{Flashback}: Day 2

Chi lavora con le sue mani e un lavoratore. Chi lavora con le sue mani e la sua testa e un artigiano. Chi lavora con le sue mani e la sua testa ed il suo cuore e un' artista.

San Francesco D'assisi

He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands, his head and his heart is an artist.

Saint Francis of Assisi

***

Every trip I go on I buy something that is unique from that place. No rubbish bits and bobs, but nice things I can display in my house. I want my house decor to tell a story about our family. So in Venice, Murano is known for their Murano glass. Very artistic, very expensive, and very beautiful.

Our hotel offered for a private taxi to pick us up and take us to a factory that makes Murano glass, and watch a glass-making demonstration, free of charge. The hotel has it's own quaint little dock where the private taxi picked us up. Water taxis are just as expensive here as a black cab in London, a yellow taxi in New York, etc. so to have one privately was quite the experience! One I highly recommended to anyone whether you pay for one or get access to a free one!

This picture below cracks me up. The taxi started speeding up and going fast and this was the girls' reaction!

After buying my Murano glasses, (thank you hubby), and walking around a bit the taxi then took us to Burano, which is known for their colorful homes. Burano was literally breathtaking. Every corner I turned I kept saying out loud, "Oh my gosh, this is gorgeous. Oh! Wow."

Before heading out to Venice we read one of Marisa's homeschool books called Papa Piccolo. A great and educational book about a stray cat in Venice. Little did I know that there are actually a lot of stray cats in Venice! Right when we arrived to Burano we saw about 5 stray cats at the little park area, and 2-3 more lounging right on top of a wall. Talk about the perfect homeschool experience! I can't believe I didn't get a single picture of a stray cat. Everywhere we walked we would see a stray cat pass by from time to time. My girls were in heaven. (They are strangely obsessed with cats.)

After having lunch in beautiful Burano, we took public transport, the water bus, to Fondamenta Nuove so we could get off and walk through the narrow sidewalks of Venice and get lost on our way to Piazza San Marco. That is another must when visiting this beautiful city. Get lost!

Our concierge recommended a yummy pasticceria this morning where we actually had our breakfast so on the way back to our hotel we had stop by again for dessert! Ever since Paris, my girls are in love with macarons so they had those of course. As for me, un connolo per favore!

30 sucks

Happy 30th Birthday to the love of my life! The BIG 30! When Tim turned 29 he had some apprehension about getting older. It was the first time he really showed any sort of emotion about something so I realized it was a big deal to him. It has taken him about 1/2 a year to get over the fact that he was turning 30. I don't blame him...
To add to his ease of getting older, I decided to throw a surprise party for him! It was a blast and quite the surprise for him. A lot of people in our circle of friends are turning 30 this year so we were able to really laugh and celebrate it. Jana made hilarious cupcakes for Tim. Good fun!

Happy New Year!

2012 is going to be a fab year! I just feel it! I don't know what it is but I have a great feeling about this year. I'm ready for a new year, a new beginning, and a new outlook.

All my New Year's goals this year are personal spiritual ones so for that reason I won't be posting them like I normally do, but I'm excited to get started!

This year we rang in the New Year at our flat with our dear friends and it was phenomenal. I'm not kidding when I say that we have a killer view of London from our flat and boy, London did not disappoint us!

I'm convinced that Brits are obsessed with fireworks and New Year's proved my point yet again. The entire city skyline, from East London to West London was sparkling with beautiful colors that went on spectacularly for about 15 minutes straight non-stop. We all couldn't get over how amazing it all was. London Eye was the most spectacular. London Eye itself would change colors through out the night and when midnight rolled around it was bursting with the biggest and brightest fireworks out of the whole city.

The entire 30 minute experience was truly breathtaking and as we watched all the fireworks it actually became a tear-jerker. Yes, I got teary-eyed because there is no other place I wanted to be at that moment than in my own home with our dearest friends in London.

Cheers to 2012!