Day 8: Christmas in Rome

The kids actually slept in! First Christmas that has happened in a LONG time. Boy, life with older kids is great! We had to wake them up and bring them downstairs. Of course, we did make them pose on the stairs before they could open presents.



We all sat in the living room, with cameras ready, waiting for them to enter. I love that part, making them wait outside the door until the paparazzi are in place.

The kids were so late that even Aersta had time to get a bite to eat!



Andrew loved his new Italian watch.

Harrison & Andrew got season passes to Sundance from Santa, Nathan got Legos and Janessa got a new purse & wallet with euro in it!




Karen got a beautiful Christmas plate, perfect to serve her tea ring on. Eating tea rings for breakfast is a long tradition in our family.



Karen made a fabulous Christmas dinner! I really love her cooking. I've missed her for lots of reasons, but her cooking is one of the top things on the list!



Rick and I decided that since it was about 65 degrees outside, we would run into the city for a walk. The kids protested and wanted to stay in their pajamas all day long playing games. So, we went without them. We walked through the Villa Borghese and saw these two nuns walking along with this gorgeous sunset. My white balance was still set to indoors, so the picture is blue. But, I still love the memory of them. It was so peaceful in Rome that afternoon.

We were considering taking public transportation, but decided to drive just in case they were off for the holiday. Sure enough, here was an abandoned bus we saw that wished everyone a "Merry Christmas" in Italian.

We hurried through the Borghese, as I tried to remember how to get to the spot that had a gorgeous view of Piazza del Popolo and the Vatican. The sunset was beautiful and I was so worried we weren't going to find it in time!

But we did, and oh, what a view. It was one of the prettiest things I have ever seen!








We really don't look that great (ok, Rick looks fine, it's me that doesn't look great), but I wanted to post at least one picture of us in front of this gorgeous view. This is the only one we asked someone to take for us. The rest were horrible attempts at self-portraits where we would hold the camera as far out as we could. Really, as bad as this one is, be so glad you don't have to see the others!

After enjoying every last second of the sunset, we walked down to the Piazza del Popolo and saw a few things there. They had all of these cool lights being projected onto the buildings, in preparation for their big New Year's Eve party (which we went to later on). There was a cool countdown and everything!



We went on a gorgeous walk through the streets of Rome in the moonlight. This statue was just something we happened upon, but I thought it was gorgeous.

We went to the Spanish Steps.

We also got to see the Trevi Fountain. This was Rick's first venture into the heart of Rome (we only saw the Vatican before we headed north for a week). He really loved it and it was so fun on Christmas day to wander around the city with him. We had a magical evening. And, since the trip to Italy was our Christmas present (and maybe the next 10 years worth of Christmas presents) to each other, this was the perfect way to say "Merry Christmas" to each other. (Thanks to Karen for entertaining our children while we were on our "date night" in Rome!)