And We're Off!!!! To Prauge That Is!

So we've decided at the last minute to go to Prague for New Years!

I hope that all of you had a wonderful and magical Christmas like we did! We had Christmas Eve dinner with all of Enrico's family (16 adults and 4 childern) at our house and Christmas Day lunch with just my family, Enrico's mom and Sister Simona.





This is where we'll be going:

Hark! The Herald "Angel Gabriel" Sings!

Enrico's sister Cristiana had her second addition to the family today, Gabriele. What an appropriate name so close to Christmas! He is just so cute! Here are a few pictures of him just a few hours old!

Born on Dec. 16th 2009 @ 9:35am
About 6 pounds
and 18.9 inches long

Cristiana, proud mother!

Mother & Son

Proud "Big Sister"

In these pictures you can see his long nails that nobody wanted to cut - so I did! Everyone was so scared to clip his fingers and Cristiana was just too out of it to be bothered! So she told me I could do it if I was up to it! Piece of cake! ;) EVERYONE was speachless that I actually did cut his nails. Again, piece of cake! I love children, and have cut their nails before, so yes, I was up to it!

Carlotta and her cousin Bea.
To keep them busy,
I let them get into my make-up bag......

....in the making...
......and this is how I looked after "keeping them busy".
I must say, they have a good chance
at opening a salon when they get older!!! ;)

Happy Uncle Enrico

Deck the Halls!

I put up some of the decorations! The tree needs some more ornaments I think.... it still looks a little bit bear... but I do love my styro-foam snow flakes and golden comet stars!!!

For those of you that didn't get to vote! HERE'S YOUR CHANCE!

I'm closing the polls this week end!
So, VOTE NOW!
For your "Favorite Maria" !

Christmas Traditions

I've decided to start a Christmas Tradition this year. I would like to start collecting village pieces to set up on my fireplace mantle. Villeroy & Boch makes the cutest porcelen village! Each piece has a space to put a small tealight candle in it so that they light up just beautifully! I would Like to start with the Christmas Tree and the Post Office this year... as soon as I get better and out and about, I'll go hunt them down! Oh yeah .... did I mention I'm sick? Got Mononucleosis some how. Dunno how, but I did! What a bummer!

I managed to change my layout after all this:

I managed to change my layout however, I did manage to:

1. Delete my blog
2. Retrieve it somehow after majorly FREAKING OUT!
3. Retrieve all the settings the way they were before I "tried" to change my layout.
4. Re-read the directions VERY CAREFULLY and manage to create a Christmas mode.

Don't ask me how I did it... I have NOOOOO IDEA! I just started clicking EVERYWHERE until things just came back, I would NOT know how to do it again if I was asked to.

30, Again?

I had my b-day party on Friday with my friends. For just a few I cooked dinner and then had a bunch over for cake and stuff. We had tons of fun at our house and then decided to go clubbing with a few of the night owls! We went to a club called F.B.I. and came home at 6.30 a.m.! I'm getting too old for it ;)

My good friend Natascia and her Boyfriend gave me the funniest birthday card ever! It reads: the years go by, but you never change " Maria" (They jokingly call me that because its my middle name and they think it's funny since it is such a Grandma name here!) Take a look at the pictures because they're really funny! We had a vote going on during the evening "Vote your favorite Maria" and I think 1962 won.... so go ahead and vote as well! I'll add them to Friday night's votes and we'll just see who really won!

VOTE NOW!

Me the Cook!

My friends gathered around the living room and fire

At the club with Stef, Julia and Paola

Enrico & I

Me bringin' sexy back

Daniela & Enrico

Bust a move!

What? Oh yeah! It's my Birthday!!!
(don't you just love my Tiara??
I got it as a gift from my friend!! how cute is that!)

Julia & I

Paola & I

Surprise! I am officially 30!

I was surprised by my Mom yesterday for dinner... all this past week she was acting stange and mysterious. I knew something was up, but really didn't think about the fact that my Birthday was on Monday. She had already told me to come over for dinner to her house on Sunday night, so nothing strange there... but the strange things were her mysterious ways and SMELLS! Yes smells! On Saturday she came over to our house smelling like an onion! You all have to know that I tease my mom about "not knowing how to cook", so the fact that she smelt like onions to me was funny, and strange at the same time. She acted as if nothing was wrong and would keep changing the subject... I KNEW SOMETHING WAS UP! -But what???- To my surprise last night I walked into my mom's house and a beautiful table was set... all my cousins jumped out and yelled "SURPRISE"!!! Ok so there I got a little emotional and cried a bit! ;) But the biggest surprise of them all was that my Ma actually cooked a full on Thanksgiving dinner for me: Turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, corn on the cob, coldslaw, and PUMPKIN PIE! My favorite pie that doesn't exist here in Italy!!! I was/am IMPRESSED!!!! (that's where the onion smell came from! all her cooking)

Here are a few not so good pictures taken with my old camera, yes I say old beacause Enrico bought me a new camera! I wasn't able to use it because he ordered it and it came with the wrong lens, so he had to send it back in order to get the right lens! But this is how he gave it to me:

It says:
Unfortunatly you still have to wait, but it's worth it!!!
Happy Birthday To You!
A Fantastic Canon EOS1000d (Rebel XS) Just like this one is on its way!
PS: Like a good Engineer, I picked out the camera that won
the EISA award for best reflex 2008!
(Isn't that so cute!!!)


The beautifully set table

"Da Bird"

Turkey carving!

Valeria and Cristiano

Julia, Ludovica and Sofia