It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...And Santa Lucia Day

A beautiful arrangement over the top of one of the stores.

I am officially the worst blogger ever.  I just want to say, in my defense, that most of my days go like this.  Ryan wakes up at 6.  If he has to go to school, then we all get up.  If he doesn't, Aaron sends me back to bed so that I don't kill anyone.  Once we're up, there's breakfasts, getting dressed, Emily goes down for a  nap a few hours after waking up.  Then I look at a lot of stuff on Facebook (I bet you guys didn't know that part), take a shower, whatever won't wake up the baby.  Ryan sleeps like the dead.  The boy could sleep through a train running through the middle of our house and not even crack an eyelid.  But the minute that he starts tromping down the stairs, Emily is up and demanding "mimi" (that's milk in Emily language).  I don't think she actually likes sleep.  She would much rather be up and doing stuff.  Any stuff.  So if I make too much noise while she's napping, then we don't get a nap.  And that girl is like her mom (see above where Aaron sends me back to get my beauty sleep so there are no homicides committed).

The tree in front of the
Artigianale Birreria

Garland over the street in Citta Alta

So after the Emily nap there's lunch and then Emily demands her shoes, hat and jacket and goes to the door and decides its time for a walk.  So we go for a walk.  Sometimes just around and sometimes to the park.  At 3:30 we pick up Ryan (who is usually exhausted.  Naps stopped when school started... yay).  Then back home, dinner around 5, baths, bed... then kid free time after 7 or 7:30.

The only difference is that I get to do all this in Italy, (yay!).  It just makes it difficult to do touristy stuff (boo!).  We have gotten to see a lot of Bergamo. Emily and I are bus riding regulars.  They have a lot of sidewalk markets here that are pretty fun.  And trying to find things can sometimes be a little like a treasure hunt.  They don't really have craft stores here so anything you might need that is crafty you have to figure out... "where would I buy that if Michael's didn't exist?".  Tissue paper?  A paper store.  Felt?  A fabric store.  Yarn?  A yarn store.  Yes, it would seem obvious if I didn't come from a country where some genius just put all that together in one store.

The window display in the
Maglieria artigianale
(sweater store)

The tree in front of one
of the clothing stores
in Citta Alta and my
personal favorite.
I love the puffballs and
may steal them for use
on a later tree.

Also.  I cannot find gift boxes here.  You know those cheap little paper ones that Target sells in value packs?  Don't exist in Italy.  What does exist is boxes from stores at €1.50 a piece.  Or those really nice gift boxes at €4 or €5 a piece.  Um.  I don't think so. So I apologize to all those getting gifts this year when your really nice sweater is just swaddled in wrapping paper.  That's so Italian of me!

The great thing about this time of year though, is the Christmas decorations.  Italians (but specifically Bergamascans) do not slouch when it comes to Christmas.  I think I've mentioned before that we live in a rather touristy place which makes for some really awesome Christmas decorations.  We have garland strung across the roads over head from building to building, huge stars lighting up the intersections, personalized Christmas trees in front of every store, Christmas music piped through all of Citta Alta, advertisements for Cioccolata Calda con panna (that's hot chocolate with whipped cream but it totally sounds better in Italian), roasted chestnuts, decorated windows, garland and lights all over the buildings, a Christmas tree in our courtyard.  Let me tell you, these Italians do it up right.  I can't wait to see London.

Let me also tell you that calling it a holiday "season" is not an exaggeration either.  First we have the Festa della Immaculata on Dec 8.  This signifies when Mary found out she was pregnant with (by?) the Immaculate conception.  Don't try and do any kind of math that makes it work for Jesus to be born on Dec 25th.

Edit:  My amazing Aunt Mary helped me learn more about the Immaculate Conception.  Apparently Mary was actually conceived by her parents with God's grace so as to be free of original sin so that she could then have Jesus so many years later.  That makes so much more sense! This was quite a long term plan God had.

A depiction of Santa Lucia
arriving at a house with a
sleigh full of gifts.

Then we have the Festa de Santa Lucia on Dec 13th.  Let me tell you about this chick (is it disrespectful to call a Saint a chick?).  She shows up on the night of the 12th riding a donkey.  Kids are supposed to leave out water and refreshments for her along with a bucket of water and hay for the donkey.  In return, she leaves them presents.  However (and this is kind of a BIG however), if the kids don't go to bed, if they see Santa Lucia when she shows up at their house, she BLINDS them.  And takes back all the presents.  She does not play around.  Needless to say, after talking with a grown man who grew up with this story, kids are in bed asleep as fast as possible, terrified that they will wake up too early and be blinded.  So there's that.

All joking aside, this is a pretty big holiday for them.  It is only celebrated in Bergamo and a few other cities in the eastern part of Lombardy (the region that Bergamo is in.  It's kind of like a state but not really).  The kids visit a tomb here and leave letters for Santa Lucia.  They can also leave their letters in the blue box in the picture to the left.  That is a scene depicting Santa Lucia visiting a house with gifts for the children.  Ryan's school took a field trip there so the kids could give their letters to Santa Lucia and they also had Santa Lucia visit their classroom to drop off some presents.  I don't know what she brought exactly because Ryan said "yeah, I think she came, I don't remember what she brought though, except oranges, but I don't like oranges so I didn't take one".  So as far as I know, I contributed  €12 for some oranges that Ryan didn't take.  Sweet.

After reading about it online, it looks like Santa Lucia also visits many Scandinavian children as well.  It's kind of fascinating that two areas that are so far apart celebrate the same Saint in similar ways.

Decorated with wings.

12 days later is Christmas.  Santa Claus (or Bobba Natale) is not nearly the celebrity here as he is in the states.  But who can compete with Santa Lucia and her awesome blinding powers.  Ryan actually asked me what happens if he sees Santa.  I said I wasn't sure.  Then Ryan said that "Daddy told me to eat Santa if I see him".  After I picked myself up off the floor from laughing so hard, Aaron denies ever saying this.  As much as I love the kid, I am with Aaron on this one.

And wait, there's more.

Snow flakes and candles

The tree in front of the bookshop.
All of the ornaments are made
from newsprint or pages from a
book or something.
I thought it was a great idea.

On Jan 6, the wise men finally show up to greet the baby Jesus.  They also bring gifts to the kids.  I'm not sure how kids in Italy wound up making out so well.  Jesus only got Frankincense, Myrrh and gold.  These kids get three days of toys and candy.  I feel like we all know who wins in this deal.  From chatting with locals it seems that the wise men prefer to visit the southern parts of Italy more than the northern parts. Perhaps they like the cannoli down there better.  I know I do.

So that's about as much as I know about the Holiday Season in Bergamo.  It is also pretty cold here so it actually feels like winter.  We did get snow, big, beautiful, fat flakes coming down one morning so that was awesome.  Nothing stuck, but I kind of feel like the falling is the beautiful part and the sticking is just a big mess and nightmare.