Christmas Day (Natale)

Christmas Day took on a special meaning this year as we were seeing many of our family members for the first time in many months. In total we had twenty two people at our house Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and the Silverman family) and braved the task of cooking dinner for the holiday. There was no deliberation between Anna and I regarding what to cook. We were simply looking for something easy and unique compared to the fare that we had been eating in Tuscany. One of the most famous Florentine dishes is “Bistecca Fiorentina” which is a four to five inch thick T-Bone steak grilled (More like seared) and served with a hack saw and a bottle of olive oil for drizzling on top. The word that comes to mind is “Barbaric” when thinking of Bistecca Fiorentina. The subsequent result is that we have not had a good steak in nearly five months and steak on the barby “American Style” seemed not only easy but just what the doctor ordered. The grilled steak was accompanied by rosemary potatoes roasted in the oven, a fresh green salad and grilled and sliced porcini mushroom caps basted in a fig balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard and olive oil marinade. I don’t know about my guests, but the Braheem family sure as hell loved it! The best part is that it was easy, with little prep and little clean up.

For Trey and Olivia, the morning was all about opening gifts from mom and dad as well as Santa (This may be our last year with the secret in place, so Anna and I cherished the art of placing cookies on the plate with a glass of milk, only to have the cookies half eaten and mil consumed by sunrise). Trey received a tennis racket from mom and dad, dozens of books from friends and family (In total 19 different books!) and a couple of new games for his hand held game device. Olivia received a new “American Girl” doll, several books, a make up kit and a few movies on DVD. As usual, the kids loved every minute of it and celebrated when they got something that was on their list.

The morning was full of clean up for mom and dad and of course prep for the Christmas dinner. When the guests arrived, it was just like old times and at least for me my favorite Christmas in most all ways that I can remember. Everyone seemed happy, relaxed and most importantly the food seemed to please everyone (Especially Trey and Olivia!). Many times in the past, Christmas seemed like more of a hassle than what it was worth, with so much clean up and preparation for a short period of time that it left one wondering if all this was necessary in the end. For some reason this year it seemed so much easier. Perhaps this is because our perspective has changed a bit. It might just be that a little bit of the “Tranquille” (Relaxed) life of Italy was still inside of us, but for some reason I didn’t feel the usual stress when migrating through the day. This could also be greatly due to being so happy to be with family for the first time in a while. Life has a way of allowing you to take certain things for granted and believe me, when you don’t have access to things that you care about for a long time, it sure makes you appreciate them a lot more when you have them back.