The Front Row

My favorite Christmas gift was one that I GAVE to my 12 and 16 year old nieces. Over their Christmas vacation from school, I took them with me on their first international trip to ITALY(Rome, Venice, Florence, Naples, Pompeii, and Capri). They had both been taking Italian classes in school and this gave them the opportunity to use their Italian. Seeing the joy in their faces during that entire trip was also the best Christmas gift that I have ever received as well. It was a particularly memorable Christmas for all of us, including the rest of the family who shared in the excitement both before and after the trip, as well as their classmates in Italian class who were dying to hear about the trip (in Italian) ! The postcards that they were constantly sending to everyone were also a way of spreading the Christmas joy far and wide to everyone in their circle of friends and family.