Thanksgiving and San Nicolo

To start, here's the James family on Thanksgiving. This is the very first Thanksgiving we've ever had with just us. The electricity refused to stay on consistently, so we ended up eating around 10 p.m. The girls and I had all been sick that week, so this was also the first day in a while that we were all somewhat functional and dressed (an important part of any holiday celebration). We have so many things to be thankful for, not the least is our family and friends here and back home.



My ears are ringing, and my hands are still residually cold. We spent this evening trekking around Montereale in one of the most unusual Christmas celebrations I've ever participated in. You start the night by meeting some of your Italian friends and having them hand you homemade metal drums. At this point in the evening you have no idea exactly what you're in for, but you get the sense that it may be very, VERY loud. I'd like to interject here that sometimes I feel that living in Italy is a little like going to the movies. Sometimes you have to temporarily suspend your disbelief and just submerge yourself body and soul into everything Italy. In the states I don't know that I would have dragged my children out of the house for something beginning outdoors at 8 p.m. in freezing weather, especially when that something involves children with metal drums. Here it seems reasonable, fun, and just expected.

Here is the town center. Our Italian friends wanted to get there a little early, later on there were hundreds (Chris thinks maybe thousands) of people. They had a booth selling fresh doughnuts and mulled wines.



Said children with metal drums. Multiply this by 200.



Liz found lots of her school friends there.



The premise of this whole get together is that the children are calling St. Nicholas so that he will know where they are. After everyone gathers in the town the police lead the group through the streets banging the drums, lighting firecrackers everywhere they go. Older people were hanging out of windows and balconies giving out candy, and the older children were in charge of lobbing firecrackers everywhere. Thankfully Italians have this Monday and Tuesday off for religious holidays, I know there was no sleeping going on this night in Montereale!

Some of the sites as we were walking:



I wish that I'd gotten a picture of the line behind us. We were at the front where it wasn't too crowded. Behind us it was wall to wall people as far as you could see around corners.

The main church next to the bell tower.



The bell tower. You can't tell but is had a giant shooting star on the top and Christmas lights all around the bells.



The live Christmas tree in the town square.



The town square after a few more people had shown up.



I had made the assumption that this was a traditional Italian thing, or at least normal for the region. Come to find out Montereale Valcellina is the only town where the children parade through calling for St. Nicholas or San Nicolò. Here's the nifty Wikipedia entry with more details on how St. Nicholas came to be recognized as a saint and how he is celebrated in different areas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas

Here was our local San Nicolo blessing the children. He made sure to touch each and every child's cheek. The children all seemed in awe and very reverent through this part.





That reverence quickly went away when he began to give out the bags of candy he'd brought with him. Lines are non existent here, but at least no one got trampled too badly.

Here's Liz with her goody bag.



You might ask where Emma was in all this. No worries, she didn't miss out on the fun (or torture as she would say). She just requested that I take a break from the pic's and leave her alone for one entry. Mwahaha (evil laugh), I found a way around that. She may have escaped having pictures taken that night, but when I went to upload I found more pic's from our Piancavallo sledding, and guess who's in them?




Snowball fight!







Have I mentioned lately how much I love my girls?! Two of the best daughters/sisters/friends/children you could ever hope for.



Now I'm waiting, not so patiently, for my (I'm not allowed to say baby or little anymore) brother to get here. I love Italy, everything (almost) about it. The one downside is missing people from home. This will be a really good, and needed, dose of having family here and I CAN'T wait! Between fun with my brother, final/midterms, and packing for Christmas break I'm sure the next few weeks will be crazy. Bring on the crazy, it seems to be part of the everyday here.