Our First Christmas in Dun Laoghaire

Once back in Ireland we spent Christmas in our new home in Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leery, in case you wondered).

Erin made a traditional Christmas dinner with all the trimmings. Brian quickly grew tired of leftovers since Erin over did the food. We were swimming in turkey, dressing, green bean casserole, etc. If you've ever had a turkey milkshake, you understand why Brian was tired.

However, everything turned out well and Erin was very proud of herself for doing a first-rate job (not that Brian had any doubts). We celebrated Christmas together, just the two of us.


As you can see, we have a Playskool creche scene. One of these years we're going to buy a proper creche scene, maybe in Italy or France, but for now this one does the job and it's cute.

Glassmaking in Venice

Here’s a photo of Brian learning to make glass. We’re in one of the traditional glass foundries on Murano, a Venetian island that’s famous for glassmaking. They've been making glass there for over a thousand years. The beaches outside the city are made of nothing but broken shards of glass, which makes them amazingly beautiful.



The glass maestro is standing behind Brian, and probably laughing a little bit because Brian’s staying pretty far away from the furnace – it was literally white hot! Brian's a little envious of the maestro's job -- it's not glamourous or lucrative, but there's something about being a part of a tradition that's a millenium old that's very appealing.

The maestro proceeded to make a glass deer in front of our eyes, using nothing but a lump of molten glass and a pair of tongs. The way he was so assured with his tools was also pretty amazing. It's fascinating to watch someone create a work of art with the same comfort and assurance we have when putting on our shoes.

Honeymoon in Venice

As you know, we’ve been traveling almost nonstop since we got married. First we flew to Italy for our honeymoon in Venice. We were still fighting the coughs we caught before our wedding, but the city was calm, peaceful and beautiful with Christmas decorations everywhere.

It’s an ancient city, something different around every corner, but it’s little more than a tourist destination nowadays. Three hundred years ago, Venice had 300,000 people, and today it has 60,000 people.

All the history is fascinating, but there’s something a little sad about it too. The entire city is slowly sinking into the sea, and huge sums of money are being spent to prop it up. All around Venice there are palaces that are boarded up and vacant because the lower levels are permamently flooded. Hopefully they’ll sort out the sinking problem before it all disappears. I've been asked why I picked Venice for our honeymoon, and I said that it was the only place I could think of that's a fitting backdrop for Erin's beauty.