Grand Opening

 It has been a long time since I last updated, but so much has happened in that time.  We have been working non-stop to finish the house in time for our grand opening.  And what an opening it was!

As with every year, George was once again Babbo Natale for the local children and the scuderia was filled with puzzles for children of all ages to play with.  

This winter was especially cold so there were few booths in the Christmas market in the beer garden.  Perhaps next year there will be more if the weather is better.  

Santa had a variety of elves this year.  His main elf (and temporary translator) got too cold the first day so she handed over her duties to a couple of other great helpers.  

We had guests fly in from all over Europe and even a few from the USA.  The first of our guests arrived on the 9th and everyone was here by the 12th.  In total, we had 22 puzzlers.  Pam arrived first to help set up a few things.  Oskar, José, Steve, Nigel, and Deborah came in late on the 10th.  Robin and Victoria, Kevin also flew in from the USA, Toby, Diogo, Carlos and Martina, Katherine arrived on the 11th.  Louis, Wil and Alessandro and his girlfriend arrived on the 12th and Dario, Giusy, and Pier Luigi came in on the 13th.  

As is usual for my events, there was way too much food!  Thursday I roasted off 5 chickens. Friday night I had food prepared in advance by Gallo nel Pozzo and reheated.  It was a delicious meal as usual.  

Saturday we went to Mosalino in town for a wonderful meal.  

The kids all made an amazing lasagna on Sunday, and on Monday we had a cobbled together cooking lesson.  

For those of you who are interested, I made a chicken noodle and minestrone soup out of the left overs from Thursday's dinner and we also did a tortellini in brodo which is traditional for this time of year.

This along with a variety of cheeses and meats made up the lunches.  There were 2 panettone and 3 pandora eaten this weekend. We went through 45 liters of wine, 12 liters of Coke Zero, only 4 of Pepsi Max, 3 bottles of Coke, 2 gallons of milk, and 8 liters of fruit juices.  I'm only aware of this because of how many leftovers I have in the bar fridge.  Our help loved me this week.  I fed all of them and then some.  I won't even begin to tell you how many bagels, lox, and cream cheese cartons we went through, or how many bags of toasting bread I have now got in my freezer.

Most of you are not here to read about the food, but rather the puzzling.  I wish I could say I did a lot of it, but I didn't.  I chatted a lot, cooked a lot, and just made sure our guests had a good time all around.  

Oskar, Robin, George, and Steve made sure the 3D printers were running non-stop.  Everyone was given a copy of an Oskar puzzle to take home with them.  At one point, a head got clogged and Oskar solved the problem by melting the plastic on my new stove!  

Am I an indulgent wife or what?  George is so lucky he has me.  I did draw the line at using the kitchen sink to clean build plates, but only because the laundry room was right next door, and I was using the sink. 

I caught a bunch of the guys in the secret box room opening puzzles one afternoon.  And I'm pretty sure Kevin was disappointed that we don't have a TIC room, but one has to stop somewhere.  

Wil wandered around the town taking photos everywhere and he marveled in seeing his puzzles on display.  There was a lot of "spot my puzzle" going on all weekend.  

Deborah spent the entire time in the Lego room building.  Now I need to find a place for the larger pieces she assembled.  

Louis tried to open our safe, but was unable to.  He did reassemble a ring for me though so he earned his keep.  When I saw how he did it, I felt a little stupid to be honest.  But hey!  I've got to give him one each time I see him.

Nigel was in heaven when I asked him to unbox a new Berrocal that came in.  Surprisingly though, no one played with one.  

As usual, we drank too much and slept too little.  I think all in all everyone had a good time.  For those of you that missed out, don't worry, there will be more puzzle parties to come.