Are you Italian?
Coming from a family that is 100% Italian, I have been subject to every single stereotype in the book. When people ask where my family is from, after my response, almost every time I am bombarded with questions about my family and how we do things. Questions like, so is your mom a good cook? Is everyone in your family extremely loud? Have you ever been to Italy? And sometimes follow up with inviting themselves when I take my next trip. To answer all of these questions, yes my mom is the best cook in the world (but every Italian mom is) yes everyone in my family is extremely loud, including myself and no I have never been to Italy so chances are if I ever go you won’t be able to come. Being Italian isn’t just about being loud and eating a lot of food though, I believe that Italian families share a special bond with one and other.
Take my family for example, every single sunday, regardless of what everyone has going on in their lives, everything is dropped and a meal is shared. For as long as I can remember, every sunday has been a day for family and rest. Before the passing of my grandpa, his and my grandma’s house would be the spot everyone met at for dinner. My grandma would prepare a gravy from scratch and yes I said gravy (another Italian thing) filled with meatballs, sausages and occasionally pork served with any kind of macaroni. Aside from the food, Sunday is a day for the four members of my family, four members of my moms sisters family and now my only grandma to simply catch up and enjoy each others company. Having been raised with this tradition in my life, I believe its brought me closer to the members of my family and will give me the opportunity to do the same with my own family someday.
One thing I will say about my family though is that when we are all together, and I mean everyone, not just my immediate sunday family, there isn’t a more entertaining place to be. Considering the time of year with Christmas right around the corner, I can give you a small peek into what and Italian Christmas Eve is like. Close to 50 of us are at every holiday but for some reason, it’s Christmas when everyone really gets into the spirit and its one hell of a time. For one, when you walk in the door, you cant hear much because when you have that many loud Italians under one roof everyone is involved in everyone else's conversations. There is always quite a bit of dancing, singing, an excess of laughter from start to finish and more love that you could possibly imagine. Just like any other family, we fight, bicker and get on each others nerves but theres something about being a part of such a close family that is unlike anything else.
