Italian families often have the tendency to be rather large. A few brothers here, 8 or 9 nieces there, about 20 or so aunts and uncles. And my boyfriend's family is no exception.
An 'intimate' family gathering of just the closest members of his family consists of at least 20 people. So you can't even imagine what anything along the lines of an 'extended' family gathering might be like. They all have to remember one name of one English girl. I on the other hand have to remember a great number of names, many of which I forget immediately after hearing them. It can get somewhat confusing/embarrassing.
Large families also mean large numbers of Christmas presents. On Saturday, myself and my man hit the shops and engaged in a spot of power purchasing. By this, I mean that we were quick, efficient and stuck to our budget. Ish. Even though we may have spent a little too much time/money in the toy shop looking at awesome board games and pressing the buttons on all sorts of...anyway. This power purchasing was necessary due to the sheer amount of presents we had to get. This is just a small portion of what we bought:
I've got to say though, that it was a lot of fun. Whizzing around the toy store, picking up monster trucks and baby rattles was rather enjoyable, and something I'm not accustomed to doing due to said small sized family. And afterwards, we rewarded ourselves with large amounts of pizza. A very successful evening indeed.
Although now I'm starting to understand why Italians almost always get their gifts wrapped at the store. The idea of wrapping presents always appeals to me, but I always end up in a sellotaped mess...
How's your Christmas shopping going?? :)
I always had the image in my head of large Italian families but it seems that in the North, families tend to be smaller. There are a lot of single child or families with just two children around. Although I think the elder generations had lots of cousins etc so I think a family wedding in the north would probably still be pretty big if extended family were invited.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a lovely time. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas : D
Dec 18...now this is the best day of the year !!!!..I'm glad to hear you spent the day with others inmind...that is nice...understanding the Italian "family" is very important....and of cource lets not forget the god children..the sponsored children ..god mothers and fathers..comboutea's etc...after 40 years of being together with the love of my life...I am just now understanding why the children live at home with Mamma and Poppa untill they get married and some never leave....it's so they can aford all the gifts all year round....oh well life is what you make it....and Christmas time is so much fun.....It looks like you and your "boyfriend" had a fantastico holliday with family on both sides...
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