Seeing Friends and Family

Our first sight of family was as soon as we cleared US customs. We were welcomed by my mom and dad as well as my niece Johanna and my sister Suzette at LAX with signs and huge smiles. It sure made us feel special and we were all glad to see friendly faces.

Florence has “The David”, The Duomo, The Ponte Vecchio and some of the best architecture and food in the world, but its missing one HUGE thing…All of YOU! In the end that’s what this visit home for the holidays was all about. Seeing friendly faces and sharing good times with those that we love. In the short period of time that we were back in “Cali” we were able to accomplish just that.

For me personally, my fondest memory of being home was seeing Trey and Olivia with their friends and grandparents. I’m not sure if you can quite appreciate the pressure and (Sure I’ll say it) guilt that one feels when you take your kids away from their friends, cousins and grandparents (Not to mention the feeling of taking the grandchildren away from your folks). We pretty much gave the kids “Cart Blanch” when it came to spending time with their friends and believe me they took full advantage of it. Trey has some very deep roots in our neighborhood in Thousand Oaks where he has four very close friends that he has known since he was only two years old. Much of his time was spent with his buddies Holden, Trevor, Alex and Conner. It seemed that for sixteen straight days he had a smile on his face and the “Five Musketeers” as I call them didn’t miss a beat. It was as if they had been together these entire five months. His days were filled with sleep overs, movie watching and ice skating with the Linke family when they visited us from San Diego. The one thing that I regret deeply was not capturing more photographs of Trey and his buddies. For more, see interview with Trey below.

For Olivia, her closest friends are her former schoolmate Brinn and her two cousins Madeline and Elizabeth. Livy was so excited that we were going to decorate a Christmas tree at our house and we were treated to a visit by Anna’s sister Felisha, her husband Larry and their daughter Madeline. The kids took over and hung all of the ornaments and it just seemed perfect to be home for the holidays. Livy also had her first ever sleep over with Brinn staying the night at our house. Ice skating was also a highlight for Livy who isn’t as nimble just yet on skates as her older brother, which was just fine by Anna and I. There’s something very special about skating around and ice rink while holding your little girls hand. For more, see interview with Olivia below.

For yours truly, it was nice to see my family again as it seemed like forever since they left that night in Pisa. It was also the first time that I had seen my father en law Edward in nearly five months and we were able to share some enjoyable conversations with one another including watching the blowout that was this years Rose Bowl.

I was able to finally dust off the golf clubs and put them to use quite a bit, playing with my buddies Rich Katz, Jim Jones and Nathan on numerous occasions. Mostly, it was just like old times and I was able to fall right back into my usual So Cal routine when in town.

Anna on the other hand had plenty of good times with her friends and family. Rather than my recount, I have decided to ask her the following questions:

Q: How did it feel to be home when you finally arrived, what were the thoughts that went through your mind?
AA: “It felt like I never left initially. I was glad to be in my house with my things and the comforts of the US. I felt very missed by my family and friends which is always nice. I pretty much just fell right back into the same routine.”

Q: You we able to spend quality time with all of your close friends, including Diane, Denny, Andrea and your sisters. What are some of your memories of the time with them?
AA: “There is really nothing in particular that I would site, it was more about the quality of time with them that made it very special to me. “Being” together was really nice.”

Q: Was home (Thousand Oaks) as you remember it? What surprised you about your time at home?AA: “It was EXACTLY as I left it.”

Q: We’ve talked a lot in previous blogs about Italy and how exciting and different it is for you, were you looking forward to returning when it was time to leave and if so why?
AA: “Most definitely yes I was looking forward to coming back. Why, because I’m in love with Florence. It exits me. Its beautiful and visually stimulating. Its just so completely different in EVERY way from where we live. Even the bad parts. Its old, its historic, its inconvenient some times, but no two days are ever really the same where at home the way of life is like a photo copy. Same thing over and over again.”

Q: Now that you’re back in Italy, tell us how it feels.
AA: “It feels like I never left. I feel very excited to be back in my life here. Its just wonderful. I guess what it is is that I don’t feel confined here. I don’t have to live so much of my life in a car. It feels great to ride the motorino again and walk among the people.”