Hello, dear reader. Writing you from a different sort of uncomfortable place this time. Usually, I’m stuffed in a tiny seat in a narrow tube hurtling through the air. This time I’m in a weird chair in an oppressively beige hospital room. I spent much of this week with my mother as she was moved from ER to ICU and elsewhere in a traumatic tour of a remarkably depressing place.

Things seem to be on the up and up now, all the important numbers and test results heading in the right direction, a fact for which I’m extremely thankful. But it’s been an extremely long week, and if I happen to owe you an email on something or another, I do hope you’ll be a bit patient. I’ve been doing my best to keep up on things, but it’s safe to say I haven’t quite had the stomach for CES planning this week.

Anyhow, I had a few things go live this week that I wanted to share, so let’s get on with it.

The modern car is, of course, a wildly complicated machine increasingly powered more by software and SoCs than cylinders and combustion. Engineering those cars requires cutting-edge technology, but when it comes to design, tradition has a much bigger role to play. That’s changing, though. For the Washington Post, I delved into the sometimes uncomfortable crossover between those two worlds, where both augmented reality and clay have a part to play.

It was only a few weeks ago that BMW’s iX3 wowed me, really feeling like a generational shift for BMW, a brand that was extremely early to the global electric vehicle game. Mercedes-Benz came a little later to the world of EVs, but the term “fast-follower” doesn’t quite cover it. Mercedes is now ushering in its own generational shift forward, pushing big boosts in efficiency, range, and charging speed.

The CLA is the first implementation of that, wearing a design that’s perhaps not in the upper echelons of the various style icons that Benz has rolled out over the years, but is certainly much closer to the top than the company’s first generation of EQ sedans and SUVs. It’s a remarkably good machine, and its starting price well under $50,000 feels eminently fair.

Lastly this week, my latest piece for The Guardian. I was asked to pull together a list of things that would make great gifts for the aspirationally crafty and handy friends and family in your life. So, I rounded up the most prized and frequently used tools in my garage, and this is the result.

And that’s it from me this week. Wishing everyone holidays full of cheer and sending best wishes to you and your loved ones.