Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Dear Family and Friends, 25 Jan 08

It is Christmas Day and another exciting year has come and gone. We hope that all of you have had a very Merry Christmas, and that your lives are centered in Christ and that his comforting influence is with you during this season in which we celebrate his birth.We have had a great year, full of excitement, stress and growth.

The family arrived in Italy last December. We got into a house here in Naples in January and the kids started into Italian school in mid-January. It has been an exceedingly hard road for the kids, going cold turkey into school the way they did, essentially not speaking a word of Italian. There were a lot of hard days. Days when they came home crying, wanting to quit. But between Mom comforting them, tutors helping them, Dad holding the line and a slow but steady increase in their understanding, comprehension and ability to speak Italian, they are all little Italian speakers and day-by-day they get better.

Interestingly enough, in the beginning, they all thought that Dad was a hero because I could hack out enough Italian/Spanish/Portuguese to get by. Now, Dad’s unique form of Italian and his crazy non-american accent (mostly I get mistaken for eastern European) just brings corrections from the kids, where I once received their adoration. In any one sentence, it is not out of the question that I am corrected as many as four times on grammar or pronunciation. Why should I take an Italian class, I walk around with a bunch of full time Italian tutors! We have had some very good trips this year. Scroll down to see a record of some of our fun family times.

We have truly loved our time here in Naples. Naples is a crazy place, dirty, disorganized, inefficient and seemingly filled with grumpy, gruff Neopolatans who speak Italian when they want to, and napolitano (the local dialect, not Italian) when they want to be incomprehensible. Under their rough exteriors, there is a usually a warm and open person who once the ice is broken, is ready to do anything for you.

We are very active in the church here. Mom is the second counselor in the Primary and the District Young Women’s President. I am the only counselor in the Branch Presidency. Since the Branch President doesn’t speak any English, I end up handling most of the English speaking issues in the branch. I now conduct meetings in Italian. The first time was funny. As I was hacking through Italian during the opening of the meeting, the little old Italian ladies started correcting my Italian from out in the congregation! It was a little comical and humbling at the same time. We also have the missionaries over a lot and work with them a lot. They seem to enjoy our family and that is good for them and us also. Well, we will be here through Jan 15, 2011. We would love to have you come and visit us. We are looking forward to the next year with enthusiasm and wish you and yours a Happy New Year!

Pete, Denise, Jessica, Peter, Nicole, Rachel, Paul

Christmas Eve, Dad took the kids down town Naples to give Mom some Christmas prep time.

The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music!

The next day we headed into Salzburg. At this point, we realized that we might never make it home at the pace we were going so we decided ahead of time that we would just try to find the “Do, re, mi” steps and some of the sites in Salsburg where they had filmed the musical, “The Sound of Music” since it is a favorite of ours. Upon pulling into town we discovered that we weren’t the only ones with this idea in mind. We followed this bus thinking that it might lead us in the right direction, but instead it pulled into the tourist station. So we ended up deciding that it would save us a lot of time to take the family on the “Sound of Music Tour”.
Join us as we tour through Salzburg:
This first shot is the back side of the Leopoldskron Palace. It was this beautiful building that the movie crew planned to use for the Von Trapp family mansion, but unfortunately, the back yard and lake were the only parts actually used in the filming of the movie. MGM had made arrangements with the Austrian government to use this palace for all the inside shots and their crew had brought in all their generators, equipment, props, make-up, people and extras, etc, etc, etc. Eventually it became too much for the Austrian government, and just before the filming of the ball, they shut the whole thing down. Instead, all of the inside shots were actually filmed in Hollywood studios which were designed after the home . Another beautiful house was used as the outside of the Von Trapp family home, so you can imagine how difficult it must have been to film these outside portions of the movie. Think about the scene just after the boat has capsized and Maria and the Barron are arguing together. All of the shots of Julie Andrews have the lake in the background, and all of the shots of the Baron have the house behind him! (Filmed in two different locations.) Funny, huh!
Now picture in your mind the scene where Maria is dressed in those horrible clothes, with her guitar in her hand, singing “I have confidence in me!” as she approches her new assignment of being the new governess to the VonTrapps. She comes to the big gates of this home, which doesn’t look quite as grand from our far-off viewpoint on the bus. The lane of trees that the children were swinging from in their “playclothes” is also just outside of this house. I don’t remember the name of it, sorry.


Here we are posing outside the glass gazebo which is so well-known for the Liesle/Rolf duet, “I am Sixteen, going on Seventeen.” This gazebo was actually built by MGM outside of the Leopoldskronfirst Palace. The Austrian government liked it so much that it was left for them when there once the filming was over. They loved the new addition to the palace so much, that is until the area became inundated with people climbing the Palace walls to visit it, singing and dancing and leaping from bench to bench. They eventually decided to move it to another area for the tourists to enjoy. They also welded the doors shut, so that people would stop hurting themselves leaping from bench to bench. Darn, and we would have been so good at it!

These next pictures are of Nonnberg Abbey (with the red dome) where the real Maria really did study and where she and the Barron were married in real life. It is still a working Abbey and the nuns really do sing there in the evenings, but it is not opened to the public.

Next our tour bus headed up into the mountains where “the hills are alive” . This was so beautiful! The 70 glacier fed lakes are picturesque, and keep everyone playing there nice and cool.
This is the little town of Hoth . There were several little Maypoles in people's yards which were all ready for the summer solstice celebration coming up in a few days.

And this is Lake Fuschl, with it’s neighboring town. It had a really picturesque view so we all posed seperately for some pics. (Jess and I hate ours of course.) The lake is 7 miles long and here is also where Mozart’s Mother was born. You see, music really has been an important part of this area’s history. In fact, Mozart’s birthplace is also in Salzburg. The music festival that the Von Trapp family won many years ago has been a tradition in that city for over 200 years. The Character of Uncle Max was totally fictional in the Von Trapp story, but it was based on a real man named Max_ ?_ who originally began the music festival there. He was Jewish and fled from Austria at the beginning of the 2nd World War, several years before the Von Trapp’s fled.









Then we were herded back onto the bus to continue the ever upward journey into the beautiful hills to the next little town which I don't remember the name, but it is home to a beautiful cathedral--the one used to film the wedding in the movie. Before going off to visit the church, Pete was in the mood for the really yummy desserts that were famous for that town, so we stopped to eat two meatball soups (mom insisted that we couldn't just eat junk food) and a yummy cake with hot white chocolate drizzled over it. It was yummy, much better then the meatballs. I think mom managed to get everyone to take just one bite of the meat before they devoured their desert. It is easy to see why this cathedral was chosen, and I'm sure it has been kept in pristine condition because of all the tourists who file through here. As I was walking around the church I remember thinking that the movie made the wedding isle appear much longer then it actually is in real life, but now that I'm looking at our pictures, they do the same thing. It is actually a fairly medium sized cathedral, but appears bigger in the pictures. It really was beautiful.

You can see Paul trying to climb the steps to the alter be married, or perhaps to receive redemption for his sins which were starting to accumulate by this point as he was becoming quite unmanagable.

Unfortunately he was yet unwilling to fall asleep on the bus trip back down to the city of Salzburg, and so when we arrived in the famous gardens he was really really unmanagable! We managed to still miraculously get a few good pictures. The gardens here I also don't remember their name, but most of the song, "Do Re Mi" was filmed here. We had a fun time exploring all the different sites that we recognized. Maybe you'll recognize a few. The whole garden is really beautiful.

The Von Trap children marched around this big circular fountain and it took us forever to catch 2 seconds for a picture on those Do Re Mi steps with all the tourists walking up and down.

Then I have a whole series of these cute little stone trolls. The Von Tramp children all marched by and tapped this one troll on the head in the movie, so we posed for a family shot here. But there were so many other cute trolls that even though it was getting too late in the day that we had promised to make really short, we just couldn't stop having fun posing with these cute little guys and gals. For some reason Paul seemed to really make a connection with these miniture little monsters, they really cheered him up. I'll try to add a slideshow of all the troll pictures.

Please someone help me

I have a slideshow saved on

Photobucket but I can't figure out

how to get it onto the blog here!

Please comment!

Sadly, the time came for us to say, "So long,farewell, etc....." But our trip to Salzburg kept us singing....

Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do so DO! (I know, we are absolutely cheesy!!)

How to Cook Authentic Italian Pasta

Ok, so we are still stuck blogging our last summer's vacation, even though it's really Christmas vacation. But I have to just insert this one post into the continuity of the vacation just because it is needed for all of you to whom we sent gifts of Pasta. You all have to cook it in the correct manner otherwise it defeats the purpose of sending over all the authentic ingredients. So the following blog is for all those who are ready for a cooking lesson from Italy.

(Dawnae's new ceramics, and pasta and salsa for Kristin and Deanna)

Italian food is always eaten in courses, even at home. At a restaurant you might order an anti-pasta first (in Napoli they have lots of seafood and also crusty bread with bruscheta and various other finger food). The next course would be your pasta (which is usually the beginning of a meal at home.) Often you might then have a side dish of pepperoni (sweet bell peppers cooked in olive oil-not spicey red meat). Next would come your meat, (lots of different kinds, usually all fried) followed by fruit and dolce or sweets. Meals usually end with coffee. At fancy restaurants you may have several plates of each separate course effectively making your meal into as many courses as you can eat! Your host will keep offering you more and more food until you insist that it is enough. Our elders just returned from Christmas lunch at a members home and they said they lost track of how many courses they had eaten, but it was between 10 and 15!!

Italians categorize their food into two groups: sweet and salty and they do not mix the two. Usually sweet is reserved for breakfast and for desert and everything else is salty, so sweet and sour is not a favorite dish in Italy! Pasta is served at every meal since it is the main staple, and sometimes a simple meal is only pasta. Also a typical meal on the go is leftover pasta fried into a round cake type meal. The breakfast is very light as is dinner, and the big meal of the day is served around 2:00 in the afternoon. All the stores shut down during the afternoon for the families to gather for their meal. Extended families and friends often meet for their midday meals.

There are so many different types of pasta it is impossible to list them all. Each area of Italy has their own specialty of pasta. Pasta makers usually go back generations. Italy has “pasta universities” which specialize in teaching the very best pasta making. Italian pasta is different than our American versions in that it has a lighter and usually thinner texture. The salsa is also different with a lighter tomato flavor. Pasta is served with all kinds of different salsas also. Basically anything you have laying around can be cooked and pureed into salsa for your pasta so there are almost as many variations of salsa as there are pastas.

Instructions on making authentic Italian pasta:
Heat up your pre-made sauce to simmer first so that you can add it to the pasta at just the right time. You can also put some fresh basil into it if you desire. Just keep the sauce hot, since it is already perfectly prepared and doesn’t need to simmer for hours like traditional fresh made salsa.

Italians use about 100 g of uncooked pasta per person (this is fairly generous). Look at the outside of your pasta package. You will notice the words “Cottura” 13 min. (or another number.) This is the key to know how long to cook your pasta. Do not cook it until it is tender as is the usual practice in America. Italians like their pasta “al dente” and it’s important to cook it this way so that it will absorb the flavor of the sauce. Also notice on the back of the package a diagram of how much water to add. I never thought that this was important before, but it makes a big difference if you don’t want sticky pasta. Add the amount of water in the diagram keeping in mind that 2 Liters equals about 8 cups. So 6 L = a little more than 6 quarts. It’s a lot more water then I used to use for pasta, which explains the need for a huge stock pot. Bring the water to a boil first and add salt if you desire. Add the pasta and begin timing the cooking when it starts boiling again. When cooked, the pasta should be firm but not crunchy. It may feel just slightly sticky, but not too much. Drain pasta in a colander but don’t rinse. Immediately, while the pasta is still very hot, put it into a serving dish and add the sauce. The hot “al dente” pasta will absorb a lot of the sauce and soften up even more in the serving bowl. Italian pasta has a lot less sauce then what we are used to. It never swims in the sauce like American spaghetti is proportioned. You need just enough sauce to be absorbed into the pasta so that it isn’t sticky. If you didn’t use enough water to cook the pasta it will be too sticky and you can add a little olive oil to the pasta before adding the sauce, but this keeps the pasta from absorbing as much of the sauce, so just make sure to add enough water. Eat hot with a little fresh parmigiana cheese sprinkled over the top. (Standard for every kind of pasta and very very yummy!) Serve and eat as soon as it is cool enough to not burn your tongue for the best taste. Bon appetito! Merry Christmas!

The Czech Republic is such a beautiful country. The countryside is pristine and I think it was more beautiful than any other place we saw, with Austria coming really close behind! Anyway, we kept finding cool places to see in the Czech Republic. We stopped in the town of after we left church on Sunday. It was a tiny town, but had a really cute town square, and some good gelato (yes, gelato is everywhere in Europe, not just in Italy.)
We then drove to another town about 1 more hour south which we were told was a cool place to visit. Pete has gotten really good at spotting the off the beaten path little bed and breakfast places that are much cheaper and usually have a few more beds to cram the whole family into. We pulled into a huge old barn, and got a really large apartment: 2 bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen for really cheap. The kids were in heaven. There were cows, chickens, geese, cats, and ducks to chase all over the working farm. They smelled like animals when the day was done, but it was the best hotel ever in their opinion. And everyone had their own bed! So we ended up staying there for 2 nights instead of one. I liked checking into a hotel and getting a good nights sleep, and then spending the whole next day in one place and returning home, packing up, going to bed and leaving early in the morning for the next traveling day. It seemed like when we traveled every day, we spent half the time either packing up or trying to find the next hotel. Anyway, the town we visited was really cool because it was an old medieval castle town. A river in the shape of a great big horseshoe encircled almost the entire town. In addition, the town had an outer and inner wall for defense. We visited some interesting museums on our way to the castle. Some of you may gasp in horror at the following pictures, so I need to warn you in advance that we have now permanently traumatized the children by taking them to the medieval torture museum. Actually, we think it had some really helpful suggestions for our parenting methods. Haha! We clapped Paul in irons for not being able to keep up with the rest of the family on the tour. You can see how upset he was about this! I told the kids that our basement could easily be adjusted into a damp, dark, dungeon for misbehaving children. Actually, it is Mom and Dad that need a nice little white padded room in solitude after this long vacation! But seriously, no children were harmed in the making of this blogspot. Next we went to a wax museum which depicted scenes from the medieval village and then went on to represent some important people in history. Sadly, many of the Czech Republic’s history was unknown to us. One thing that we have seen throughout Europe is that the people really know their history. Europe seems to dwell a lot on their history, and has so many reminders of it, whereas America seems to really look forward into the future instead. Each place we went to had a different feel to it, its own culture, which was neat to experience. Ok, anyway, after the wax museum we went to a really cute marrionet museum. We saw a lot of puppets in Poland and even more in Prague, and they vary from each region. These puppets were really really cool! They also had a few stages with different stage props and scenery. It’s been a secret desire of mine to build something like this for my kids, but I thought that I had satisfied this desire somewhat when Emily and I built the beds with storage underneath for the girl’s room. However, seeing these cool stage sets just brought this desire back again. Maybe some day when I’m a grandma I can realize this dream. Anybody want to help? It would be so fun! The oldest of puppets in this collection were 90 years old. The green guy is the Czech water spirit, and the guy with one cloven hoof is a devil. The other devil is also obvious. There were a lot of traditional Czech characters, but also many others mixed in. They were all charming!
It’s a good thing the McCollaum kids are so well behaved! Mom is playing with dolls while Dad takes a nap. We moved on after this refreshing break. We were getting closer to the castle all the time and now had reached it’s entrance. The tower served many purposes. It was a bell tower, and a watch tower, They really did lock people up in this tower. It had a fantastic view of the city!

By the time we made it back down the tower and into the castle, the little ones were just plain tuckered out and their parents were in even worse shape. You can tell we were nearing the end of our vacation , because mom and dad decided at that point to skip the castle and to turn back to the river below so that the kids could play on it‘s banks. Jessica and Peter continued onward alone to take in the castle gardens and then met up with us down by the river. They got some good pictures on their own! In the meantime Paul was the focus of many Chinese women’s pictures. They just loved this cute blond half-naked cherub. He probably reminded them of a blond budda! J