Once Neglected...

Dearest Neglected Blog,

Please accept my apologies for the delayed absence and the feelings of neglect that I am sure it brought to you.  It was nothing you did, I promise.  You see, life has been rather exhausting the past few months and when push came to shove, well, you kind of got swept under the carpet.  But have no fear, I have plans to revive you and include you in the happenings of our lives again.

Given I am a bit behind...pun intended, see above (cherubs enjoying a beach in Barcelona)...let me do a brief recap of the past few weeks months.  The holiday season was an absolute blur from Halloween until about now.  There is definitely no lack of things to do and people to socialize with in the military.  We stayed near base over Thanksgiving and Christmas, mostly because Dirk was on call during those holidays (low man on the totem pole), but felt lots of love from our friends here in Naples, which kept us all from being too homesick for our family in Indiana.  Mind you, I would have given quite a bit to be sitting around my Aunt Peggy's table playing a raucous game of Apples to Apples with my crazy family while eating my grandma's cheeseball...but I was there in spirit.

After Christmas, we had the awesome opportunity to travel to Barcelona, Spain for our first "other" country experience since we arrived in Italy in September.  It feels like 3 years will fly by and I was already feeling antsy to get traveling!  We went to Rome also for the first time...but only to the airport, so I don't think that really counts...another day.  Anyway, neither Dirk nor I had any driving desire to go to Barcelona and quite honestly, had no grand expectations for the trip, other than to travel - but my, oh my, Barcelona exceeded our expectations quite a lot.

The weather was beautiful the entire time we were there, sunny and as warm as possible in late December/early January.

The architecture was stunning!  I want a house of mine to have a yellow door with the gorgeous red wreath at some point - loved this!

The family time was thoroughly enjoyable - okay, about 85% of the family time was enjoyable.  The bickering and general grouchiness from Sully (mostly) and Cadin made me want to run and hide sometimes, but overall, we survived 24/7 with each other quite enjoyably!  Our darling Sully (who is lucky she is so rotten adorable) is definitely a girl of routine and we think about 5 days is her max to be out of said routine without losing her senses.  We were there for 7...are you with me?

Anyway, all of this to say that we are enjoying our time abroad in Naples and seeking as many opportunities to experience all Italy and Europe have to offer!  It is among my goals for 2013 to blog more, so hopefully I will succeed!

CC