Christmas, family and EEL

HOLIDAY ?
Luckily the sun is now shining, the temperature's come u

p, my plumbing's no longer running, the laundry is done and the canary next door is singing. Life is good. Now if someone would just put some order into this apartment... 

From the train:  We barely made our train (only because Tullio lied to me and told me it left 15 minutes earlier than it actually did - I love this man!!) and we're on our way to Rome to see his sister. Monday, we head down to his parents' house in Puglia. Hopefully we'll get some good weather. Christmas shopping in Rome can't be too bad, though... Two days in Rome, three days in Martina Franca, and then off to Houston. I wish it were Holi-weeks instead of -days. Merry Christmas to all of you.

So, we made it to Martina Franca for Christmas.! First, we spent time with Rita and Zelinda in Rome, and then we took a plane down to Martina. Mishaps at the airport ensued. Tullio's brother was supposed to leave Rome for Bari on an Alitalia flight before us and wait to drive with us to Martina. We were going to meet him in his terminal (we left from another terminal.) Instead, he made the mistake of already going through security in his terminal (he had checked in online) and we didn't get to see him. So we headed back to our terminal. Then, Alitalia cancelled his flight, and we ended up reserving him a flight from our terminal at Fiumicino Airport on AirOne, going back and forth between the two terminals to help get him on that flight. Crazy. Then, even that flight was late. But eventually we got to his parents' house, and the vacation began.

The most important parts of the vacation: pranzo, riposino, and passeggiata (lunch, nap and walk) - and FAMILY. It was great to spend time as a member of his family. His parents coddled me, and I got to know everyone a lot better. We ran into our old friends Gianfranco and Domenico, and I got to meet a ton more home-town friends of Tullio's as we walked around town desperately trying to find some last-minute gifts. It seems Tullio is even well-beloved everywhere. We had a hilarious evening with another Gianfranco, who was telling funny stories about Gianfranco Number One in grade-school. It seems some of our friends have always been nuts (in a good way!)

The star of Tullio's family is Giulia, the only grand-daughter. What I didn't know was that Tullio has been designated Santa for many years now. At two and a half, she wanted nothing to do with him, and started crying - - and who was she crying for?? UNCLE TULLIO! She must've realized on some subconscious level that it was him? Pretty funny.

What I didn't know were some traditions in Italy - at least in Tullio's family. For Christmas eve dinner, we had all fish. And EEL was the featured main dish of the evening. I guess it's like black eyed peas in their region - you have to eat some for good luck? I don't know. I tried it, but it's not really my thing unless in small doses on sushi. We did the "vigilia," which many families do - wait until midnight to celebrate Jesus's birthday. They sang a little song, did a little procession and then put the baby Jesus (missing until now in the creche) into his manger. Except Giulia wanted to keep Baby Jesus to herself. It's hard to give up toys when you're two and a half. We opened a multitude of too-generous gifts, and Tullio's dad went to the end of the Mass to see what was going on there. My big gift from Tullio was spectacular - - I had mentioned that it'd be nice to play the 'cello again and play some concrete music that's not word-related. So he bought me A VIOLONCELLO!! He's absolutely crazy. Now, I guess I'll really have to take lessons again! I'll have to start at zero, but it's a beautiful project.


In any case, a great time was had by all, and then I had to leave... at 4 am on Christmas morning.