Anyway, it was Christmas Eve! That morning i woke up to a terrific view outside the balcony! I could see the blue sea and sun and green trees! Really nice..... give you a very good feeling.
View of the sea from Fancesca's & Emanuel's house. (Taken from their balcony)
Headed downstairs and had breakfast with Francesca & her family. Had bread, cereals with milk and coffee (which is a must in Italy) and water. After breakfast, we headed out to a huge shopping mall (there were many shops/outlets in it). Coz Francesca & Emanuele had to get christmas presents for their nieces and nephews and Caterina (Emanuel's sister). So i went with Francesca to find some sports-wear which will be the presents, while Emanuel and Francesco went to buy present for Emanuel's aunt, whom we'll be having the Chirstmas dinner at.Hmmm... shopping for the sports-wear is something new. hahaha... we had to guess the correct sizes for the various people. Phone calls were also made to re-check the sizes. Finally about 3 hrs later, we got all the items necessary. Then it was back to their house for a super late light lunch, wrapping the presents before heading out for the dinner.
Sometime around 6.30pm, Francesca's mother & brother, Pietro, came. Coz apparently all of us were to take Pietro's car to Emanuel's aunt's house for dinner. In Italian context, its not necessary that Christmas dinner only extend to the immediate family. But it also extend to extended families, boyfriends, girlfriends and friends! yeah it was later when I reached Emanuel's aunt's place that I got to know about this! Pietro does not understand english. But, I was able to converse with him! hahhaa... yes, using very simple and broken english and doing some hand gestures whilst for him was using Italian. Basically was like chicken and duck talking. But apparently our conversation was correct, coz later on, Emanuel said that he heard the both of us talking! hahaha....
So finally we left the house and headed for Emanuel's aunt's house. What a welcome we had! At the entrance of the door, Emanuel's cousin, Fortunato, hugged everyone of us who arrived. I was introduced to everyone there. From great-grand parents to boyfriends, chefs and kids! hahaha... i must say it was a very interesting welcoming and also very warm and cosy, noisy environment!
Table set-up for the chirstmas dinner
Francesca & Francesco (Francesco was playing a toy lap-top)
Luigi's family (Luigi is Emanuel's brother, Caterina & her boyfriend, Andre)
But seriously, that's how a family gathering should be. I saw that everyone talked to each other and knew each other. And Italians are really warm and friendly. Coz considering me, who is an outsider and stranger to them, they never made me feel out of place. People will try to talk to me and tell me what's in the dish, drink more wine, try this wine or that wine etc. I felt as if I was part of their family! =D
Fortunato & Luigi singing & drinking
Emanuel's father carrying Mattair & Fortunato
Titziana and baby Mattair. Baby Mattair will be baptise on 26th Dec
And the dinner, Oh my goodness! there was just so much food! And the food was really really fantastic! Finally after 4 months after reaching Europe, I finally get to eat super fresh fish, that was caught in the deep sea! The sort of fish that my mum will cooked back home in s'pore! Coz in denmark, I can never get cheap fresh fish. The ones that I cooked are salmon and more salmon. the other fish i cannot make out what it is (most probably its herring) and it does not taste nice and they are all packaged. If i were to visit the fishmonger, then the fish will cost me a bomb! Anyway, back to the dinner. Food was really good! the 1st dish was the antipasti! wow! a huge plate of seafood and the food was really good!
My plate of antipasti
2nd dish. The large flat pasta with tomatoes & fish
in fact when we were on our 2nd dish (that's the large flat pasta) i was close to full. Coz the late lunch we had had not fully digested in my stomach. I felt bad not being able to finish my pasta. then next came the fish wrapped in aluminum foil and baked in olive oil, tomatoes. We were also served mussels, fried prawns and calamari. After this was oranges and christmas cake! The christmas cake was artistic. The chef designed it as a house on a hill. There was also another cake (I could not remember what cake that was).In a typical festive occasion meal, there will be a very strong liquere. Yup! the liquer that I drank last night, Amaretto. However, I must give lots of thumbs up for the liquer that I drank that night. It was Licorice Liquere! Hmmm.... I don't like licorice because of the taste and smell. However, when it was made into this liquere, the liquere tasted fantastic! very very nice. By the way, this liquere was made by the chef, who was Emanuel's aunt's daughter's boyfriend.
Soon it was midnight and its Christmas! and out appeared a Santa Claus! I'm not bluffing, Santa Claus really came knocking at the front door. 'He' started to distribute the gifts to the children. hahaha...... The Santa Claus was Emanuel's mother. Every year, 1 of the larger sized ladies will dress as Santa Claus and distribute the presents to the kids! The kids never know that the Santa Claus was a make-believe person. The kids are always very excited when its near to christmas as they know they will get to meet Santa Claus and get presents. Such an amazing idea that the adults thought of!!
Here comes Santa!
Santa distributing gifts to the kids
Christmas cake
After the presents were distributed and opened, we had our cake, coffee, water. Whilst some of the women did the washing up. We left Emanuel's aunt's place around 3am. Francesca's mum stayed at her place, whilst Pietro stay in Farlena. As usual, after washing up, I crashed out.
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