I forgot to tell you!

I forgot to mention in my last post that Fabri and I have been together for about seven and a half years now and in those 7 and a half years we've spent every single New Year's together.  Except last year he was working a night shift in Saluzzo, but we had dinner together and were on the phone at midnight, so that totally counts as being together.  I just wanted to say how cool I think that is.  Seven New Year's Eves together!

NYE 2003 in Nice

NYE 2005 in Tuscany

NYE 2006 in Orvieto, Italy

NYE 2007 in Savigliano

Welcome to 2011!

I've been putting off writing this post for silly reasons.  All the blogs I read are doing a review of 2010 or writing about their resolutions for 2011.  I didn't want to do those things, so I didn't write last week.  If you want to read about my 2010, look in the blog archives.  We had a good year, a lot of traveling.  As for 2011, I have resolutions, but they're private, so back off!  Just kidding.

Fireworks in Piazza Santa Rosa

This post, in accordance with pretty much every post I've ever written, is the story of how we celebrated the new year.  After all, my blog is pretty much about the places we go, the people we see, the dinners we eat/make & the parties we attend.  ;-)

Our original plan was to go to a nice dinner just Fabri & I in Saluzzo and then walk up to the castle for a midnight brindisi (toast) hosted by the city.  Our usual NYE group was heading to San Remo, but Fabri was on call the 31st until 8pm and then starting at 8am on the 1st.  So traveling was out of the question.  Then 2 days before NYE, we received invites to 2 dinners with friends in Savigliano!  Feeling lucky to have so many nice friends, and realizing NYE is more fun in a group, we decided to join a group doing a fondue dinner at our friend Edo's house.  Now Edo lives in Piazza Santa Rosa in Savigliano which is perhaps the most beautiful piazza in Piemonte.  That's important to know later in the story.

Fondue!

Anyway, we were a lovely group of nine friends (2 of which I had just met).  We drank and ate until midnight and then we lit sparklers and fireworks in Piazza Santa Rosa.

Mia & I with sparklers!

Here's where there was some disappointment.  The beautiful Piazza Santa Rosa, heart of Savigliano, was COMPLETELY EMPTY at midnight.  Just us, not another soul.  Not even people yelling from their windows & balconies.  This is the perfect example of why I will never live in Savigliano.  You can be sure there were people around Saluzzo, after all the city organized a midnight toast and some sort of concert before. 

Fabri rocking out 2011-style!

Anyway, after doing our part to disturb all of Savigliano, we went back inside to hang out and play games.  It was a lot of fun.  I'm only sorry that we weren't in a bigger crowd for the midnight celebration.  Someday we'll go up to Turin or somewhere even cooler for the big countdown!  But for 2011, it was good to be with friends.

Playing 20 questions with animal names on our foreheads.

A Holiday Weekend

Christmas Eve: The stockings were hung by the entertainment center with care.  From left to right that's Fabri's, my and Olney's stocking. 

Brunella and I having our Christmas Eve aperitivo!

Olney wants the 3 foot salami for his Christmas Eve aperitivo!

Our Christmas Eve dinner in Ruffia.  Maria Pia sets a lovely table.

Twenty-two of us gathered for dinner in Ruffia!

We ate a yummy dinner of the seven fishes: salmon, caviar, octopus, shrimp, clams, baccala (oops, we missed one because we forgot to make the calamari!)

Christmas Morning: Where are our presents!?!?  Fabri, Olney & I all got some sweet stuff in our stockings and Fabri gave me some GORGEOUS diamond earrings.  

 Christmas Day: Maria Pia & I made a lunch of roast turkey, mushroom stuffing and baked corn!

Christmas day we were only about 10 people.  That just meant more delicious American food for the rest of us!

 Santo Stefano: the day after Christmas (which is a holiday here) we finally got a little tiny bit of snow. I made a casserole with some left over turkey, porcini mushrooms and egg noodles.

We had a small lunch just Fabri's family in Ruffia.  A nice, calm way to end the holiday weekend!

Have a Happy New Year!

3 Days til Christmas

Did I tell you the horrible secret?  It may be 3 days until Christmas, but Fabri's family has a big dinner/celebration on Christmas Eve!  We will have the infamous dinner of the 7 Fishes ending around midnight.  So the point is that I don't just have to be ready for Christmas, I have to be ready for Christmas Eve!  But I'll be ready, no problem.  My cookies are almost all made.  I'm going to try Laura's microwave fudge today and I need to make another batch of snowball cookies because they're Fabri's favorites. 

New baking mat makes cookie making easy!

Yesterday I made a big batch of sugar cookies.  I was a little annoyed that I couldn't find red & green sprinkles or food coloring to make my own, but some pastel sprinkles and crushed candy cane kept them very festive.  This afternoon Fabri & I are going to go around like little elves delivering cookies to our neighbors.  That will be fun I hope.

Christmas trees and shooting stars

 I'm not happy about our weather forecast.  Last week it was the coldest week of the year, well below zero every day.  Now it's warmed up, just in time to rain for 3 days!!!  What's up with that!?!?  All I want is snow and I survived freezer week so I could get rained on for Christmas? Boo.

Gaetano, Detta & the birthday girl, Sofia!

Anyway, last night we went to Sofia's first birthday party.  It was fun, but we ate a lot pretty quickly because it was a work night and I was feeling stuffed and not ready for all this Christmas eating at the end of the week.  Oh well, I'll rally and tonight we'll just eat veggies!

Elio and I putting together Sofia's new toy.

Must keep making cookies!

I have been suffering from a head cold this weekend.  I mean who isn't getting sick with daily highs of about 2°C?  Right now it is -4°C (25°F)!  I'm just writing this little teaser post and then I'm going under my double down comforter!!

Homemade rugalah cookies!

Anyway, I'm a bad Latchaw because I am behind on my cookies making!!!  I've only done 2 batches: rugalah and snowball cookies.  Tomorrow I'm definitely doing chocolate chip and at least the dough of sugar cookies!  I just bought another half kilo of butter, so I'm ready to go!! 

                   5 days til Xmas!!                      

Marathon Wedding

Last Saturday Fabri and I had a marathon wedding.  Our friends Laura and Gian Luca tied the knot!  I had to wake up early (for a Saturday) to get ready for the wedding.  Poor Fabri had to hustle off to work because he was on call all day and had to do rounds.  So I got all dressed up all by myself and had to drop off Olney at Ruffia in my pretty wedding clothes.  Then I went to the church in Savigliano. 

The bride and groom arrive at the church.

Laura was beautiful in her wintery wedding dress and of course Gian Luca was very handsome.  They really lucked out with the weather and the day was super sunny!

Aperitivo after the ceremony

Unfortunately Fabri didn't make it in time for the ceremony, which was a very sweet one.  And SUPER unfortunately Fabri & I didn't take a picture together looking all nice and dressed up.  So that's depressing.  I did really like my hair this time though.  I just straightened it at home, easy & free!

After the ceremony (and an aperitivo) I met Fabri back at home so that we could go to the wedding lunch together.  Even though Fabri might be called away until 8pm, we wanted to go with one car so we'd eventually drive home together.  We're smart like that.

Lunch was good and afterward we all danced.  I danced my first liscio with Gerry (of Bar Belle Epoque fame).  That was exciting.  Poor Fabri couldn't dance much because he had to be able to hear his phone.   While we were dancing, the staff at the restaurant were cleaning up and resetting the dining room for dinner.  That's where the marathon part comes in.  After lunch & dancing there's dinner & dancing!!

Dancing with Gerry!

We were good sports though and partook in the yummy buffet and second round of dancing with out complaints. ;-)  Around 1 am it had gotten to be too much for my poor little feet and we headed home.  Also, poor Fabri had to do rounds at the hospice and was on call on Sunday.  Fabri still had fun though as did I!

Fabri and Pac having fun!

Sunday morning after Fabri went to work, I went to Ruffia to see my puppy and meet the Motta's for lunch.  Poor Fabri joined us around 2 as he had a lot to do.  We had a yummy lunch, then a little bit of shopping before sleeping and relaxing the rest of the day!  Good weekend, but a tiring one for sure!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Yesterday was a holiday in Italy, Immaculata (the Immaculate Conception).  Fabri of course had to go to work (poor Fabri), but I went shopping with his mom and sisters (yay for me)!!  We went to Metro in Turin.  I think I've mentioned Metro before, it's a Sam's Club type store.  They have a lot of restaurant supplies and a ton of food in a warehouse store.  You can find some good deals, but often things cost the same at the grocery store.  I like Metro though because you can find foods that you can't at the grocery store.  I bought an 11 lb bag of long grain rice, a couple of bottles of soy sauce, a big jar of salsa and my favorite Dunkel beer. 

Then we girls went to lunch and did a little window shopping along the way.  After lunch we returned to Savigliano and met Fabri & Olney.  The three of us walked around Savigliano and bought a few things at a flea market there.  When we returned to Fabri's parents' house, Maria Pia was ready to go make one more shopping stop in nearby Genola.  We went to a couple of discount stores there (gotta love those discount stores!) and came home with a new piece of furniture....and a bunch of small stuff.  Hey, when you're in that shopping spirit, you gotta shop!

Lit Menorah

From Christmas Time 2010

After that it was time to go home before we decided to go to ANOTHER store, so we loaded up my car with all of our purchases and headed back to Saluzzo.  Then Fabri & I put on the Christmas music, lit the menorah for the 8th night of Hanukkah and decorated our house for Christmas.

Lovely Little Tree

From Christmas Time 2010

We had a lot of fun putting up the tree and spreading around all of the holiday decorations we've collected over the years a lot of which were handmade by my grandparents!  Now it's feeling a LOT like Christmas!

Christmas Bamboo with new ornaments from Mom

From Christmas Time 2010