Season's Greetings

Ho ho ho!

‘Tis the season to start posting some more pictures of Elizabeth, I was sternly instructed. So here you are. It’s a veritable medley of images from the past month including:

Elizabeth with Santa Claus (Der Weihnachtsmann if you’re German. Baba Noel if you’re Turkish) at my office’s “Kids Holiday Party” on Dec. 14. That's almost as precious as....

Elizabeth and her new table and chairs that she got from Old St. Nick this year (yes, Kris Kringle came early to the Ward household). Elizabeth’s new favorite trick is to climb on top of the table…which is why she also got….

A helmet. Yes, it’s a bike helmet. And no she doesn’t ride a bike. But you never can be too sure. Lots of things happen when preparing for the arrival of Sinterklas (Holland/Indonesia). Including this….

A naked monkey baby playing with a pile of Elizabeth’s books that will surely grow in number and difficulty when Dyed Moroz (Russia) comes for a visit. But the best gift that Svaty Miklas (Czech) could give us this year….

A standing, walking, destructive baby that pops out of presents left by Babbo Natale (Italy), tears down shelves, and eats just about anything fist-sized or smaller that doesn’t run away. Things like homemade play-do, as seen here:

One thing Joulupukki (Finland) already dropped off this year was a few inches of snow.

Thankfully, that gave Elizabeth time to stay inside and learn animal noises with Mama.

Elizabeth’s first cruise

Seven destinations in seven days. Three different countries. Over 1,000 miles of travel. And a 13-month-old travel companion who requires two naps a day and a solid 12 hours of sleep at night. Oh, and she needs to be carried everywhere because she doesn’t know how to walk yet.

Sounds pretty arduous, huh? Thankfully, because this adventure took place on a cruise ship (motto: “Where naps and buffets are never far away”), it was smooth sailing (pardon the pun).

Although it sounds like a watered down (pun) version of travel, it was anything but. The cruise went to Venice, Ancona, Santorini, Mykonos, Athens, Corfu, and Dubrovnik. Fortunately, Kate and I had been to the three most travel intensive of those places (Venice, Athens, and Dubrovnik), which lowered the pressure on us to see those again

I like to think of it as tailorable excitement.

So, with that in mind, we set sail with Jay, Linda, Breanna, and Brian (Breanna’s beau): ready to embrace the Mediterranean.

Venice: I got a new appreciation for Venice on this trip. I’d been there twice before and had always looked at it as a city I should appreciate. Perhaps because of my contrarian nature, I was never impressed. But this time, instead of noticing things like stink, trash, and tourists, I noticed other things, like how pleasant it was to not hear a car, how safe it felt, how many appetizing treats to eat. Aside from the frightening resemblance our hotelier had to Count Dracula (high collar, dark hair, pale skin, a drop of blood on his lips), it was a wonderfully agreeable place.

Ancona: Why have you not heard of Ancona., Italy? Is it because a) the place is in the middle of nowhere, b) the place is very small, c) the place has no historical sights or significance, or d) all of the above? The answer is, of course, D. Although admittedly easy to impress, Elizabeth thought the coolest part of the city was the city walls. Not like the big battlements that protect a city.Ancona didn’t have those! HA! The actual material that make up the walls of the buildings in the city. She wanted to touch the bricks and the polished concrete and the plaster. And, sadly, I agree. That was the best part of this city. The other two couples both went to some spacious caverns called Frasassi Caves and highly recommended it.

Santorini: The disputed home to Atlantis, Santorini is a small island with a lot of history. Unfortunately, we were only there for a about two hours, giving us enough time to rent a car, drive all over the twisting curves, have Elizabeth get motion sickness in the back of the car (ruining her dress), and then wait in line for an hour to take the cable cars back down to the ship. Thankfully, it was warm and beautiful (the island, not the ship or E’s puke or anything else you might think).

Mykonos: Again, we only had a few hours here. And although it wasn’t enough time to appreciate the richness of its culture or magnificence of its scenery, it was enough time to appreciate the richness of its tzatziki and the magnificence of its ouzo.

Athens: A wonderful city, especially in November when the weather is warm and the tourists are absent. We have a few cute shots of E at the Parthenon which speak for themselves. This is the destination on the cruise I’d most like to come back to.

Corfu: The best thing about Corfu is its proximity (2 kilometers!) to the most backwards nation on earth … Albania. So close to crazy land, where they still practice honor killings and where there’s no sewage system in the whole country. That’s also the worst thing about Corfu; Albanian doodies – made mostly of twigs and paper products – probably float ashore every day. Actually, the island was very nice. The main town was very walkable. The weather was warm. The shops were plentiful. The coffee was good and cheap. And they made my favorite food (doughnuts, well, here they call them loukoumades) fresh. It was also here that Elizabeth learned to drink out of a straw (her first sip was cheap, delicious coffee).

Dubrovnik: Easily one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, Dubrovnik is also where the Gargurevich name hails. So we made sure Elizabeth got to see and walk around its slick streets. We didn’t do anything here. But it was nice all the same.

Treviso: OK, so the cruise didn’t take us here. But this historical city surrounded (literally) and overrun with canals is where we flew out of. So we spent a few hours here potzing around before our flight. Elizabeth liked the booby lady…as did I.