Merry Christmas!

The Christmas season in Italy officially starts December 8th on the feast of the immaculate conception.  Oddly enough even though there is no Thanksgiving there are still Black Friday sales.  It makes no sense.  Little here does.  Italy has it's own internal logic that only works (or doesn't work) here.

We started our holiday celebrations with a visit to the Piazza Navona Christmas market.  The market itself was pretty underwhelming.  Christmas markets are a Northern European thing.  The Italian ones aren't that interesting.  The stalls had a few candies and some carnival games, but were pretty uninteresting.  The carousel was fun and the church on the piazza is beautiful.  There was an organ recital going on which was pretty spectacular.  We watched the puppet show for a few minutes.  It featured the traditional Neapolitan character, Pulcinella, dressed in white with a black mask.

In an astonishing show of bureaucratic efficiency the Christmas market was shut down for lack of appropriate safety permits a few days after we visited.  Fortunately, it was able to reopen on Christmas day.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with our family tradition of cioppino.  Cioppino is an Italian-American fish and seafood stew that originated in San Francisco with the Italian fishermen from Genoa.  It was made as the fishermen would "chipped in" from their catch of the day to make the meal.  The California version features Dungeness crab and is served with fresh sourdough.  We couldn't find crab of any sort and sourdough bread doesn't exist here.  We made up for it with the amazing scallops.  We finished up the dish with artichokes, another California/Italian specialty.  This was my first year making the cioppino.  I'm usually the dessert person.  It turned out great.  I think we will still reserve it for Christmas Eve, but it no longer scares me.

 I kept the shells because I think they are pretty, but they are outside until they no longer smell like fish.

We were invited up to our landlady's apartment above us to join in with her family Christmas Eve party.  It was a lot of fun.  They are a great family.  Her two daughters were there with their husbands, kids, and in-laws.  One daughter lives in Rome across town and the other one lives in Sicily.  The daughters speak pretty good English, which makes it easier.  I made American desserts to share.  I took chocolate chip cookies, gingerbread men, and cinnamon rolls.  They were a hit, rare and foreign delicacies.  One daughter had tasted something like the gingerbread in the Netherlands and they had seen cinnamon rolls from Sweden.  I explained that my great grandmother was from Sweden.  It was too much to explain the connection between Utah and Scandinavia with all of the LDS Nelsons, Nielsons, Chiristensens, Sorensens and others that came to the state in the late 19th century.  Our connection is through the Jensens and others.

Christmas day started with the kids unwrapping their presents.  I couldn't find the wrapping paper so pillow cases and towels had to substitute.  I wanted the to stretch it out and have the kids actually unwrap instead of just seeing things there.  It seemed like it would be more fun that way.  The big presents were actually replacing things that we didn't bring with us, like the guitar and sewing machine, and warm fuzzy things to stay warm.  Then sometimes you find the perfect mug. 

"That's what I do.  I eat Cheez-Its and I know things."

We had dinner with some families from church who don't have extended family in the area.  It was an interesting mix of people.  The host family is Italian and American.  Most of the invited families were from South America.  The menu was all Italian and very good.  I again brought American cookies, which the American missionaries loved.  A little taste of home on Christmas day.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!