A [Not so Very] Italian Christmas

To catch you back up on the last month of my life, I spent two weeks at home at the beginning of December for an early Christmas celebration with my family! This has become a December ritual in my last few years of living abroad. We pick a random weekend in December, my brothers come into town and we make believe it's Christmas. This year, we had to pick a super early weekend (the first weekend in December) because I had a friend's wedding to go to the following weekend.

The flight home was surprisingly easy, only to be enhanced by the Italian woman next to me who decided to continuously sneak to the back of the plane and steal mini wine bottles off the cart for us. Apparently she was not impressed with the flight attendant's drink cart schedule. I didn't hate it until two hours in when I decided there was no way I was keeping up with this chick and it was in everyones best interest for me to just go to sleep.

I finally made it to Florida and had the best two weeks ever. It's always a blast seeing my family and I can't begin to tell them how grateful I am to them for forfeiting their Christmases these past few years to spend a fake one with me :) I'm blessed my family has adapted so well to my crazy lifestyle and they always ensure I never miss out on anything, even from halfway around the world.

Fake Christmas Eve 2014 with the best family ever

It's always tough coming back and forth from Europe to the US and getting re-adapted to both situations. First, you feel the initial shock of being able to read grocery labels and understand the checkout woman. I'm so used to going out of my way to avoid having to speak with people in public in Italy that I get super giddy when I'm home and can actually hold a conversation of my own. I feel the need to talk to just about everyone that'll listen. Hell, I'm even asking Publix workers where the sugar aisle is just for shits and giggles, BECAUSE I CAN. It almost feels like life is too easy when I'm home but the comfort slips in and I'm loving it as soon as it's time to pack up and head back to the foreign zone.

It's always funny to me running into people I haven't seen in a while at home.  I get some pretty epic questions from people regarding our living situation. Here are a few of my favorites:

• "Oh are you back from vacation?" Not on vacation, I live there. I am currently on vacation here, actually. 
• "I thought you lived in Lithuania?". I lived in Lithuania once. Two years ago. For 6 months. No. 
• "Why didn't your husband come home?" In spite of what you may think, he does work and not at a place where you can request random vacation days off of. 
• And my fav one I got this year..."What's your husband do?"...."He plays basketball"...."That's not a job!!" Ok. Venting aside, I actually find these pretty hilarious. 

I headed back to Italy about a week before Christmas to give myself some time to prepare. I'd assigned D & one of the younger team's players the job of finding us a gigantic Christmas Tree while I was gone and to my surprise, walked into a treeless home. It's always a pretty hilarious experience finding a Christmas Tree in Europe and they clearly don't take it as seriously as we do in the US. This year was no different. The guys swore they spent two weeks looking (unsuccessfully) for an appropriate sized tree but there were none to be found. D and I ended up settling for the 3 footer at the grocery store that, after cutting off the net, resembled more of a round bush with a hack job. Charlie Brown wouldn't choose this tree.

We spent Christmas Eve at one of D's new American teammates' houses. His wife and their three kids had just arrived to Italy and his brother and sister-in-law joined us along with a few other players and their kids. We spent last Christmas in Lithuania with D's family and I've spent every year prior to that with mine, so this was our first Christmas being just the two of us. Christmas has always been a pretty somber time for D after spending so many holidays away from his family but we were determined to make the best with our situation this year. We had a great Christmas Eve Dinner capped off by a visit from the drunk neighbor in a Santa suit. Christmas morning we exchanged gifts and walked to the City Center. D had an away game the next evening so he left shortly after and I spent Christmas night in bed with my little Chihuahua watching Annie. It was a great ending to our first Christmas (alone) together. 

Some of the Crew on Christmas!

"That's not Santa, that's our neighbor!!!!"

In other news, D's team has been doing amazing. They are tied for first place in Italy with a record of 11-2! He has a three day break next week and told me I could pick anywhere I wanted for us to take a trip to so we're going to....LONDON!!! I studied abroad in London back in college with 6 of my best friends so it holds a really special place in my heart. I went back three summers ago with my Mom & brothers and I've been waiting for the opportunity to show D around my favorite city so it seemed like the perfect choice. Please let me know if anyone has any suggestions for us! 

Wishing everyone a safe, healthy & happy New Year! XOXO

A perfect Christmas.