A few weeks back, Chris was in what one might call a bit of a fender bender. You can't really get the full picture from this one shot, but needless to say it was pretty bad and this 6 month old benz was pronounced D.O.A. As always, Chris seized the moment and turned what was seemingly a really bad situation and turned it into an opportunity....an opportunity to run down the 10 reasons why we needed a bigger and safer car and to sucker me into a bit of an upgrade! So Chris is now rollin' around town in a slightly bigger and more importantly, safer black E350. How could I say no to having her be more safe on the road?

Well this past weekend we went over to the mall and Olivia got her picture taken with Santa.....whether she liked it or not!;) Things were were lookin' up and headin' in the right direction, but as you can see from this pic, they quickly spiraled out of control and she had a melt down on Santa's lap! Pretty similar to what happened last year. Oh well, who woulda guessed it, right? "Santa's" facial expression really sums it up.....poor guy!

Need we say more?

"'Cos I'm a model, you know what I mean?
And I do my little turn on the catwalk,
Yeah on the catwalk, on the catwalk ...yeah,
I shake my little touche on the catwalk" -Right Said Fred

Our daughter Olivia's getting tired of wearing diapers. That darn "Potty Elmo" really hasn't done the trick!

We received a package from Eri today, our Au pair from Japan (see: Lost In Translation) who watched over Olivia in her first year with us. Very unexpected and very thoughtful. Thank you Eri!

Speaking of gifts, we still need to get last minute gifts for some friends and family. We also need to get geared up for our trip later this week to the eastern shore for an early xmas with Butch and Maureen(Chris' Dad's side of the family). Then we need to quickly switch gears and get ready for my family who are coming over on xmas eve for dinner. And then last but certainly not least, Linda and Danny(Chris' mom's side of the family) are coming on xmas day for brunch.

You gotta love the Holidays! [sips his SoCo with a splash of eggnog] In all seriousness though, this should make for a really great Christmas where we get to see the entire family, except for my brother Marco who's currently lounging on some italian beach somewhere with his new fiancé Giulia, so don't feel bad.

To top things off, Olivia's right at that age where she's starting to actually get xmas (at least the presents part anyway). When she gets home from school, she runs towards the tree with such excitement you think she might actually tackle it to give it a big hug! And the best part of this year's christmas will be, the fact that she can finally tear open presents! Last year at this time she couldn't even walk! So we're really looking forward to that this time around!

Next year, we're gonna have to figure out how to explain to her how Santa's able to drop off her presents under the tree without us having a fireplace! Jeez, I think we might have to move again...

test 1-2-3-4-5-ms-test

Mauro Scappa