Thanksgiving week (for us Americans) was one of my favorite weeks here!

We started it on Monday where we were invited to our Bishops house for dinner and to learn how to make the delicious Tiramisu. We started out with making dessert and all the kids joined in on helping with the mixing then dipping and layering the ladyfingers. The kids all got along great, helping each other, working together, and encouraging some taste testing along the way. It was messy but a lot of fun! After cleaning up the dessert festivities, everyone gathered around table to enjoy a delicious Italian meal. We had such a great time with this sweet family!

On Tuesday, we headed into Rome for a tour of some pretty cool sights with another sweet Sister in our Ward. Cecelia, pronounced che-chilia, was the best Roma tour guide you could have! She has lived in Rome most of her life and was able to share all the things she loved about it with us. We walked around the Victor Emmanuelle ll Monument or “Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele ll”, this overly grandeur monument is dedicated to honor the first king to unify Italy.

She also took us to the Piazza del Campidoglio which is a public square on top of the ancient capitol hill that includes City Hall, the Senatorial Palace, and the Capitol Museum, one of the oldest national museums founded in 1471. We didn’t tour the museum, however Cecelia shared with us how the current layout was completed by the famous artist, Michelangelo, in the 16th-century, when Pope Paul lll commissioned him to renovate the buildings with facades and statues that stand there today. She also pointed out how the Michelangelo’s redesign included a complex spiraling pavement with a star at its center. This symbol has also been incorporated throughout the LDS Rome Italy Temple.

She then showed us how Rome has built its city on top of previous structures. Instead of demolishing the existing structures, they built on top of them, or around them. Some areas you can see the many layers of structures.

We saw a lot of ancient ruins.. including a Jewish Temple (pictured the last image here) I love this so much! I love the history and the architectural structures. I’m amazed at how they have held up for centuries and how many people have lived to see them. But my favorite piece of history that I did not know existed in Rome was the prison where the apostles Simon-Peter (St Peter) & Paul were imprisoned. The way she tells the story is very personal, spiritual, and insightful. I cannot put into words what the experience was like, I just feel honored that she would spend the entire day with us, sharing these great insights we otherwise would’ve missed on our own.

After our tour in Rome, we stopped by the Temple for a special musical production by Tami Creamer. We had the privilege of meeting her in church on Sunday, without knowing who she was she invited us to come see her perform in the Temple Visitor Center. She is a very talented pianist who wrote and composed the song “I Know That My Savior Loves Me“. Her performance included Christmas songs and church hymns with children’s primary songs that were selected by the audience. Then we got a special treat with a small group from the audience got up to sing the words to the song she wrote. It was beautiful!

In less fortunate events that week, and on Thanksgiving day, we all needed to get our Japanese encephalitis vaccinations before traveling to Cambodia the following month. We had tried calling around and couldn’t find anyone who would issue them for us and were ready to give up. But a tender mercy appeared when Phil heard back from a clinic in Rome saying they could get us what we needed. Our kids were less than thrilled, as you can imagine, but they did it. I was really impressed with how Claire, who was also feeling apprehensive about the ordeal, was teaching Hallie how to calm her nervous through a little technique called, “butterfly breathing”. We of course rewarded them with gelato afterwards!

Friday was our prep for Thanksgiving Day as we decided to celebrate on Saturday with some of our Italian “family”. I made my mom’s buttery crescent rolls, homemade stuffing (1st time!), an arugula and pear salad, mashed potatoes with gravy and an apple pie. We weren’t able to get a large turkey bird, but we did find some turkey breasts and ordered several of those instead. Others contributed with their own sides and desserts to share, and it was a fantastic feast! We had both sets of Missionaries, the Sisters and Elders who are all from America, and those of our Italian friends who could make it. It was fun to share with them our American tradition of a feast. Something that was new to some of them were the mashed potatoes and soft crescent rolls (huge hit btw). It was the perfect way to end a great week.