Christmas in Cuneo

Luckily Santa has a people finder (or facebook) and GPS and can even find us in Cuneo! Sophia was extra worried that a) we were not going to be in our house and so Santa wouldnt know where to leave the presents and b) (after we read the night before christmas:) how would he get into the house, since there is no fireplace. (obviously the author was not a city folk like us!). Santa was extra generous this year, he busted out with a scooter (and knee pads, helmet and all the other stuff).

Sophia has been asking for one ever since she road Tia's in Germany.
This was by far the favorite thing she opened (after she tried to ride it and found it was difficult, she already started to lose interest-but as it was an expensive present, we are going to try our best to have her keep trying-she will have fun on it whether she likes it or not!)

Mom and Dad gave a pop up Charlie and Lola book
(we found her favorite episode/the one she identifies with most, about how Lola is a picky eater)

Dad got me an iphone (which i have been asking for)
side note-it got robbed the day after when we went to dinner. totally my fault. i left it in my coat pocket and somebody snagged it-i feel nauseated just writing about it!)The Nonni open Sophia's gift to them, a photo album.

altho not on her xmas list, Santa knew wanted a piano (every time she sees one, she sits down and likes to bang out a tune and sing. she is also pretty good at pressing notes and beat-boxing.). Santa and the Nonni gave one to Sophia.
side note: i dont want to seem ungrateful, but we havent quite figured out how to get the Nonni to get the presents Sophia has in mind. They are sweet and overly generous-but mostly overly zealous: whatever she asks for, gets magnified to something much greater and more expensive than what she has in mind and not kid friendly. The big ones this year were that Sophia says piano (small inexpensive toy piano), she gets a complicated keyboard. She asked for binoculars or a telescope (like pirates) - something made solely of plastic and probably wont last until next xmas, but instead she got a telescope to see the stars. The piano was actually fine because she will play it, but when she saw the telescope, she was not interested at all. I want her to be grateful and gracious, but I sort of understand her disappointment because it wasnt what she asked for and its way over her head. but i also feel badly for the nonni because they try so hard and get no enjoyment from seeing her having fun with the presents. (hopefully in the new house we can use the telescope a bit, but living in the city we often have a cloudy sky and we are sandwiched between buildings.) I guess the whole sitch drives me nuts bcuz Santa didnt go overboard at our house (or at least that's the way I remember it), he brought one big gift that we would appreciate and some stocking stuffers (and everyone else gave us something small like books or clothes or money to be put into our savings)I and toys were still overflowing at our house (and my parents have a much larger house than ours). I want the Nonni to be Nonni, but I would also like Sophia not to be spoiled. This is her last xmas as an only child, so I guess I can suck it up and she can live it up. And hopefully next xmas will be different because there will be 2 grandkids to give to, instead of one. yeah right, i doubt it too. but at least i can drink a couple glasses of liquid relaxation to help deal with the stress. this year probably bothers me more because i have to be alcohol free.