PEOPLE'S BEST OF 2008

People.com came out with the Best of 2008 and it's great! Here are some of my favorites:





"I feel so embarrassed."

– Miley Cyrus, apologizing before the release of her back-baring Vanity Fair photo, to PEOPLE



"I'll see you at the debates, bitches."

– Paris Hilton, responding to Sen. John McCain's use of her image in a presidential campaign ad with a spoof video of her own, on FunnyorDie.com





"You know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick."

– Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, introducing herself to voters at the Republican National Convention

See all of People's Best of 2008 here!

FALL OUT BABY

Meet Bronx Mowgli Wentz in his Internet debut!

THE ROSSDALES GO TO CHURCH

Pop music's coolest family attended Christmas Eve services looking cute as ever!

GOSPEL CHOIR IN GELA

Our Sigonella Community Gospel Choir was invited to sing at a church in Gela! There were several local Italian organizations who went in together to send a bus to pick us up, and then throw us a reception at a beautiful hotel! Here's where we arrived in Gela:















It says, "The Community of Gela Wishes Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!"

There was a nativity scene underneath.















The piazzas were decorated BEAUTIFULLY!

With more nativity scenes!






























They don't put Baby Jesus (Gesu Bambino) in the manger until Christmas morning. He was there though! One of the non-english-speaking Italians handed me the Baby to take a picture. They all thought it was so funny how nervous I was to take Him!

This is the church where we sang. People were crammed into every bench, and those without seats stood in the back. The mayor was there, along with the local news! The TV cameras were on us for the whole concert! The smiles on the faces in the crowd were priceless! Everyone clapped along and some of the ladies were trying to sing along in a language they didn't understand!

One couple in our group are missionaries who started a church in a nearby town. They're our translators. Guiseppe got up before each song to tell the people in Italian what our song was about. I think our Chaplain was nervous when they asked him to explain what "gospel" meant!

Here's the whole choir:

After we sang the party moved to a beautiful hotel, Hotel Sole! They held a reception for us with MOLTO BUONO local food and they even had a singing group to perform for us! This was the highlight for me:

LADY GAGA ON THE TODAY SHOW

CHRISTMAS IN CALTAGIRONE

Kari, Trish, Shana, Aiden and I got really brave and travelled to Caltagirone all by ourselves Wednesday. Kari was a champ and drove us all. The experience taught me that GPS really is a wonderful thing!

































Caltagirone is a city famous for handmade pottery. There are at least 2 pottery shops on every street. It's beautiful but very expensive!
















Other than pottery browsing, we spent time looking at the various Nativity displays! There were like 8 of them in town. We saw 3 of them. This is the one at the Piazza Duomo.
















It was on a tall set of stairs. You can see it behind Kari here:



















The town has fliers everywhere with street maps pinpointing the spots where you can find the Nativity scenes. You walk in through the velvet rope, pay a Euro or so, and walk through the scene. Here's one:




We also saw a scene that was built to look like the City of Caltagirone:



There were lots of tours going on that day. We saw tour guides taking groups of adults or groups of school children through town to see the displays. Can you imagine going on a field trip to see a nativity scene??? That would never happen in the US!

Another thing I've learned over here is that if you need help finding something you ask the youngest person possible. Lots of the kids speak English. If you find someone in their 20s, 30s or 40s they're likely to speak Italian. The old folks usually don't speak English or Italian. Sicilian only!

ITALIAN RAP!

Italian rap is awesome, hahaha! This is a popular one. It was one of the top singles for awhile in Italy and I heard it first on the radio. Check this out...

Fabri Fibra ft. Gianna Nannini - In Italia (video ufficiale)

GIVE TO CHARITY...FOR FREE!

I just saw this on Fox Sunday Morning and I love it! There are 2 new sites you can use to give to charity without spending a dime, or taking any extra time out of your day :)

http://www.goodsearch.com/

This site is the same as yahoo search or google search. You choose a charity and the site donates a penny for each search you make. I don't know about you, but I google like nobody's business! Imagine how it would all add up!

The other site is: http://www.goodshop.com/

It's the same idea, except there is a list of online stores, Best Buy, Overstock, Macys, Kohls...in other words...good stores I visit online anyway. By clicking thru to these stores via the goodshop website, the stores agree to donate a % of your sales to the charity of your choice at no extra cost to you!

I will be using these sites from now on.

A DAY AT THE MARKET

Today my friend Amber and I went to the market in Catania. You can get literally ANYTHING there...clothes, shoes, home decor, cookware, produce, antipasti, cheese, meat...you name it! There's even a pet store! There are a FEW disturbing things to see. Here's one of them:

I felt bad later when I saw a little girl standing by the bucket taking snails and ripping them out of their shells and throwing them back in the bucket. Poor snails!

Ok, so if THAT's not disturbing enough...you haven't seen the meat market! Sorry I don't narrate, but many of these vendors get upset if they see you taking pics of their goods, so I tried not to draw attention to myself taking this video. I need to learn to say, "It's ok! I swear I'm not from PETA" in Italian!

You'll see a whole pig here on a hook and whole chickens. The animals hanging in the back are sheep. The meat I zoom in on is horse.

CUTER EVERY DAY!

Don't let little Zuma Nesta Rock's arrival let you forget about Kingston Rossdale! He just gets cuter every day!

This pic is from perezhilton.com.

Top Singles in Europe!