I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Hello everyone! I am sorry I disappeared from the blogosphere, but the past week has been quite full for me. Yes, there was our holiday at the beach. I am sure you know what holidays with kids mean though (unless you have a full time nanny in tow): time that has to be filled with fun activities for the whole family and very little time for anything else. In addition, my husband had to finish a work assignment, so I spent most mornings by myself with my son. What made it a holiday, for me, was the fact we were in a wonderful hotel, so no cleaning, no laundry, and no cooking, just fun all together!

We got back to Milan on December 23 in the late afternoon, and we had our only holiday outing with my mother-of-two best friend and her husband the same evening. On Christmas Eve, I then spent the morning unpacking and re-packing for our upcoming trip to Belgium, the early afternoon busy with a kids' Christmas party at our house, the late afternoon helping my mom to cook dinner, and the evening to clean all up and wrap all the gifts. Christmas Day brought not just the presents, but also the cleaning and tidying up associated with our departure, Christmas lunch with my parents, the trip to Belgium, and dinner with my in-laws when we arrived.

So, even if I entertained for a few minutes the idea of connecting with you on Christmas Day, I feel asleep too fast to put it in practice. Now that we have arrived in Belgium, however, I plan on catching up on a lot things!

Here are a few to start off with:

• Two wonderful slideshows about Christmas mornings and about Christmas Day around the world.

• Especially if you are under a pile of snow, you may enjoy what I just posted about lemons in December.

• I am officially obsessed with the Pippa bag by Modalu, which my sister-in-law got for Christmas.

The Pippa bag by Modalu as worn by Pippa Middleton

• After Christmas sales: since they were worried about their revenues in December, most department stores started their after Christmas sales before December 25. Regardless of what Santa has brought you, made an appointment with yourself for at least an hour before New Year's Eve to check out the sales!