Our Holidays and Traditions:

As a teacher, Rob is used to schedules and plans in order to make things work. This doesn’t just live in the classroom, it comes alive for every holiday season. Family is our crucial sense of belonging and love, so we make it a point to spread our love when we celebrate. 

Thanksgiving is celebrated with Rob’s family down the block. Every year he carves the turkey for his family in his Turkey hat while using the electric carving knife, just how his grandfather taught him and had done for their family prior to his passing.

Christmas time is where our family magic really comes alive. Every year we go pick out a tree with Rob’s family at the local fire department that Rob’s grandfather was a volunteer fire fighter with since moving to our town. After that, we decorate both Rob’s parents house and our house as a family, putting up Christmas lights while listening to Christmas music.

On December 23rd, Rob’s winter break from school officially begins but his work is only just beginning. That evening he spends the night prepping the doughs for his favorite holiday tradition “The 7 Cookies of Christmas” which is the Italian tradition of the 7 fishes of Christmas - but cookies instead. We bake some family favorites, including Rob’s Great Grandmother’s recipe for Italian anisette pinwheel cookies.

Early into our relationship, we agreed that Christmas Eve is such a special evening for our Italian families. It is for this reason that we have Christmas Eve dinner with Larry’s entire extended family and then our sleigh arrives at Rob’s Aunt’s house for some Reindeer games and dessert with his extended family. While the evening is not super late, it helps us prepare to spend Christmas day with Rob’s extended family opening up gifts and having Rob’s Mom’s famous home-made lasagna whose recipe has been passed down 3 generations. 

Another tradition is the Mother’s Day split. We spend the night before Mother’s Day with Larry’s Mom, having dinner and watching a movie of her choice, together. The next morning, Larry’s siblings and families all have breakfast together. Then we travel home to have an early dinner with Rob’s Mom and aunts, so all the lucky ladies of our lives are appreciated. 

When we were living in our apartment, we spoke about “our dream house” for what we wished for ourselves. Larry mentioned wanting to plant a fig tree like many Italian immigrants had so we could grow our own figs and make jam. When we found our dream house, the seller of our home showed us the giant fig tree in the backyard. He said he always felt bad that the tree produced so many figs and they neglected the tree. A month after moving in, we collected our first batch of figs and made our own jam. This past year we collected over 120 figs. Larry made over 50 mini jars of fig jam. We canned them in airtight jars and gave them out as Christmas stocking stuffers to family, friends, and coworkers.