Laurie's Giorni Italiani: Christmas Day

Christmas day was wonderfully mellow. Definitely in the spirit of Sabbatical. We all slept in a bit. Doug and I got up to walk the dogs and literally "Heard the bells on Christmas day"! Somebody was really having fun ringing those bells - It reminded me a little bit of the Middle Schoolers on Sunday mornings in B'ham.

Most of the day was spent reading, playing games and being lazy. Then at noon, we got a call from a very sweet woman whose name is Gigliola (Lily). She is best friends with Diane who usually lives in this house, and she invited our family over for tea. We were all a bit nervous, but we made it there and were able to hold down a few conversations! We were there for two hours, so we must have done OK. It was so kind of her to have us over on Christmas! She loaded us up with some fruit from her garden and also some kind of pasta with ricotta and spinach to bake another day.

When we got home we tried to Skype with my family in Santa Barbara... but it just wasn't staying connected. It was a bummer not to get to talk to them much, but great to see them for a quick minute or two.

All in all it was a great day. Doug is starting to catch a cold. Pray that he shakes it off quickly and that Z and I don't get it!

Merry Christmas to everyone!