The Art of Running in the Rain

I love Sundays!  Even though the work week is looming and that means I’ll get less time chillin’ with the husband, it also means a day of decompressing guilt free.  I’ve also been trying to use my Sundays to do meal planning so there’s less frantic assembling during the work week.  Today I’m prepping a polenta lasagna and cutting up vegetables for a home style salad bar.

I wanted to recap on some of the holiday happenings from this Christmas.  I get more and more excited about these recap posts ever since taking that happiness course.  One of the exercises proven to increase happiness and decrease stress is to reflect on photos of happy moments, and after I’ve completed these posts I do feel great!   I think there may be a correlation with posting happy photos on social media as well, I’d love to see research on that.

We started our trip with an early morning flight, Dave and I headed back up to my homeland to visit my family.  We had such a good time, but man did that week fly by.  We flew with the animals, and although I felt like Oliver should have been so happy to be with us in the cabin he was pretty much freaked out the entire time.

Charlie was in cargo, I just had to not think about him because I know that old man was nervous the whole time.  All in all I would fly with them again, especially if the trip is over a week and dog friendly.  It ends up being less than a sitter and I LOVE having my little dudes with me whenever I can.

We were very excited to see nonna!

The gentleman in the background is my zio Antonio, he’s my nonno’s brother.  It’s so nice to visit him and his wife; Dave loves the glimpse into my background and I love seeing someone who reminds me a lot of my nonno.

You can’t get away from their house without feeling full and a little drunk.  I hope that’s how people feel about my place 🙂  *oh, Daniel*

Zio makes his own wine, and this year it was out of this world.  I can’t even describe the flavor it had, unreal.

He was very excited about this bottle, you pretty much grab it by the butt and boobs (censored terminology for the interwebs).

“Ma, whatayagonnado?”

Following the delicious wine, zio wanted Dave to experience some Italian beer.  Dave said it was crisp and refreshing, but more than anything it was fun to try beer from Italy.

After visiting with zio and zia we headed to my auntie Lauren’s house for dinner.

We all got the grey memo 🙂

My cousin’s daughter is so incredibly adorable!!  I just kept wondering if they made that outfit in my size.

So many Christmas day memories in this house.  Also, did you catch nonna downing the wine?

Proud parents with chez Lauren!  Her meal was fantastic!!!!

I had the most adorable view during my dinner!

My grandpa’s birthday is Christmas day, so we always have christmas/birthday combo celebration.  The gift he was opening was from a family friend, Rocco.

It was a coffee mug with pictures of all of my grandparent’s six children (two of which are no longer with us anymore).  Everyone was pretty happy about the memories.  There was one for all of the aunts/uncles and my grandparents, very thoughtful!

After dessert it was photo time and then we played heads up.  What a fun Christmas!!  Hope yours was filled with family and laughter too!

Be well!