Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Friday, December 25, 2009

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.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Cheap-o Christmas

Our potted Xmas tree, that we had since Sophia's first Xmas, got too big and we gave it to the Nonni to plant at their mountain house. This year there was much too do (ie facebook/dlisted), I got a late start decorating the house, plus we leave Saturday for the Cranes, so it hardly seemed worth it to get a tree (that we'd have to keep in the house until waayyyy after xmas, not because we are too lazy to take it down (yes, i know we are tho), but because they are still doing construction outside). At the same time, it's just not Christmas without presents and lights and stuff. In compromise, we present to you the Christmas Treehouse...
...Greta tried to make 'classy' with a nativity inside using the Happy Family, but Sophia wasn't havin it. She wouldnt let her use the lego cow and sheep inside the house and got mad..

Monday, December 1, 2008

the Christmas Letter

I know I'm totally behind. Max's bday party and Thanksgiving are totally missing. I will post date that stuff. I just wanted put up Sophia's letter to Santa before I forget. What I like most about Christmas are the movies and the cartoons and I've been inundating the poor kid with them! (and then I complain about the commercialism of the whole holiday....how dare I!!!). By the way, A Christmas Story is celebrating it's 25th anniversary and What On Earth has the leg lamp...hint hint, anyone??? all right, all right, I know I digress so here is the scan:

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Lunch time

Zia Paola and Zio Ale gave Pia a kitchen. So today we made lunch together.


And then Pia discovered another good use for the kitchen...


...peek-a-boo!

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

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.




Monday, December 24, 2007

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.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Christmas Lunch

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Today was the annual Christmas Lunch at ML and F's digs. This year thing ML and F changed things up a bit, and everyone brought 1 dish, which was great because it meant less work for the host, but more to eat for everyone! The first round was, sliced cold cuts (prociutto crudo, coppa, salame, etc and cheeses (dont know all the names) with pepper jelly or honey and warmed toasted bread. I was already full. The next round was lasagne with peas, which Sophia just loved! Third round was a veal roast with a walnut cream sauce (made by pino and her peanut gallery nanu) and mushrooms stuffed with couscous with a parlsey creamed cheese sauce (massimona) that followed by finocchio (fennell) smothered in a carrot cream nutmeg sauce (sabri and jonathan) and our oven baked eggplant parmigiana. dessert was a past sfoglia crust, pear, chocolate and walnut torta (sabri and jonathan). all accompanied by wine the whole time. ps note to self, next year dont sit next to nanni, he doesnt like to pass the wine and food! good thing i dont mind the boarding house reach as my mom calls it!

Monday, November 26, 2007

I got Elfed!



O & G came over to help finish Thanksgiving leftovers. After dinner we had a little fun getting elfed: http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9603161895