Christmas 2009

Once again, we had a great Christmas this year. Colin woke up Christmas morning feeling much better and even managed to eat a great big Christmas lunch, after 2 days of fever and eating practically nothing. So right away, Mommy got her Christmas wish. Santa Claus managed to find us in Turin at the Nonni's house, and brought lots of good toys as well.

Colin received a couple of Lego-like construction toys, one is an assault chopper (which we are still working on) and the other is a motorcycle. He also received a 7-in-1 game set, with chess, checkers, backgammon, and a whole bunch of other games I've never even heard of. He also received a flying "bug" as you can see in the photo, which of course we had to test right away that morning outside.


Lucia had a princess Christmas, as Santa brought a Cinderella dress, a princess chalk board, and even "make-up", and she sat down right away to test out the goods.

Santa also left some "tattoos" in our stockings, which we were eager to try out with our Italian cousins. Check out the body art on Colin (one leg has a whale, and the other a lion - which by the way, has still not washed off over a week later), Giorgio has a row of turtles up his leg and an elephant on his arms, Lucia has some flowers on cheeks and butterflies on her hands, and Benedetta has a giraffe on her leg and a horse on her arm.

The main attraction of Christmas in Italy, at least for the adults who received nothing but coal in their stockings, is the traditional Christmas lunch. In Piedmont, the typical pasta is agnolotti, which is like ravioli stuffed with lamb or other meat. My mother-in-law makes it by hand every year, with a vegetarian version of ricotta and spinach for me, and it is always delicious. Of course, there are lots of starters and a second course, finishing up with panettone, or Italian Christmas cake.

We spent the afternoon with the cousins - the children happily played with their new toys, while the adults tried to digest the massive amounts of food they had eaten.

Snow Day

Tuesday was supposed to be the kids' last day of school before the holidays, or rather the last HALF DAY of school, as they were supposed to be excused at noon, and then we were planning on visiting Daddy at his office and having lunch with him. Mother Nature had other plans, and on Monday, she decided to let loose with a snow storm that left about a foot and a half of snow on the ground before it stopped on Tuesday morning. It was already getting bad Monday afternoon, it took me close to an hour and a half to pick up the 2 kids from school and get back home again. I called Marco around 3:30pm and told him he should leave work immediately because it was getting bad. Of course he didn't listen, and when I called again right before 5:00pm, saying that I was just getting home from picking the kids up from school, he took me a little more seriously. Still, he didn't get home until 9:30pm! The next day was obviously a vacation day, and we pulled out all of the snow gear and had some fun in the snow.

Christmas activities

The last week has been full of activities leading up to Christmas. Last Wednesday, Colin basketball class did a Christmas program, where they showed off their mad skillz to a very-impressed crowd of moms and dads. They basically ran around the court, dribbling, or at least doing a fairly good imitation of such, and attempted a few baskets, with Christmas music playing in the background. Colin is getting pretty good at dribbling, but since the basket is basically at standard height, making a basket is a pretty rare event.

The following evening was Colin's 7th birthday party. We held the party at a place called Giocolandia, which is basically an enormous play area for kids. It is every parent's worst nightmare and every kid's dream. A couple of kids from Colin's class have had their birthday parties there this year, and Colin couldn't imagine doing his birthday anywhere else. It went fairly well, although at a certain stage a couple of boys started fighting and another boy ended up in tears in an unrelated incident. Colin spent most of the time with his eye on the table of presents, asking when he could start opening them. I was a little worse for wear after a very hectic week of work and trying to get gifts for Christmas and birthday ready, and I told Colin right away that we would do a different kind of birthday party next year, maybe just a slumber party for a couple of his friends!

The kid with his arms around Colin in the photo is his best buddy, Davide. The cake in front of him is a special cake they provide as part of the birthday package. It is basically a sweet bread with Nutella spread inside in the shape of a number 7. Kids go nuts for it.

Friday night they had a special mass for the elementary and middle school kids at Colin's school. In typical Italian style, they said that it would start at 8:30, and that we should have the kids there at 8:15pm. Being American, I thought that meant that my kid should be there at 8:15, and he was, however, the mass didn't start until about 9:00pm and it was 11:00pm before we were back home again. This year went better than last, however, in the sense that Lucia at least managed to stay awake, and Colin wasn't nearly comatose with sleepiness at the end.

As an example of one of the many mysteries of children, my exhausted children fell into bed at 11:00pm, but were wide awake at 7:00am. I'm not sure how that works.

Saturday was Lucia's pre-school Christmas play and it had all the elements of a perfect pre-school Christmas play - Baby Jesus walked off stage crying for his mom, and one of the girls lost her skirt while dancing, although she wasn't at all bothered by this. Another kid, who Lucia regularly says is a trouble-maker, lived up to his reputation during the performance, much to the consternation of his teachers. Lucia's role was as a star, and it was the perfect role for my little girl, and she thoroughly enjoyed herself on stage, as you can see as she hams it up during her little dance.

Colin started attending weekly catechism classes this year, and on Sunday afternoon, all of the classes put on a nativity scene/play at the church. Colin was an angel, again a role that perfectly fits my son. Afterwards they had panettone (Italian Christmas cake) and a little party in the community center. We stayed for a while, but my kids were pretty exhausted after their busy week! But now we are definitely ready for some presents and vacation.