So, Rotary tells all the exchange students that Christmas is the hardest time for us exchangers. Well, I can say, that I had a wonderful Christmas. I spent a lot of time with my family here in Italy and about 2 hours skyping my families in America. I got to see my new baby cousin of three months for the first time, and I got to see my dad and his girlfriend for the first time since I got here. It definitely made my Christmas Day complete. SO, now I will try to describe how Christmas works in Italy.
First I could describe basically how it works in 2 words: FOOD, and PEOPLE.
Yup, that's it. I had 15 people for my Christmas Eve dinner and 16 people for Christmas day lunch and dinner. It is always so loud, but surprisingly, it's not that chaotic...
So, Christmas Eve, there was a very beautiful dinner :) It was very very delicious! :D After we finished dinner, I played UNO with my cousins and taught them a magic trick :) I absolutely adore them!! I'm super bummed that i won't be able to see them grow up!! Hopefully they will always remember me, because I really try to make sure to give them attention and answer their questions about America.
After dinner, my family (and all the adults) went to a Christmas Eve service at the Church. It was really cool. It started at 10 and the first hour was singing and the second hour was normal Mass. (don't worry mom, I'm still not converting to Catholicism) it finished at about 12 on Christmas Morning ;)
So, I got home and went to sleep at about 1 am after saying Merry Christmas to A LOT of people. This consisted of two kisses on the cheek for everyone! Wow, I was tired :P
Then, I woke up at 9:15, because everyone wakes up a little earlier than usual on Christmas morning :)
We opened presents and everybody was really happy :) Everybody liked the presents and home-made cards I made and I was satisfied with my presents. I got two scarfs, gloves, a hat (because I am always cold!) Italian-made perfume, and nail-polish. Everything was very thoughtful :)
After present-opening, we ate the BIG Christmas lunch. Here in Italy, their main courses during holidays are during the lunch hours. There was so much food it was insane :) Even I helped cook there was so much!! There was like 10 different appetizers two main courses, and then fruit/dessert. So much for my diet on Christmas day :) Oh well, I am allowed to cheat on Christmas... My family even has a special drink for digestion so that when you drink it, you are not as full 5 minutes later :) I thought that was funny :)
So after lunch, my sister and all the kids played Just Dance 4 (one of the kids presents) for about 4 hours. This made me feel less bad about how much I ate at lunch :) Then I Skyped with my Grandparents and my cousins in California for about 20 minutes!! Thanks for the iTunes gift card grandma Dee! :) <3 After that, I went downstairs and ate a little bit of dinner. I still was not very hungry from the lunch. :D After all the Christmas meals were done, I brought a computer downstairs and had my mom, step-dad, dad, and dad's girlfriend Skype with my whole family! It was soo much fun!! Everyone was screaming and running around and very excited to meet my family, even though they couldn't really communicate because of the language barrier. I had to translate a lot of the times :)
After going upstairs and talking with my family for another hour and a half or so, I packed and then went upstairs and watched a movie with my family. Then, Christmas was over and I was off to bed.
Today I am headed off to Parugia in the region of Umbria. :) We are going with about 6 other families in our camper (everyone has their own camper of course!) and hopefully, after my New Years Party on the 31st we will be headed up to the ITALIAN ALPS! Wow, now THAT should be an awesome experience.
Christmas Eve Dinner
I helped make the places :)
Well, that was good :)
Getting ready to chow-down. The kids ate pizza, while everyone else ate fancier stuff :)
Christmas MORNING!
My presents!! Grazie tutti!
Christmas LUNCH
My name has a place here. I hope that my name will forever be in this family <3
Appetizers!
Fruit! haha. My favorite :)
Overall, my Italian Christmas was filled with family, fun, and food. <3
Thanks so much to everyone involved who helped make my Italian Christmas special :)
~Shelby Janae <3 <3
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