A Pietrangelo Christmas

So, for those of you who we haven't already exhausted with a recounting of how the Pietrangelo's do Christmas, here's the breakdown: Christmas Eve is the biggest part of the celebration with a big seafood spread (an Italian tradition). We started our evening with oysters, shrimp and baked brie, moved on to lentil soup, and then angel hair pasta in a squid red sauce, bakala (cod fish) and artichoke hearts. We topped all of that off with an apple crisp. Once again, my aunt and grandmother really outdid themselves on the food!






We also open most of our gifts on Christmas Eve, so Violet—when not following my grandmother around the house—got to experience bows of many colors and lots of gifts just for her. A definite favorite was her new reindeer squeaky toy which she carried around in her mouth for most of the evening.








Christmas morning, we all wake up and prepare a big breakfast, open our stockings and "Santa gifts" and then settle down to a puzzle. This year also featured a Tiara vs. Heath showdown at Wii tennis (which Tiara won, by the way) and a family viewing of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," the Jim Carrey version. Usually, Christmas night we go out for Chinese food, but this year we ate in and all enjoyed this amazing smoked ham my aunt received as a gift at work. It was delicious!