Thursday 29 December 2011

Yesterday and today



For the past couple of days, we all got the flu. On Wednesday, however, we went to check out the winter festival in the nearby city of Leuven. It was magnificent: think old, wooden merry-go-rounds, decadent Christmas lights, a life-size nativity scene in an actual barn built in the town's main square, and real Belgian waffles (Design Mom Gabrielle Blair knows something about it). Even if this ends up being our only outing, I am happy.






How about you? Are you taking any family trips during the holidays?

Wednesday 28 December 2011

What did Santa bring you?



This year I received many wonderful gifts for Christmas. My husband (who normally hates shopping) committed five trips to find the nicest handbag for me. You may remember I had decided to let go of my Celine obsession a few weeks ago, but I obviously had many others :-)  In the end, however, the bag I chose was not on my wish list: it is one-of-a-kind Car Shoe hobo that we found in one of my favorite store of Sestri Levante, Zia Luisa. Car Shoe is part of the group that includes Prada and Miu Miu, and uses the same leather as the former to manufacture its handbags. Result: beautiful, soft leather, at half the price! (I will post pictures soon, I promise) One of our shopping outings led us to my other favourite store in town: Abitificio, which sells amazing cashmere sweaters along with a smart selection of Max Mara, Vanessa Bruno, and Brunello Cucinelli. The sad news was that the store was closing down for an indeterminate amount of time, but the good news was that the impeding closing meant 50% off on most items! I selected a handmade scarf by Foliero Sorti, a real treat.



Obviously, the other fantastic present we all got to the enjoy was our week on the Italian Riviera (I just finished posting all pictures on Flickr!) My son recovered from his lung infection, and we all ate a lot of fish and enjoyed  the warm weather. (Somehow, my mom thought that the trip was not enough as a Christmas present, and also gifted me a neutral pencil skirt by Caractere that tied my holiday outfit together very nicely).


Dentice al sale... yummy!

Once we arrived in Belgium, I discovered two more presents for me under the tree at my in-laws. First, another handbag I long coveted: an original Delvaux with matching wallet. Second, an incredibly original gift: a Vivabox of perfumes, which has allowed me to try 10 different perfumes in the quest for the one I like best. Thank you Santa!

How about you? What did you receive for Christmas? Any surprises?




Tuesday 27 December 2011

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!


Thursday 22 December 2011

Lemons in December



Today the weather really warmed up and, since my son seems to be doing much better, we decided to go on a short afternoon excursion to the Cinque Terre, five neighboring villages on the Ligurian coastline built right on the cliffs overlooking the sea. (The coastline, the five villages, and the surrounding hillsides is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.)

Unfortunately, two of them (Vernazza and Monterosso) are presently closed because they have been largely destroyed by torrential rains which caused floods and mudslides on October 25, 2011. Nonetheless, the hotel concierge recommended going to see the nativity scene in Manarola, so we hopped on the local train for half an hour, arrived in Rio Maggiore and then took a short hike from there to Manarola.

The harbour of Rio Maggiore

Murals at Rio Maggiore

Rio Maggiore was really impressive: it is a town with total vertical spread on a high cliff. I do not think that even one inch of the town lies on a flat surface. And everyone has lemon and orange trees in the backyard! I could not believe my eyes: ripe lemons and oranges everywhere, at the end of December! It made me completely forget that I miss our snowy Canadian Christmas. :-)

The lovers' promenade

From Rio Maggiore, we took the "lovers' promenade" (in Italian, "passeggiata dell'amore") to Manarola. I was a bit hesitant at first to hike there with my son, but it turned out it is a flat road, and it was lovely to stroll there in the sun. Unfortunately, however, we got to Manarola too early to see the nativity scene, because it is visible only in the evening darkness. Our afternoon had been too enjoyable to have any regrets though!

Manarola seen from the lovers' promenade

The nativity scene in Manarola that we did not get to see (Photo: Wikipedia)

Wednesday 21 December 2011

The last minute party outfit




I had big plans for holiday dressing this year. In Canada, we seldom get the chance to go out and dress up for it. We have mainly home parties, with the kids no less. This year, I thought, it is my chance to break with this trend. I wanted to do winter white and sparkly metallics. Then two weeks ago my son got sick and we canceled pretty much all our plans. A few days ago, I tried to remedy to this state of affairs by ordering a pair of metallic pants by Mother and a pair of sparkly moccasins by La Dolce Vita, but I doubt either of these items will de delivered on time for Christmas.

My backup plan is thus the following: abusing the white blouse + black pants + statement heels look. Heck, I may swap the black pants for black leather leggings if I feel particularly daring. I will not need an evening bag because we are spending Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve at home. We are also traveling on Christmas Day, so no need for a fancy handbag in this occasion either. Simple.

P.S. Speaking of parties, if you are in need for a last minute holiday menu, try this: butternut squash soup (you can roast the squash in the oven the night before and have only 30 minutes of cooking time left), stuffed turkey breast rather than a regular turkey (I stuff mine with hazelnuts, dried apricots and dates, and I always get compliments), brussels sprouts for an unusual side dish, and store-bought panettone with ice cream for an Italian touch at the end.


Photo: Net-a-porter.

Tuesday 20 December 2011

How to deal with last minute Christmas preparations


Yottoy Yeti plush and book (available at Saks)

Christmas preparations generally revolve around three main things: gifts, parties, and holiday traveling. Here are my first set of tips about how to tackle them in style even if you are starting from scratch today.

Gifts for your children
You may not like it, but a Christmas card nicely wrapped under the tree will simply not do, at least for your children. They surely have written a mile-long list to Santa Claus, and if you have not yet gotten to it, chances are half of the stuff they asked him is sold out by now.
The strategy I adopted with my son (because yes, I was exactly in this position when I went to get his presents three days ago) was to ask him what things he wanted the most, and concentrate on those.
A second strategy I would have also adopted if online shopping was more accessible to me (as it is in North America) would have been to surprise him with a couple of things he had not asked for. For instance, the book+stuffed toy set above and this awesome backpack would have made the top of my list. Remember that for online rush shopping tomorrow is the cutoff date!

Maxpax backpack (available at Neiman Marcus)

Gifts for your husband
I hate buying gifts for my husband because I find it difficult to be creative. He is the "doing" type, so I meant to get him and my son a set of parents&child skating lessons, but he will be travelling quite a bit in the spring so I had to put this idea aside. It may work for you though! Is there any activity that your husband has always wanted to do, alone or with your children? It can also be a mutual gift: for instance, a few years ago, my husband and I gifted each other with a gym family membership. The advantage is that, even if you do not have any more time to make the necessary arrangements, a nicely wrapped gift card will do for him in this case.
If you prefer to go for more standard presents such as clothing I strongly encourage you to shop online at this point (check out Mr Porter to make an impression), and tick the gift-wrapping box. Remember, once again, that for online rush shopping tomorrow is the cutoff date!

Gifts for everyone else
For female as well as male relatives, one can never go wrong with a perfume, maybe in a nice set if your budget allows it. Hats, scarves and mittens are another classic gift that is always appreciated. For techies, an iPhone or iPad cover are great choices.
An important tip: if you are visiting family and you choose to shop online, have the gifts delivered directly to your destination address to simplify packing.


On holiday traditions




Hello everyone! What is your holiday tradition?

I can tell you without hesitation what my childhood holiday tradition was: spending time with family and childhood friends, eating, going downtown to check out the Christmas lights and the shops, making a final shopping rush on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, have a grand family meal that same evening, waking up with trepidation on Christmas Day to discover the surprises awaiting under the tree, having Panettone for breakfast and my grandmother's cooking for lunch, eating some more while visiting family and friends until New Year's Eve, and awaiting the last holiday surprise on the 6th of January, the Italian "Befana" that is the official end of the holiday season (as you may remember from this post).

Before my son was born, all of this was replaced by a travel frenzy. My husband and I were in a long distance relationship, our families live in two different countries in Europe, and everyone obviously had expectations from us of joining in their celebration. When my son was born, however, travelling during the holidays became out of the question. We wanted to give him the same holiday tradition we had growing up, which most definitely did not involve travelling on Christmas Day. We had a couple of years of bliss, when our family tradition became taking a trip the week before Christmas, generally to the US (where we visited our friends and crossed off the items on our holiday wishlist by taking advantage of great post-Thanksgiving deals), and then entertain visiting relatives during the days that followed.

You may remember how last year went, with the exception of the fantastic trip we took to the Italian Riviera. I was thus looking forward to this year's holiday celebration: decorating our house and our first real tree (because of traveling, so far we ha always decorated a fake tree), taking my son to meet Santa at the Mall, watching movies around a cozy fire, eating Panettone every morning, drinking Starbucks gingerbread lattes, and shopping great deals online. But I am pregnant, and I have so many food intolerances (and such an enormous belly already) that the eating part is totally out of the question. Same goes for the shopping, since it would not make sense to buy clothes or more shoes right now (as my feet have begun to swell).

I would not care about any of it, if at least my family could be all together for Christmas. Yet my parents have decided not to come this year, because they just visited us in occasion of my son's birthday and they really want to come back for the baby's birth at the end of February. Do not get me wrong, especially in light of last week's tragedy in Newton, I feel blessed for my husband and my son. It is just that I am having an incredibly hard time getting over my parents' absence. The pregnancy hormones are not helping in lighting up my mood either...


Photo (and recipe!): Chez Us.


Monday 19 December 2011

6 days 'til Christmas




We are officially in last-minute-Christmas-preparations area. Are you all set, with gifts wrapped, holiday menus planned, visitors and traveling organized? Or are you struggling to get through your last day at the office on Friday and then counting on the last 48 hours to squeeze everything into?

Had you asked me any other year, I would have fallen in the former category. I would have put our Christmas tree up by the end of November. All gifts would have been bought and wrapped. We would have had our traveling before Christmas organized (we generally head South for a week before C-day to warm up a bit), and we would have been waiting for my parents to arrive in time for the holidays. I would have baked cookies, and attended and hosted Christmas parties. I would have known what to wear for most occasions.

This year it wasn't that I lacked organization. I definitely lacked will, because I have really been missing being home in Canada. Weird, uh? It surprises me as well. I have fond memories of any Christmas I spent as a child in Italy. Yet I am not a child anymore. We, as a new family, we have built traditions of our own, and I have been missing ot being able to upkeep them. I have been missing our fake Christmas tree, which we bought while I was still pregnant with my son and we have used every year since. I have been missing the snow and winter activities. I have been missing our friends. 

Then my son came down with pneumonia, so that my organization vanished as well and I became the last-minute person. We made travel plans for this week we are spending at the beach three days before leaving, and up to the night before we were not sure to be able to go so that I packed two hours before getting in the car. I did not buy Christmas gifts in advance. My husband and I squeezed in a visit to the local toy store the morning before leaving for the beach, and we are still looking for presents for each other. We have our travel plans for visiting my husband's family all set -- but once again, my son's health remains a big question mark. Because of all this uncertainty, I have no idea what I'll wear.

How to cope with being last-minute? Stay tuned for my next post.


Photo: Behind the thrills.


Sunday 18 December 2011

Happy birthday to me!








Today it was my birthday and I could have not celebrated it in a better way. 

During our follow-up visit last friday, my son's doctor (the one about whose office I was finally able to write about in this post) strongly recommended us to go to the beach and make him breath some fresh air. Since it has not been raining much in the past three months, pollution levels in Milan are sky-high and the doctor discouraged us from taking my son outside in these conditions. My parents were kind enough to offer us a beach vacation as Christmas present, so last Monday we made our reservation. After much back and forth about where to go, we decided to go back to one of our favourite places, Sestri Levante, which is located in Liguria in between Portofino and the Cinque Terre. My grandmother was half Ligurian and my grandparents owned an apartment in nearby Chiavari, so that I spent most of my childhood in the area during the winter and summer holidays. Chiavari, however, is a big town with no beach, so that in recent years we had started coming to the small town of Sestri Levante, where everything is accessible on foot and there is an incredible atmosphere of old Italian villages. This time, we would have liked to perhaps go on vacation to a different place, and we had explored options in Forte dei Marmi, Sanremo, and even Cannes. In the end, though, we decided to choose a well-known, nearby place, where we knew what to do and to expect. After all, the purpose of this trip is first and foremost to make sure that my son recovers well.

We arrived in Sestri Levante last night, and this is the view we woke up to this morning. We are staying at an amazing hotel, the Vis-a-Vis, which is located on top of the hill dividing two bays: Silence Bay (Baia del Silenzio, in Italian) and the Bay of Fairy Tales (Baia delle Favole, in Italian). It is low-season, so we are among the few hotel guests. This means we get pampered a lot :-)

Because the sea was a bit agitated, the highlight of our day was running away from the waves in Silence Bay. It was the first in the past ten days that my son was able to go outside, and it was priceless.


Wednesday 14 December 2011

Trying to get in the mood




Nothing sets me in the mood for Christmas as an Anne Perry's novel does. The Victorian charm that emanates from her Christmas mysteries evokes a time where women were always stylish and everyone had a clear place in society.

The past week has been gloomy. As the doctor had predicted, with the new antibiotics my son's fever subsided by last Friday.  Yet the scare he gave us last week has left a mark on both me and my husband. We have been counting his feverless days and praying that he continues to recover well. I have also been quite tired, staying up til late to give him is third daily dose of antibiotics at midnight. 

This afternoon, however, I slept. I took an old-fashioned afternoon nap, and this evening I am determined to get into the mood for Christmas. I thus downloaded on my Kindle my reading list, beginning with Anne Perry's "A Christmas Homecoming" and throwing in the new novels by Stephen King and John Grisham for kicks. How many books do you think I'll actually be able to read? :-)

What are you reading for Christmas?


Saturday 10 December 2011

Our specialist's office



This is my son's specialist in respiratory infections. Yes, the one portrayed as an underwater explorer. He is a well-known pediatrician with a number of university degrees and we would have not known what to do without him when my son got sick last week. Yet the reason why my son fell in love with him is because his office is, by all standards, awesome. Don't you agree?




Thursday 8 December 2011

How many trees do you decorate?



Have you gotten your Christmas tree up already? When I was a child, the first weekend in December was the time we set aside to decorate the Christmas tree. I have carried on the same tradition with my husband, but this year we have been a bit late because of the circumstances. We are borrowing my parents' tree, because we thought it was silly to buy a new one for just one year, and because in Italy it is very hard (and expensive) to find real trees. 

We thus decorated one tree, and placed it in the living room. Lately, I have read at least few accounts about the fact that there can be multiple trees in the same house. In the apartment where we are living this year there would not be enough space for more than one tree, but I have to confess that even in our big house in Canada I never thought about decorating more than one tree.

So I am curious: how many trees do you decorate?


Not a very festive holiday

Sant'Ambrogio, patron of the city of Milan

Every year, the day before the Immacolate Conception, the "milanesi" celebrate the city's patron, Sant'Ambrogio. They generally do so by fleeing the city for a long weekend that combines the two holidays, or by remaining in town and getting ready for Christmas. Among this latter group, a selected elite attends the opening of the season at Teatro La Scala (this year, with Don Giovanni).

"Vecchia Milano Fiera di Sant'Ambrogio", by one of my favourite painters, Giulio Falzoni

We, however, spent the day at the emergency room. My son started having really high fever yesterday even though he was still taking antibiotics from his previous flu spell that ended last week, so we decided to take no chances. Diagnosis: small lung infection, aka pneumonia. I am sure you understand if the day is kind of blur to me. Now, after two doses of a new and stronger antibiotic, for the first time in two days he has no fever. I cannot go to sleep because I obviously want to monitor the situation, but I decided to celebrate this milestone event (to me) but distracting myself a bit.

Photo: SitoQui

I have wonderful child memories of Sant'Ambrogio. My dad always took me around the city -- something that in those days did not happen often. We set out to see the big tree that had been lit in front of the Duomo (the one we saw being put up last weekend) and then headed to the fair of "Oh Bej! Oh Bej!" We ate roasted chestnuts, whose smell filled the air.

Photo: Milano 2.0

I wanted to share all these experiences with my son this year. Considering how our day went, I still feel blessed that now he seems to react to the treatment (still fresh, I just checked!). Because I can guarantee you, the emergency room of a children's hospital is a place I hope never to have to go back to again.

Historical note: Sant'Ambrogio was born in 339, became one of the four most important doctors of the Church (together with Agostino) and then bishop of the city, before dying in 357. The basilica dedicated to him was Milan's cathedral until the construction of the Duomo.

Tuesday 6 December 2011

Sex segregation



Yesterday afternoon I took my son to a friend's birthday party. My husband and I both left work earlier so that we could go, since the birthday girl is the daughter of one of my two best friends and we were thinking about hanging out with her parents. In Canada, birthday parties and playmates have indeed been for us an occasion to socialize with the other kids' parents. We were unprepared for the fact that there were no other dads around, not even the dad of the birthday girl who popped in a few minutes for the cake and then went back to his office. In fact, not even all moms were there, and two kids had come with their nanny. This was for us another example of sex segregation here in Italy. Childbearing is overwhelmingly a mom's responsibility, and when she is not available I have not yet seen a dad to replace her, but rather a nanny...

Monday 5 December 2011

Did you know that today...




... is the first day of Online Fashion Week? I stumbled upon this news on Facebook and I blame the hectic climate of the past month for the fact I had no idea what it even was. It turns out that it is a collaboration of retailers with British Vogue, and that it will last until December 9. I quickly skimmed over the list of events and it seems to me that promotions are limited to UK retailers: for instance, GAP will offer free shipping to all orders in the UK (enter SPARKLE at checkout), and amazon.co.uk offers 10 percent off all orders (enter VOGUEOFW at checkout). The event has a charitable inspiration as well, and you can choose to which charity donate the amount of your purchases.

Come on mates! I'd love to hear what you scored, or any updates you may have for us.


Another weekend activity

During our visit to the Triennale Design Museum in early October, I had found out about their series of weekend kids' workshops and I had wanted to attend one with my son since then. To give ourselves an opportunity to hang out with my son's classmates, I had thus organized a group outing to today's "Bamboo building" Workshop.

The session lasted 90 minutes in total, and begun with a child-friendly tour of the museum with two animators. The tour was disguised as a treasure hunt so that kids would not get bored. Considering that the group was made of approximately 15 kids and that they went through the museum without leaving just a pile of debris behind them, I think it was a success. Nonetheless, the tour should have been a bit shorter, because towards the end the kids were getting bored and the parents too stressed out about their children breaking something.

Getting instructions about the museum visit

Searching for clues in the "Pratone"

Discovering design at the museum

After the tour, it was time for "Bamboo building", a group bricolages activity where kids had to build huts with bamboo sticks. My son loves building and enjoyed the process, but even the less patient kids had a blast once the huts were finished and they could play by "inhabiting" them.

Building a bamboo hut

I will definitely go back for other activities after the holidays!

Saturday 3 December 2011

The first weekend before Christmas

Lego Santa in the windows of La Rinascente

After spending the morning hanging around the house, in the afternoon we set out to see the Pixar exhibition. We thought it was held at Palazzo Reale, in the core of downtown, so we headed straight for the Duomo. We admired La Rinascente's Christmas windows and their Lego Santa, and were lucky enough to see the decorations being put on Milan's giant Christmas tree.

Setting up a giant christmas tree can be challenging!

Yet once we reached Palazzo Reale, we were told that the exhibition was actually held at the Contemporary Art Pavillon, or PAC. After one more car ride from Piazza Duomo to Via Palestro, and the enervating search for parking that went with it, we arrived at the right place. There was a long line outside and we regretted not having bought the tickets online in advance.


The line outside PAC for the Pixar exhibition

Since my son was just recovering from a bad flu spell, I went to ask whether I could wait with him inside the premises while my husband queued for the tickets. The doorman was kind enough to then let us through directly. Once inside, we finally understood the reason for the chaos outside: the premises were occupied by a group of angry workers from the art sector, who were holding a political demonstration. Nothing dangerous: the demonstrators were all sitting around, listening to the speech of different speakers. The problem was that there were so many of them, that only few visitors could be let in at a time, hence the long line outside the building. Visiting the exhibition was also quite difficult, because all spaces were crowded and the political speakers' loud voice was amplified in every room, so all videos and interviews could not be heard.



The political demonstration inside PAC

I have to say I was indignated. The only exhibition at PAC was Pixar's, and kids were left to wait outside long hours in the cold weather while protesters occupied their space. I think there is something really wrong when workers' legitimate right to protest is allowed to take over a kid's world.



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