Natale in Italia

Christmas in Italy has been quite an experience. As a whole Italians do Christmas really well. They eat TONS of Panettone, which is a rich, sweet bread with dried fruit in it. They also have a ridiculous amount of gift giving traditions. In Brescia, not only does Santa Claus come to call but also Santa Lucia, who arrives the 12th of December and comes down the chimney on a donkey to give good little boys and girls presents. Apparently she only visits Brescia since she's their local saint, but since they also conform to global pop culture, Babo Natale also comes down the chimney on Christmas Eve. Chimneys get lots of action in Italy. Also on January 8th another mythical person, la Befana- a girl in ripped up dresses, come to put candy in the kids socks (which is why they don't hang stockings on the mantle at Christmas). So the kids just rake it in during the holidays. Especially Alessia whose birthday was on the 8th. She got presents from half the school, so I'm still trying to find space for 30 new toys in the play room.

The kids put on a Christmas show for school, which was all in English. Alessia was given a solo but she was too shy, so they added three of her best friends to sing it with her. We started practicing for the show before Thanksgiving, so I was glad when it was over so I could stop singing the same songs over and over. Gigi was dressed like an angel and refused to let go of his toy gun until we got to the theater (which was ironically hilarious) and Ale was a snowman. It was a little bit disappointing because Alessia knew not only every word to her songs, but the words to Giorgio's songs too. But she was too shy to sing on stage with much gusto. And then Giorgio -who has no problem whatsoever with gusto- is too little to know all of the words. So he just jumped up and down shouting unintelligibly. They did a free dance at the end though, and Gigi was brilliant in that because he LOVES to dance. By the end of the show Ale (who had refused to take a nap) was exhausted and spent the last 10 minutes with her finger up her nose, to her fathers great horror. Of course it's all on video. Fingers crossed it gets played at her wedding someday. 

Christmas day I was invited to eat lunch with them with Valentina's family in Padova. But apparently accepting this invite also meant excepting the fact that I'd be working on Christmas. So upon learning this an hour before they left, I begged off saying I got a late invite to a lunch in Milano. Since everyone I know in Milano had plans or left the country for Christmas, I walked around the little Christmas village market they'd set up for the holidays and bought olive wood spoons like my mom. I flirted with the guy that ran the stand and for the small price of my phone number I got a pasta measurer for free. I also took in the GIANT Tiffany & Co Christmas tree in la Piazza del Duomo. It's magnificent. After I went back to Brescia I finished my packing for my trip to visit Cheryl's family in England and I Skyped my own family during their Christmas get together. Nothing like 20 people crowded round 1 computer. Of course I pick the year to live abroad when my Aunt Dennis and Uncle Lynda come from California for Christmas. Bad timing I say. But it was a Merry Christmas all in all and now I get to spend a fabulous New Year's in England!