The nativity scenes are made mostly by hand. They were every where! Anywhere there was a hole they would stick a nativity scene in it.

Here are a couple of my favorites. You can check out more on my flickr page.

My daughter had her investiture ceremony yesterday. This is a picture of her receiving her pin and a girl scouts book. She actually slept with the book last night. lol She loves girl scouts!

I did however go to Austria on Saturday. The day was filled with good and bad. It went something like this.

5:30 am my ipod touch alarm goes off. I’m really tired and kind of confused since i didnt sleep all that well. I take my ipod into the bathroom with me, which is something i never do. While picking something up off the floor and the ipod still in my hand, the ipod somehow managed to slip out of my hand and fly right into the toilet! At that point i woke up! I could not believe what had just happened! I put it in a plastic bag and in the fridge. I did this with a cell phone that i spilled something on before and it actually worked. So we left the house without my touch.

We get to base and grab everything we need for the trip. Get on the bus and get situated. The tour guide says to everyone that the ITT office gave them the wrong bus seat sheet and that there were more people on the bus than seats! So the few unlucky last people to get on the bus had to find someplace to sit. The guide also said that the ITT messed up the schedule and that we would have to be back before the time they said because the bus had to be back in Pordenone for another trip. Needless to say a bunch of people were not happy.

The drive went rather well and quick. We got to Villach ahead of schedule. First thing the guide says is, well we are supposed to leave here at 1:30, but lets all try and get back by 1 that way we can go to the next stop. This place is small and its cold out, so you’ll want to leave anyway.

The christmas market in Villach was nice. It was spread out over a couple streets. But it was small. We seriously must have looped around it like 50 times. We also left the loop and walked around the city a little. Here are some pictures i took.

Beautiful view.

There was a lot of street art.

We had doner kebab for lunch, which seems to be something we do everytime we go to a new city. I’ve yet to find one that can beat the one in Maniago though. The kids had mcdonalds. It always amazes me everytime we go to a mcdonalds over here its always packed! I dont know if its because its a new thing here or if people here are just that crazy for mcdonalds.

By 12 we were ready to go. We went to a snack bar by where the bus was going to pick us up. I had a spritzer and chris has a glass of beer. Couldnt enjoy it much as there are not any no smoking rules so the smoke was bugging me.

Once we finally left there, we were headed to Klagenfurt. Now the people sitting around me were saying how great this next market was. The guide on the other hand had a totally different take. She said its smaller than the last so we shouldnt waste much time. She also said that the stores close at 4 on saturdays so we wouldnt be able to do shopping past that time. At this point i’m scratching my head. Seriously, are the people at ITT this stupid? They do these trips all the time, dont you think they would know hey the stores close, so why do a trip here during this time? I was talking to Chris about it and the lady sitting across from me said ITT does some stupid things. She once took a trip to Munich and when they got there they seen a bunch of people protesting. They asked the guide what that was all about and she told them it was an anti us military protest thing that they do every year on that specific day! UM hello, its a bus full of US military! Why would ITT make a trip that day?!?!

Anyway a lot of people were way unhappy with the trip and the guide. And i heard a bunch of them talking about how they would be calling ITT monday and complaining…my husband included…which makes me wonder if he did or if he forgot.

Anyway Klagenfurt is a bigger city than Villach. The market was more compact, but i think there were more things to look at. First thing we did was find a place that had hot wine!

Here are some picture of Klagenfurt…

Oh and again the guide suggested we get to the bus earlier than planned. Which was ok with us. We were done early and went to another bar and again i had a spritzer and he had some beer.

Once we left the guide then pretty much summed it up with saying she was sorry we picked this trip to go on and we should have picked the Salzburg trip which will be on saturday. Gee thanks lady!

Its not like i had a terrible time or anything, it was just not exactly what i was expecting and next year we will do the Salzburg one.

Next month there is a trip to Munich/concentration camp. Chris wants to go, i’m kind of leery, especially since this one kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

So how is my touch? Well i got home went to bed and woke up in the morning to check it. It was turning on! But there was a slight water mark under the screen, but better than before. And it also was selecting things i didnt want it to. So i put it in some rice and the water mark under the screen started going away more. But still had the selecting issue.

This morning i woke up and checked it and the water was gone and there was no selecting issue! It looks and works perfect, the only issue i have is the alarm and sound when typing or turning it off no longer works. But i’ll take that. I just wasnt looking forward to having to buy a new one.

If you want to look at more of the photos i took in Austria, check out my flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/nicolereneephotography

Here is our pathetic christmas tree. The one we usually use is way to big out this house so we went out and bought this one. After a couple days the dog chewed up some of the bottom layers and also chewed on the extension cord. I need to get a new cord now.

I cant wait to leave Italy so i can have my normal christmas tree back!

Good news is, today the sun came out! The bad news is, i was busy today and i didnt go outside to look for things to photograph.

So this is what i have. I found this in my 1st graders backpack. Thats not her handwriting. Shes taking a bath at the moment, but i cant wait to ask her about it. I’m sure she’ll get embarrassed.

So today was another rainy day. I figured out that the extension tubes work so much better with a zoom lens.

I’m not sure the best way to photograph a candle. The flame was kind of bright but the rest of the picture was kind of dark. Did some adjustments in lightroom. Maybe i should have used a higher ISO?

ISO 100
f/3.5
1/4 sec

While out on a walk with my dog, Zoey, i seen this statue. The message on the bottom translates to… “To Christ king of the centuries we entrust the new millenium. Saint year 2000.

We went for a drive today. Headed up towards Claut, Italy. We seen a wild boar on the side of the road. I’ve never seen a real wild boar before today. I was kind of in shock at first and didnt even think about the camera that was in my hand. When we went back it was gone. The thing was HUGE!

I forgot to upload this yesterday. I was just playing with the macro again. Today is a nice day, maybe i’ll be able to get out of the house and take a picture of something a little more interesting.