Thai

Nonna Gweta being 'useful' and Holiber cookin the chicken, and Max's booty.

Hey! Buona ApeTHAIto!

Diggin In.


Greta and a round of Wii golf

Whew just got back from picking up Sophia from the Nonni's then Gweta and Holber came over for dinner...only they did most of the cooking. We were supposed to do thai for new years eve, but since we are going to mauro and khatia's we did it tonight. I have no idea exactly what they made, it was chicken with a curry coconut milk sauce, but it was damn good! i pitched in with the steamed rice and some pad thai and max as usual did his part by eating. after that was a little wii. We did the agility test afterwards...max and i both did horribly, he got 78 and i got 80 years old, yikes!

2 days after xmas, 1 day after st stefano, and a sore finger...

view from ale's balcony

max the morning after

view on the road home

more view on the road home

had a hard time getting up today, of course. max had to work at 12:45 so we need to haul ass to get back to CM. he smashed his finger trying to put the hide-a-bed away, and couldnt scream in pain cuz ale was still sleeping and there are no doors in her house. but she got up just as he freed his finger and so he swore under his breath and she made us coffee. and gave me this malted sweetener which is really yummy. we packed our crap up and headed home. of course there was an accident or traffic jam as soon as we hit Milan so it took us an extra 45 minutes to get home. max had a quick shower, crammed some food in his mouth and he was off to work.

Santo Stefano/Boxing Day

trafarello

monia, maruska, sabrina

max wii bowling

riccardo wii bowling

ale exiting the bathroom with no doors
capo menzio the card shark
texas hold'em trafarello style

I don't know what the heck the big deal is about today, but it's a holiday and that's all i care about. Today we left to head for home but decided to stop over at Ale's new house on our first day of liberty. Ale lives near Torino which is on the road home to Milan. E=mc2, we tested the theory of relativity - what looks like the smallest town in the world apparently grows larger when you are there trying to look for Ale's house! She lives in a town called Trofarello, barely recognized by TomTom, and on a street that is not recognized by TomTom at all! Needless to say we got lost and ended up on some one laned, tractor made, rabbit crossing in front of car, wild dogs howling, nowhere to turn around, fog rolling in, backward ass road. And even using the word road is a glorification of what we were driving on. In a town that takes 5 minutes to walk across, we were lost for 45 minutes. We eventually found the right area, but of course rang the door bell of the wrong house, where there are 5 small dogs keeping guard. Max finally figured it out and we found the right house! Whew! Ale and her cousins and friend were waiting and we got some pizzas. Ale just moved in, so there are no doors or curtains, when when maurizio got there of course snuck up to the balcony window like a burglar...but unlike a burglar, he came baring wine, not stealing it! And lastly came ricardo and another maurizio and it was time for bubbly, panetone, and wii. the others got tired and went home and then capo menzio and gang taught me texas hold'em. It was a late night so Ale was sweet enough to let us stay over. It was fun to be young and childless again!

Christmas Day!

First we had pancakes! I was a bit nostalgic, missing the good ol days when we woke my parents up and Dad made pancakes, omelets and hashbrowns for everyone. Now I have to do it and I can only manage the pancakes.

Kisses for Mommy and Daddy

And then it was finish packing. Load up the car and haul *ss to Cuneo for Christmas lunch with the Parisis. Even tho I made the pancakes this morning I only had time to eat the small left over one (i made just a few because we were supposed to eat a big lunch and we werent gonna be home for a few days). We were starving by the time we got to Cuneo. There was sooo much to eat, but I just ended up eating appetizers because i was friggin hungry! By the time the pasta came out and then the roast i was stuffed and couldnt really enjoy it. Plus i was exhausted from having not slept for most of Dec.

Cookies for Santa

About 10 minutes before Sophia's bed time, I realized that I told max he could eat the cookies I had been saving for Santa so I had to make a whole new batch again! So Sophia got to stay up a little later. She left the cookies and milk out for Santa under the tree.

The Eve of Christmas Eve

Went to the Whilhelms. The kids decorated cookies and a ginger bread house. They had lots of fun making a mess together!

...so of course after getting messy together, they also had to get clean together too! And PapaPaolo was ready to bust a move and dry some hair.

The Xmas Gift Xchange

The gang came over to toast the holidays and exchange christmas gifts. Im so far behind on blogging that i'm just gonna post pix for now.