My Two Things

Is it shallow to say that my favorite thing about this Christmas was that I got to sleep until 8:40 am? This is a record. Since Jacob was a baby in Christmas of 2001, I do not think I have slept that late on Christmas, and usually, I've gone to bed around 2:30 am and been awakened at 6:30 am. This is not meant to be a complaint (although I guess technically it is), since I know that I am very fortunate to have such magical, beautiful Christmases. But I'll tell you--I was overjoyed to awake this morning and not h.u.r.t. Wahoo! 

Another great joy was Annie and her new roller-skates. First, I cannot help but be reminded by Annie's hope for skates of my Granny Ruth, who many decades ago, asked Santa to bring her skates, and also to help the poor children (recorded as a letter to Santa published in her local paper, and sweet because she herself was a very poor child of the Depression). Annie rolled all across our floors for literally 13 hours and it was a very, very adorable sight.

After holding out for 7 months on a coffee maker (we've used a French press all this time), I got Ron a real coffee maker. It even makes foam. I have been in a "wait and see" stage for all this time, and finally determined what my favorite kind is (Lavazza), assumed/hoped Ron would love it too, and took the plunge. Boy, is it nice!

Sebastian was UNUSUALLY pleasant today--not the typical "child who has little sleep and too much sugar and so even though he has a manic high in the morning, he crashes and burns and we force him to take a nap." No, he was steady and happy all day. He got all these toys that required that someone help him set them up. But no one was really dying to do that. We did help him with the Play-Doh barber shop, with the guy and gal who's hair grows when you turn the crank, and then you cut and style it (I had it when I was a girl living in Dallas in 1977). But other than that, I was cooking TONS of food, putting on a birthday party for Leigh in the afternoon. I made Florentine steaks (like t-bone), a roasted chicken, braised radicchio, sautéed endive with sweet balsamic sauce, roasted yellow cauliflower with parmesan, and mashed potatoes. Ron topped it off with Socher torte, white chocolate croissants, and lots of treats. Plus Prosecco and Brunello red wine.
     Instead of fussing, Sebastian played the thing he could--police--ALL DAY LONG. It was really adorable. I love that kid. He's going to be all grown up very soon. I cherished him saying prayers tonight, and thanking God for the presents Santa had brought him. Be still my heart.

Leigh had a great 13th birthday. She got the phone she hoped for, and really seemed as happy as could be. She is so beautiful, smart, and all around incredible.  

We are not dwelling on the fact that that this is Jacob's last Christmas living with us. Next year, he will presumably have spent a semester at college (UD! Whahoo!), and just have come back to spend a few weeks with us. I've decided not be be upset about that (although it's hard not to see time marching right across your life, wrecking havoc). He has always found a Santa hat on Christmas and worn it all day--we finally noted the trend after 18 years. It's just his thing. 

 It turns out, my thing, or things, are 1) Christmas Mass--such an incredible, supernatural mystery made accessible, joyful and real. I am astonished at the humility of God. Why? How? Really? From start to finish, the life of Christ reaches out to the humble, meek, outcast, forlorn, brokenhearted, rejected, sinner. Since I relate to all of these in some way or other, my takeaway is that I am unmistakably included in his plan to share abundant, divine love. How I sit and marvel. I have no words. Just gratitude. And delight.  

   My other thing is my family (these are incredible human beings--just amazing). I love Christmas for these two reasons! 

Christmas Eve

Yesterday, we watched the new Grinch as a family--popcorn and everything.

Today, we had such a wonderful Christmas Eve. Lots of rest and fun and tons of food--lamb enchiladas with "Christmas"--red as well as green chile--Jake's favorite from New Mexico. That, too, was close to a fail, like the cookies, but any spice and Mexican or New Mexican food is a crowd pleaser around here.

   Then, midnight Mass with the community from Villa Sora, our older kids' school.  It was supposed to start at 11:30 pm but actually started at midnight, and the energy was high and everyone was downright excited. My favorite part was the Salesian priest processing in with the baby Jesus for the creche. They are mad about creches here in Italy. And so the priests left the Mass, and Ron and I asked each other, "Where'd they go?" and then the came back in with the baby Jesus, I was so tickled. I love these people.
    Sebastian slept all the way through, even all the hugging and kissing--the Italian greeting--with our Villa Sora friends after Mass. What a night!

Ugliest Christmas Cookies Ever

   The season has been downright magical--from the street markets to the lights to the warm "Buon Natale" you get everywhere you go. The little towns of the Castelli, like Frascati, really light up at Christmas time. They are less commercialized and more joyful than what I am used to back home. People in stores are generally happy, not rushed or annoyed; the stores still close for the afternoon so that the proprietors can take their hot lunch and nap, right up to Christmas day. I appreciate that.
   But the one thing that has been a complete fail is my Christmas baking. Sugar cookies with icing--how hard could that be, even in another country?

 

    Well, for one thing, they do not sell baking powder. They sell lieveto per dolci or "leaven for sweets." But it is not proportioned at the same strength as American baking powder. So, Mary and I both experimented to find the right amount. I have settled on: 3/4 the amount that an American recipe calls for.
   For another thing, they do not sell food coloring. Well, they do, but it is in a large liquid bottle mixed with other things (I'm not sure what), not a little squeeze bottle like back home. So, when an icing recipe calls for 2 T. of liquid (such as milk) to be added to powdered sugar and food coloring, and the food coloring you put in is at least 3 T. in order to get it to be a vibrant color, you have thereby wrecked the ratio, so it is drippy and thin. And dull. Well actually, ugly.

Another thing they do not have here is corn syrup. So I googled, "substitutes for corn syrup." It said to boil water and put in sugar and create a syrup. But of course, that adds more liquid. So all in all, it was a disaster. Have you ever seen such ugly cookies? 

The only ones that turned out were ones with white icing and sprinkles. 

So, when I go back to the U.S., I am going to load my suitcase with: food coloring, light corn syrup, baking powder, canned pumpkin, evaporated milk, and Crisco. It's hard to do the holidays without them. 

    That said, ugly or not, the kids devoured multiple plates of cookies. And the holidays are wonderful all the same. The solution to the ugly cookies: Buy cannolis!! And cookies with Pope Francis printed on them! 

Tosca

   We had such an incredible time breaking free from our wild and woolly life here on the farm in Frascati, and going to the opera in Rome. I discovered that Puccini's Tosca was playing at the same opera house in which it debuted in 1900. What a thrill! Ron and I got all dressed up and had the evening of the year. I actually cried when entering the theater--it is more beautiful than my imagination had been able to speculate.
    One of the most amazing parts of it was to listen to the opera sung in Italian by Italians in Italy, and to know Italian so much better than ever before. It was more like watching Phantom of the Opera in New York--just a play set to music. Ron and I were fixated on the expressions, idioms, and syllables dropped to make the score work.
    My favorite scene (probably everybody's favorite scene and why the opera is so adored by opera fans): a powerful politician tries to take advantage of Tosca, a beautiful diva. She doesn't know anyway out, so she consents. . . and before anything happens, she stabs the living h*ll out of the guy! It was just plain awesome! And then she lays a crucifix on his dead body!
    We thought about our friends, Joan and Patrick Dennison. Patrick once played the lead male role in Tosca, and he and Joan were deep into the professional opera life in Italy years ago. We love the Dennisons and had them on our minds and in our hearts throughout the evening.

Party at the Rombses

   Our Advent season is so special this year. The kids are turning a corner and doing well in school. The teachers are saying, "She's just where we expect her/him to be!" about all our kids, even when they are struggling.  
   Jacob was invited to present on the American Revolution in history and took over the class and lectured (in Italian) on this topic. And I've been asked to be a guest lecturer in philosophy next week. We love both of the schools and are finally settling in. . . a little bit!
   But yesterday, on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron of the Americas, we had a good old fashioned American feast. I made tons of tacos, including green and red chile sauce from scratch. This involved finding red and green chiles (I had to go to several stores), roasting them, peeling off the skins, de-seeding them, and then chopping the flesh and adding it to a sort of homemade cream sauce.
   We blasted country music (I'm sure Our Lady did not mind that it was not Mexican), and reminisced about great memories over the years. We love America! And we are loving Italy, too.

Immaculate Conception

     Today is one of the biggest holidays in Italy, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, marking her conception as free from original sin. My way of thinking about this is that she, too, needed to be saved by God in Christ, but He lovingly saved her in her conception, so as to make a way for the coming of Christ. So the glory of her being preserved from original sin is all about Christ, what was fitting for him. But she still stands in need of mercy, a mercy she received in a beautiful and unusual way.
     This is a huge day for the Italians, the day that many families put up their Christmas trees and decorations, and the day the tree in front of Palazzo Venezia is lit. But even more, it is the day that the pope goes to Piazza d'Spagna and pilgrims gather and say prayers at the statue of the Immaculate Conception there. Annie, Sebastian and I braved the crowds and were there!

We also went to Mass at Santa Anna, my all time favorite church in the world.

That was after being at St. Peter's Square for the Angelus with the pope.
And THAT huge day was after being in Rome yesterday with Sebastian and Annie, going to the Christmas market in Piazza Navona. Heaven for these two kids! Rome is sooooooo beautiful at Christmas time!

Ron and Sebastian

Favorite Things

    When kids are failing school, when the Italians act like they wish you weren't here, when your car is just rotting in the front yard because it takes more that six months to get a tag and registration, when sometimes you just want to go home, I have to remember some of my favorite things about Italy:

1) The pharmacist wraps the items she sells in paper.

2) Frequent Pasta Carbonara--Need I say more?

3) Vespas and cute cars everywhere.

4) That Italians all sleep all afternoon. As a tourist, this is annoying. As a resident, it is heaven.

5) That they know what's right (like that this is a one way street) and that they accept it when you fall short of that (that you have to go down backward the wrong way). So, for example: When you are stuck at the top of a hill and can't get your van down the narrow lane, you ask a guy: "How do I get down?" and he says, "You go backwards down this one the wrong way, verrrrry slooooooowly." And everyone just waits and watches while you drive backward the wrong way all the way down the hill. Because they are used to falling a little short and accept that it's just what people do. It's pretty cool that for all their yelling at each other, they are actually rather accommodating of mistakes.

6) The view from my kitchen. I get soooooooo mad living in this place. Only one of four stove top burners works at a time because the stove is soooo Italian. The fridge did not work for 3 months. There are still flies in the house, and it is either hot or damp or cold. The parking is in a mud pit. We have a stupid gate that does not even keep our dog in the yard, and so I'm not sure why we use it at all. The power routinely goes out and we just light candles.
      But the view, it is, I think, worth it.

Loving Soccer

Doing incredibly well on the field--leading the class team and strong on the city team--and finally got his kit!

Mass at the Vatican

    Sebastian and Annie's school was celebrating the 150th anniversary of the order that runs it. They are called the Sisters of the Most Blessed Sacrament (Santissimo Sacramento). They had Mass at the Holy Spirit Altar at the front of St. Peter's, arguably the most beautiful part of the whole basilica. Sisters from around the world came and celebrated, and many students, parents and faculty from our local school attended--Sebastian, Annie and I included.
   We were to arrive at the school at 6:30 am, a painful hour. Getting the children in the right places, then I went to the parents' area where we were to catch our bus.
   But at 6:45 am, before the sun had risen, 100 parents were shouting and complaining that the wrong bus had come. They waved their hands in the air, cigarettes lit between their fingers, shouting that a big bus had come for us, and the small bus for the children, and it was supposed to be the other way around. It was a typical scene that I have not completely assimilated to yet. Then a woman asked me what the woman shouting said. I told her in Italian, "The bus #8 is for 3rd, 4th and 5th grade parents." She broke into laughter and said, "Only the foreigner knows where to go!"
   The whole morning made a hundred bus trips on the Summer Rome Program with Ron in charge, all of which went smoothly, seem like a new level of accomplishment.

    Then we made it into Rome, and workers were setting up a Christmas tree in St. Peter's Square, something I've never seen in the summer. The school children were so happy and it was a really lovely time for all.

    I saw Annie and gave her a sip of water from my water bottle. I then found Sebastian and tried to do the same. The nuns literally shouted at me that water bottles are not allowed in the basilica. I calmly responded that as soon as the bottle was empty, I would throw the bottle in the trash (just recently having learned the word for trash, and knowing full well that water is not allowed through security). But they still didn't let the water touch his lips, so firm were they about the rule against water bottles on this trip.

We entered the basilica, and had a beautiful Mass. I prayed for so many friends and family. The readings could not have been more poignant. The nuns from all over the world spoke in their own languages as they read the readings and the prayers of the faithful. One woman from Scotland prayed, "That the Church would continue to appreciate religious for their faithful service toward the revitalization of the Church." I thought, "Yes, and mothers too." God bless our Church!

Thanksgiving in Frascati

We had an extraordinary Thanksgiving in a country that does not celebrate Thanksgiving. I ordered a turkey two weeks ago and went to pick it up this morning from the meat market. They first said it had not arrived, and then that it was two tiny turkeys. But then, the brought out a perfect, 18 pound turkey. I was delight.
    I went home and dressed it and got it in the oven. It touched all sides of our tiny oven--a perfect fit! :) Then I made homemade dressing with cornbread I had made from scratch the previous day, plus Roman bread and whole wheat bread. I also made gravy, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, homemade macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, and apple pie. We had wine and tea and soft rolls. I put some cherry chutney on the table in place of cranberry sauce. And I had never made pie crust without vegetable shortening, but it turns out, there are lots of legitimate ways to make pie crust.
    The kids went to school, and then we had our big meal. Meanwhile, Ron has been asking our family to go all Italian, speaking only Italian together, for many months. Finally today seemed like a good day to start. So rather ironically, on our American holiday, we spoke only Italian. The kids have all improved so much over these past few months, I could not believe how good they were. The highlight of the Italian, however, was Ron saying our Thanksgiving blessing: "Padre, grazie per I suoi regoli" which means "Father, thank you for your many rules." We all started laughing out loud at the table. He broke from the prayer, looked up and said, "Whaaat??" We said, "Regali (gifts), not regoli (rules/laws)." He laughed hard and it was a great start to a boisterous meal.
   This Thanksgiving, I am grateful for so many friends and family, and the chance to be here in Italy. But a true highlight is my new niece, Jenna June Miller. Kimberly and Ken are blessed with this beautiful child and I cannot express my gratitude to God for answering our prayers!

My Rome

Wandering around my favorite spots of my favorite city, I happen upon. . . 

Campo de' Fiori

Trastevere

Campo Marzio

La Citta Vaticana

Il Tiber

Piazza Navona

Campo de'Fiori sotto la pioggia

Viale di Trastevere

Old World Living

     It has been fascinating to experience the temperature drop to 48 degrees F and only at that point to have the landlords (husband and wife) decide to check whether the heater works. And then to discover it does not work and for the electrician to have to order parts for the individual radiators that exist in some (but not all) of the rooms, and then wait for a week until they come in and then the electrician can get the thing working. And then to learn that the landlord's plan is to heat the place from 5:30am-9am, and then from 6pm-10pm.
    Do I miss central heating?
    It is a different way of life, to have experienced a temperature difference from August to November from 100 to 45 decrees F, and just to have the windows open the whole time; to plan your day according to the weather, to wear a down coat inside several hours a day, to slog through mud every time it rains just to get to your car, and to have to get out of the car twice every time you want to go somewhere, once manually to open the gate and a second time to close it. It is wild to go to the store every single day to get fresh produce since you have no storage space; to be at the store and for there to be a whole isle of pasta, another isle of tomato sauce, a whole isle of parmesan and another of pancetta and prosciutto. . . and very little else in the whole store.
    I don't think I miss central heating. We open the windows most days if the sun is out, just to freshen things up even if it is cold. In the States, I always wish we could freshen up the house by opening the windows, but it's always too hot or too cold. So now, I can.
   

 My flower bed with cyclamen and roses

View from our living room window

St. Cecelia

  A new favorite saint and basilica: St. Cecelia. I've known her story for many years. Refusing to denounce her faith, she was martyred by decapitation. Legend has it that she continued to praise God for several days. She is the patron saint of musicians.
   This church is so BEAUTIFUL! When they found her body INCORRUPT in the catacombs in the 8th century, they moved it here. And in the 17th century, Moderno sculpted an incredible depiction of her slain, which lies above her casket. So moving.
  The jewel of the basilica is the underground crypt, covered with mosaic and bas-relief from floor to ceiling. Gorgeous.
   I've asked her to pray for many of my friends and family, whom I love so much. St. Cecelia, pray for us.