Our friends, the Zicks, hosted a Gingerbread construction party. It was a first for some Italian guests :-)
Juliann's house was so fun!
Juliann does such an awesome job decorating for Christmas. Snowflakes and strings of lights, galore
Stella and Alaina-friends we have met here
Juliann made me this darling pillow! Thanks to friends who loaned us their sewing machine
I couldn't resist buying Christmas children's books in Italian.
It's hard to see but the packaging has some interesting words on it
Juliann loves her new fur lined jacket-perfect timing before heading north
We enjoyed home made cannolis w/cocoa and pistacchios
We have learned that the tradition here is to have a big Christmas eve dinner mainly consisting of fish. We didn't partake in that but the dinner we had was excellent. Thanks to the Pughs!! Not to mention, we were showered with personalized gifts and stockings from our friends. We are so grateful :-)
Another Italian tradition is to give stockings on January 6th. Legend has it that La Befana (a 'good' witch) was looking for Jesus to give Him gifts and couldn't find Him so she swoops down in January and drops off little gifts for kids. or something to that effect...I didn't pay a lot of attention because I hate witches..haha.
Christmas time is especially hard to be away from home but we are sincerely grateful for the care we have received by those we have met here.
Stella and Alaina-friends we have met here
I couldn't resist buying Christmas children's books in Italian. 
