By the time you are reading this post I have already flown through England, soared above the Atlantic and have (hopefully) landed in Texas. Christmas is here and to fully celebrate the holiday season with family and friends in the US, My Bella Vita is taking a break. I’ll be back to posting at my...Read More
Christmas Eve, or La Vigilia, is one of the biggest feast days in Italy … but, wait. We’ve already talked about that, haven’t we? Known as “The Feast of the Seven Fishes” because southern Italians traditionally served seven different types of seafood, this custom has been passed throughout generations of Italian-Americans, written about and blogged...Read More
All of the Christmas talk around here has me decking halls, caroling carols and rockin’ around the Christmas tree. Well … the decorations. What? Doesn’t everybody? And all of this good cheer is just too much to keep to myself. So today I’m gonna borrow a theme from Bleeding Espresso. I hope you all will...Read More
This is the first full week of Christmas celebrations in Italy … presepi are being blessed at local churches, lights are strung across streets, children are singing Christmas carols and preparing for school programs. It is enough to make me want to sing Jingle Bells and start roasting a turkey. Oh. But wait. They don’t...Read More
The Christmas season may be in full swing in other places throughout the world, but for those of us in Italy … TODAY is the day. In case you missed it, we are smack dab in the middle of a Four-Part Series on Celebrating Christmas in Italy. Here are Part I and Part II. However,...Read More
It’s Christmas time and Il Cedro Bed and Breakfast is decked and donned and full of holiday cheer. See? The office … and the kitchen … It is delightful – just the way my home was back in Texas. But things are different here. As you might expect – or might not if you are...Read More
Of all of the American holidays, none is more important – or more heartbreaking to miss – than Thanksgiving. My hugely over-populated Catholic family all gathers around the table at my grandparent’s house in Honey Island, Texas – a suburb of the large metropolis of Kountze – and overeats, watches football, catches up on everyone’s...Read More
Today marks one year since my husband and I tied the knot and in celebration of 12 months of marital bliss I want to share an article I read this weekend. According to Mark Goulston, M.D., happy couples know the real relationship begins when the honeymoon ends. They have to maintain their love, he says...Read More
One of my favorite childhood memories is of celebrating Halloween with my 28 first cousins, my sister and our friends all rounded up at grandma’s house for her annual Halloween Party. We’d all dress up – parents, too – and make a campfire, bob for apples, smack around a few pinatas and go on a...Read More
It is just no one told my husband. Last week marked my SIX MONTH wedding anniversary, and while both my mom and Pep’s dad made fun of us for celebrating, we did anyway. We had a nice romantic dinner. He bought me roses. We reminisced about our wedding day. He gave me fat pants. I...Read More
