~~ The FeAsT of The iMmaCulAte CoNcEpTioN & tHe ArRivO di NaTaLe ~~

Today in Rome was The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which is usually on December 8th, and is generally a Holy Day of Obligation. The faithful are required to attend Mass, where they commemorate when Mary was graced by God to lead a life completely free of sin. Everyone usually has the day off and it is also the day that most Italians set up their nativity scenes, and put up all their decorations. In our case, only a Christmas tree. It is far from my normal amount of red and green scattered throughout my house, but when in Rome...

Also today we went to a movie in Villa Borghese, "La Cinema di Topolino." This is the story of the cinema...http://www.cinemadeipiccoli.it/storia.htm. The cinema we went to is in the Guinness book of world records as the smallest working theater. We watched a movie about the history of pizza in Naples and how it came about, "Toto Sapore e la Magica Storia della Pizza." It was fun to see and then we went out for PIZZA afterwards at a very well known Napoletana Pizzaria. Buonissima!!!

The last few days have been full of delicious food. Last night we went to a pre-Christmas potluck with about 30 people. All Sardinian. We had tons of food pasta, curry chicken, paninis, souffles, lasagna, vino, and yours truly made brownies :) Sidenote: They went over quite well, but I had to make two batches because the first one didn't turn out to well. There must be something different about the butter here, or something, we finally figured out through trial and error, that when you bake you have to cut back the butter and add more flour. It's strange. Anyway...the party was fun. There was Christmas music playing and people wearing santa hats. Alessandro was having a blast eventhough he was the only kid there. We had a gift exchange...something worth 5 euros. Guilio and Fabiana both got chocolates, Alessandro a bank, which he loved, and me...Cow salt and pepper shakers....go figure. The girl from Wisconsin gets the cow present.

Although, I am not back home where every house is littered with lights, faded plastic santas, and candy canes, there is still a feeling of Christmas in the air. There are a lot more decorations here than I thought, especially on this one street we passed tonight. I will be going back there with my Ipod blasting its christmas playlist and wandering the streets with all the lights. It made me happy. Hopefully I can get some pictures of everything. But...

After the long weekend, It's back to the grind tomorrow. Same stuff, just a different day. I believe I will be coming home around the end of January...and I can't wait!

Buonanotte a tutti!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1