Sunday, December 26, 2004

The First Noel

As the day turns from Christmas to St. Stephen's day here in Italy, I just want to wish everyone a wonderful week full of holidays. Here in Italy, Italians seem to squeeze every drop of holiday season that they can into a two week period, making the day after Christmas just as joyous as the days before. We spent Christmas Eve playing Macerata bingo at Antonello's grandma's house (we won 3 euro!), opening presents beside a singing tree (his grandma's tree sang every time we turned the lights on), and explaining to my parents that every kind of fish they had for dinner was cod, it just had various names in Italian to make it sound more exotic. At midnight, we crossed the street to the church of St. Michael's and listened to Midnight Mass in Italian.

As the service ended, the first Christmas song of the night was played--some pop music Christmas song sung in English to the tune of "Stewball was a Racehorse". What a difference from Lessons and Carols at home in Indy! But it was Christmas in Italy--my first Christmas in Italy--and as we exited the church into the late night, the stars that Corrie mentioned that fill Christmas these days lit up in the sky above us. Our Italian Christmas was just beginning.

Buon Natale to All! Hope your holidays are filled with wonderful things. I miss you!

-Jackie