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. 
4 comments:
Merry Christmas to you, too! And I'm very glad to hear you get to stay for a while. You'll all be rattling off Italian by the time the next two years are finished. Nice to chat on Skype...although next time I won't do that at 3:30 a.m...we'll talk again soon, i hope!
PLEASE tell me that Jess is wearing heels and isn't taller than Denise, please - even if you are lying!
It is so good to see another post from you guys. We are really missing you here, but it comforts us that you are having a great time there.
We have more snow this year than anyone can remeber, and it isn't melting. The girls have been sledding down into the valley and across the creek - can you imagine it?
I will be posting our Christmas pictures and videos soon, so take a look at how big the girls are getting - and how well Andrew sings!
We love you and miss you and I will be putting January 15, 2011 on the calander in RED!
Love, Emily
(and all the rest)
Do I see a louis vuitton bag in one of those pictures?! I can't wait to go shopping for there! Oh yeah, and Merry Christmas to you too! ;P
So didn't you guys just love downtown Naples? I know I had a great time discovering fun little shops in side streets when I went with your mom back in May. The statue that you are standing next to on the right side of the screen...that is the God Nile isn't it? I think so but I am not 100% certain. I am hoping to visit you again before you leave in 2011, but it probably won't be in 2009 as I have already committed some of my time off to other adventures. But I hope you continue to explore all there is to see over there and keep posting to let us see what you are doing!
Love you all!
Post a Comment