a little bit excited:

Thanks to Steph for this pic, it's my favorite!!

The children each had a turn to come visit Santa, get their picture taken with him and of course, a toy! All I can say is our hero of the day is Jonny, one of the pilots who donned a velvet suit and beard in 90 degree weather.

A very serious picture of the North Pole flight crew

While they were waiting for their turn they took part in several crafts. They made frames for their Santa pictures, colored hot chocolate mugs and Christmas cards and made coconut reindeer. You mainlanders are probably envisioning something completely different from what this craft was. We brought in unopened coconuts and they attached eyes, a red nose, antlers and a scarf (in some cases it was a ninja scarf or bow tie)!

We originally came up with coconut snowmen but had some trouble getting hot glue to stick to spray paint. Unfortunately I discovered the problem was the green, unripe coconut we were using was too oily. It worked just fine on the brown ones so not wanting to waste supplies I made some as decorations and gifts for some of the key volunteers!

The children also kept busy with games. This year we had an obstacle course, a penny toss and a scavenger hunt in addition to the usual bounce house and bubble wrap run. The kids were to try and fill in answers to questions on the page and for the questions they couldn't answer, they'd have to go find a pilot or crewman to find it. The prizes were fantastic and it seemed to go really well!

The final "activity" if you will, of the morning was a pass by the "Candy Shoppe". Each child was given a "Golden Ticket" (Willy Wonka anyone??) to exchange for a candy bag. We converted Santa and Elf hats into handy candy bags. The funniest thing I found about the whole ordeal was the parents found the buffet to be more exciting than the children. And that's saying a lot. It was hilarious watching them "ask" the kids what they wanted to select. I suppose this may be a repeat in years to come, I guess the parents deserve some fun too, right?

Btw, aren't these photos awesome? My good friends Jeff, Andrea and Molly captured the day so well!

In the end I think the children had a fabulous time. We even got some great PR as some of the local papers published pictures from the event. I hope I have an opportunity to plan another party at a future command, if we could pull this off on Guam, the possibilities stateside are endless...

It's nearly Christmas card time!

So I am sure you all are busy rifling through your address books (or at least you are planning to) as you prepare to send out those annual Christmas cards. I actually find this rather exciting, reviewing all the exciting things that happened that year. I would say in all my life my favorite letter was the one my mom wrote after our house burned down in 2003. Nothing like a distant friend opening the mail to see the whole Barker family in front of a pathetic burnt out chimney saying:

 “A very Merry Christmas from our house to yours!” 

Now that I’m married, I wrote my first one last year. Last year after using Shutterfly for our wedding thank you cards we decided to use it again including our wedding  and vacation photos in our Christmas card:

   I must say this is the next best thing to scrapbooking as I do not possess the talent (nor much of a will!) to pump out 50+ homemade cards!

Aside from cards we've used Shutterfly for many things such as photo books, calendars,  prints & of course, Christmas cards! And the best thing? They ship to Guam, a BIG victory for those of us our here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean!!

So if you haven't figured out what to do for Christmas cards and want to be able to afford to send cards to everyone on your list, check out this promo from Shutterfly and secure 50 free Christmas cards!

Eating, Drinking & Laughing our way through Italy.

So the travel train continues! I'm currently sitting in Hawaii awaiting a flight back to Guam. It's been a whirlwind of a month! It all started with a "fun" Space-A trip back to San Diego. I had the pleasure of spending some time in my hometown, enjoying the luxuries of mainland life; Target, outdoor running, Nordstrom, freeways, Jamba Juice and about 53 other wonderful things Guam forgot about. The family and I flew back to Boston for a couple of days enroute to Italy at the end of the month. My dad grew up in Boston so it was fun to tour his hometown again. We hopped on a 747 and flew to Naples, Italy. My family along with two other couples Dave & Julie, and Karen & Frank rented a villa in Sorrento for the week. We had a fabulous time. Sorrento is a classic Southern Italian town, everything there; the people, the food, the scenery is beautiful...with the exception of the traffic. Italian drivers make Guam drivers look sane. I don't know how many times we came within an inch of moped or Smart car. Whew!

We began our time in Sorrento with lunch at the Excelsior Vittoria hotel for lunch. Dave's parents honeymooned at this very hotel 66 years ago while they were stationed in Italy during WWII. It was a pretty surreal experience for him and our tummies. Great food and the view was second to none. 

Our lunchtime view from the Excelsior Vittoria hotel!

Our week included a trip to Pompeii to see Mt Vesuvius and the ruins of the 2,000+ year old city. We stopped for pizza before starting our tour and didn't realize the size of the pizzas they served. Not wanting to waste any food we asked for it to be wrapped up. Expecting a foil package I could throw in my backpack we got a pizza box. So we were probably the only tourists to ever tour the ruins of Pompeii carrying a pizza box. It did come in handy when we stopped for a snack but otherwise it simply served as a running joke within our group!

We spent the next day touring the island of Capri. Many people who know me well know that I tend to get motion sick rather easily. So I'm always carrying Dramamine, just in case. Well we might as well have encountered the backside of a small hurricane, 12 of us were tossed and turned in a 20 foot motor boat amidst 4 foot swells for 3 hours. Dramamine or not, I was a goner. Apparently the views of the island were breathtaking. I thought the water was rather gorgeous, mostly because that's what I stared at for most of the trip as I continually fed the fish. Once we finally docked I regained my balance and checked out the tourist trap of Capri. I opted for the 16 Euro jet boat back to Sorrento while the rest of the crew motored back. So word to the wise, if you have a weak stomach, take the jetboat to Capri...trust me!

The waters around Capri

Capri

The rest of our stay in Sorrento was a rather pleasant one. We wined and dined ourselves into oblivion. It's a good thing we walked EVERYWHERE or I'd be a qualified contestant for Biggest Loser right about now.

Our next adventure took us to Florence. We spent four hours on the Autostrada enjoying a true Italian driving experience. Apparently traffic lanes are just a suggestion as are turn signals. Most opt to straddle a lane at speeds ranging from 45mph to 100mph. My dad's knuckles were white by the time we arrived in Florence! We stayed in a B&B on the outskirts of the city and since we were a large group, they rented the whole house out to us for the week! The only downside was having to learn the bus system, a chore that was! The first day we got on the wrong line and enjoyed a 90 minute tour of the city. Some say you can stay in Florence for a month and not see it all...I disagree.

The gang on the bus..again

If you go to Italy this is once city you cannot miss. Known for its art it won't let you down. Museums, cathedrals, duomos, statues (naked statues that is), piazzas, government buildings, palazzos, bridges...even the building the McDonalds is in was a work of art. We spent our days exploring the Ufizzi, the Academia (where Michaelangelo's David is) and the Ponte Vecchio (a bridge full of stores selling nothing but 18K gold jewelry....yea!). The city is a feast for the eyes. The shopping was outrageous, I had to constantly keep in mind I had to carry everything back to Guam with me, boo. Courtney and I refreshed our bargaining skills at the San Lorenzo Market, an outdoor market known for it's leather goods. After conquering the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul we were determined to see what kind of deals we could get. What fun we had! Between the two of us (mind you one of us is blond, the other a redhead in a dark haired country) we sweetalked our way to some serious deals. My favorite was when Courtney negotiated a price for an adorable red crocodile skin purse. After she paid the man asked for her phone number. He glanced at my mother and asked  she was her mother. When Courtney said yes, he said "Oh! You are the mama! You have such beautiful daughter!" to which Dave points to my father in the background and says "And that there is the PAPA". The man proceeds to bow to my father in hopes of his approval. We were laughing into the night on that one!

The view from our villa!

Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore

More naked statues

The Ponte Vecchio aka: Goldmine

Arno River

Overlook at the Pitti Palace (home of the Medici Family)

Dave & Dad in their element

You even find art on the ground! (This one is a chalk drawing of a popular painting of Eleanor Medici, a famous European royal who lived in the Pitti Palace)

The San Lorenzo Market

Our trip to Florence also included a day trip to Siena. If any of you has seen "Letters to Juliet" then you probably saw many of the places we went, including the steps outside the Duomo we are sitting on in this picture:

Siena is a hill town so we spent a good portion of the day climbing steps. No one felt too bad about enjoying a gelato or two in the piazza at the end of the day!

Courtney and I waiting on the group

Out of all our day trips I'd say wine tasting in Tuscany tops the list. It was just perfect. Our driver Fabrizzio picked us up and drove us to the town of Greve (Grev-vay), right in the heart of some of the Chianti Region. A gorgeous little town we got to see some awesome wine, cheese and prosciutto shops. I recommend spending a day just observing this little town, it's a classic Italian town and gorgeous to boot. We hopped back in the van and stopped at the Verazzano (yep same guy the NY bridge is named for) vineyards to sample the leftover grapes from last weekend's harvest. It is an ancient tradition in Italy to leave a portion of the crop behind for the poor; after all that shopping, I think we might have qualified. :) We finished our day at a couple of wineries. We even enjoyed a tour of the Vicchiomaggio winery and tasted some exquisite Chianti Classicos. We took some fantastic tours, bought some even more fantastic wines and simply enjoyed the beauty of Tuscany in the fall.

Julie and I in the Verazzano Vineyard

I'm thinking about showing my dog this picture, maybe she'll think twice before taking herself for a walk again...

Overall Italy was a fantastic experience. I wish I could have shared it with Colin but I suppose we will have to visit it together some day!

I'm now attempting to get back to Guam via the US Air Force's fabulous (and I use that term loosely) Space-A program. I'm currently battling a terminal full of people for a coveted seat on a transport plane back to the Rock. I'm praying I get one of those seats because I've been here for three days now and I'm ready to finally be home again!

Arrivederci!