I have one question for you: Do you have confidence that we can find the prettiest wedding dress in Rome? I hope you do!
What an incredible 2 weeks: Christmas in Rome, a baby's first Christmas, an engagement, 2 birthdays, a trip to the Alps, New Years, and a first wedding anniversary.
On December 18th, Ron, Leigh, Annie, Sebastian and I warmly received Clare and her boyfriend Liam in Rome as soon as they finished their semester at the University of Dallas (and Liam completed his Bachelor's degree--happy graduation, Liam!). Then on December 22, we welcomed Jacob, Gabrielle, and their new baby, Cecilia (good job, Cecilia, for enduring your first trans-Atlantic flight!), Mary and her boyfriend Nando, and his parents, Edna and Fernando, and his twin sister, Valeria (welcome, Davila family!). We were a happy party of 15 in our home on the Due Santi campus of the University of Dallas just outside of Rome.
On the 23rd, Nando surprised Mary with an official proposal (even though we were already calling Nando Mary's fiancé because of their commitment to marry) and he really pulled off an incredible scene at a beautiful overlook on Lake Albano with both of their families there to witness it. It was Nando's father's birthday, so we were all going out for a meal to celebrate--Mary did not suspect a proposal at Nando's dad's birthday celebration. But that speaks volumes about Nando--family-focused and drawing loved ones together, not to mention surprising Mary when a genuine surprise was next to impossible.
Then we had a huge Christmas Eve, with loads of ravioli and lamb, music and passing around the Adorable Cecilia Rombs--gorgeous smile, alert, engaging, and always ready to coo and bat her eyelashes at you.
While some went to Midnight Mass at our nearby church, another cluster of us went to celebrate Midnight Mass in Trastevere, Rome, at the Basilica of Santa Cecilia, in honor of our little girl. It turned out to be a three-hour monastic version of the Mass, with the nuns of St. Cecilia singing Psalms for 1.5 hours before the liturgical celebration actually started. Baby Cecilia Rombs was the only baby there, and at the end of the three hours, the priest actually extended his special welcome to her and the whole congregation clapped! Not knowing us at all, they were just amazed that a baby and her brave parents endured the very intense, reverent, solemn Mass into the wee hours of the morning. The whole congregation of nuns gathered around her to get a glimpse at 3am.
Christmas morning, we woke up to Santa's gifts and had a lovely family time with coffee in hand. Then some friends, the Dunikoskis from the U.S. joined us, and we were a party of 22 for the whole day and evening.
One of my favorite parts was Edna teaching me to make homemade Mexican salsa, using Italian ingredients. Her recipes had not translated for me in Italy (for example, there are no jalapeno peppers in Italy) and so she experimented with the Italian ingredients I provided her in my kitchen until she arrived at a mimic of the true Mexican-Texan deal. After trying for 5 years to make genuine Mexican salsa, you cannot imagine my relief at working out this recipe! We all enjoyed Mexican chips and homemade salsa for a mid-afternoon snack. For Christmas dinner, we made risotto (Roman styled cacio e pepe), fillet, grilled sausages, pomegranate salad, roasted vegetables, and more desserts than we could eat.
We also celebrated Leigh's 18th birthday! She is a Christmas Day baby, which makes her extra special (sharing a birthday with the Christchild)! Leigh is a superstar, going to a Swiss highschool all taught in German and Italian (she is fluent in both). We had a birthday celebration for her and had yet another cake--tiramisu-panatone cake, if you can believe that. She looked so beautiful and I could not be more proud of her.
We are now in Merano in the Alps, where Jacob proposed to Gabrielle 2 short years ago (how much has happened in 2 years).
We will spend a week together, resting, going to the natural mineral hot springs, skiing, and having a little gluhwein and goulash as we walk through the Christmas markets along the riverwalk. We will celebrate Jacob and Gabrielle's anniversary and New Year's together (and praying birthday prayers for Aunt June! Happy 80th!!)
We are so blessed to have such a robust and loving family. Honestly, the fact that they are all faithful Catholic Christians and can resolve difficulties that come up are the two greatest gifts of my life as a mother. I love these guys so much!
It was a joy getting to visit the church and monastery where St. Thomas Aquinas was for so many years in Naples. It's funny to think of him with a Neapolitan accent!
My little polyglot is growing up!
Little Leigh, fourth child who will always seem young in our family, is actually a towering intellect and exemplar of Christian faith and virtue.
She is taking pre-calculus. . auf deutsch (in German). . . and her German math teacher had explained a certain (very challenging) mathematical process. Then he tested the class, giving a much harder question on the test than he had explained in class. How did Leigh do? She ditched the entire process that he had taught in class (since she could not see how it extended to this particular problem), and started afresh with her own method. She told me it made perfect sense to her, but she had never really seen anything like it. To my amazement, when she got her test back, the teacher had written, "Genial!" (Awesome!) in the margin. He then explained to the whole class how he would have done it, but that there was also another way. . . and he proceeded to show the class Leigh's way. Wink at Leigh! What a superstar!
Leigh had a group presentation in German literature. When the other students were using Chat GBT, cutting and pasting onto slides, Leigh was researching, reading, talking with other classmates, writing her own slides. The teacher chose her to give one of the presentations and she nailed it.
Leigh speaks Italian with her friends like it is her mother tongue; she is about to take the C2 exam in German even though she only started learning it 3.5 years ago (Is that humanly possible?????) and French. It's her English that falters a little sometimes! Is she on her way to Freiburg? The U.S? She has 1.5 years left with me, and I am making the most of every moment.
Look at the bus that turned onto a major thoroughfare and got stuck! I was in traffic for an extra hour and a half because of that guy. I eventually parked my car, got out, walked around and took photos.
Incredibile!
