You know you’re Italian when the hosting a holiday turns into 3 day long production. There are many ways that we get the house ready for the influx of family members that come from near and far. And no matter how much we think we prepare we always feel like we could’ve done more. Here are the ways that Italians prepare for the holiday:
- Banquet tables are set up in your home’s basement so that your entire family can sit together although you always question if there are enough chairs. Plus, it’s probably decked out in some festive tablecloth supplied by Nonna.
- Industrial sized pots and pans are dug out of the attic so that gravy and meatballs can be made for the first course of dinner. This is usually two days before the holiday.
- Vacuuming begins at 6:00 a.m. and, no, your mom does not care if you’re sleeping. She’s vacuuming your room too.
- Grocery shopping takes place at 4 different stores. The Italian market, the Italian bakery, the grocery store you can buy in bulk and the grocery store that you’ve clipped the most coupons for.
- Fights over how many bottles of wine to have always break out.
- And it never fails. You always feel like you’re missing something, which means you have to run out back to the store in the middle of appetizers.
- Appetizers might as well be a course in itself. Well the antipasto tray that is beautifully crafted might as well be.
- Tupperware is searched for and gathered so that your family members can take leftover cavatelli and neckbones home with them at the end of the night.
- The China dishes that are used one time each year are before they are put on the table and after dinner.
- No matter how much you prepare for the holidays ahead you always feel like you could’ve done more. Plus, once dinner starts, as the host, you never sit down.
Main Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
So true. So so true.
And then we all headed out to midnight mass (whether sober or not), to return back home and open gifts… great memories