Merry Christmas from the Boweses

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Christmas in Catania!

We went downtown Christmas Eve Eve with some friends for dinner. The ancient city lite up for Christmas was wonderful.

[yes that is me and Elizabeth w/o kids]

 
 
 
 

Playmates!

 
 
 

Eli loves pasta!

 
 
 

Norad Tracks Santa!

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First signs of Thanksgiving

Just because we live in Sicily it doesn't mean I can make my pecan pie!

All Soul's Day

I took my first day off today since arriving in Sicily in June.
Incidently, so did all of the Italians.
As Elizabeth and I drove around this morning we noticed the schools were out of session.
There were more people mulling around.
As we drove by the ornate, typically empty, cemetary in the little town of Motta we noticed a commotion.
The road was filled with cars. The police were directing traffic. People were streaming in and out of the cemetary.
It was as if it were the American fairgrounds or the Italian market day.
It is All Soul's Day.

Unlike in the US, it is an Italian holiday.
The cemetary was filled with people. A priest was saying Mass outside.
There were flowers EVERYWHERE.
It is all above ground and most of the plots were mausoleums that were like small chapels for each family.
People live there whole lives in one place here. Everyone stops to pay respects to their whole family which they can visit.
They also pay respect to their whole neighborhood whose previous inhabitants are laid to rest right in the middle of town.
What a wonderful celebration. A whole different look at life.
What a perfect day to have my first day off.
What a wonderful experience.

(in memory of Adele, my mom and Evelyn, my daughter)

School pictures - Timothy 4th grade, Julian 2nd grade.

Happy Halloween!

Getting ready for Halloween!

Lilly

No school photos - so here are very recent photos.

Elias

No school photos - so here are very recent photos.

New posts and pictures coming soon!

After 15 years of no hard drive failures, since the last posting I lost my laptop hard drive, my desktop hard drive and my desktop backup hard drive.
On the mend, new pictures coming soon.

October is for Olives

October is olive time and Sicily and all hands are needed to help pick and take to the local press.

Julian and Lillian admiring the olives.

A rare photo of the photographer (cholesterol increasing by proximity)

Olives getting sorted from the debris.

Local folks getting the 'fruit' of their labor.
100kg of olives = 15-20 liters of olive oil.