Happy 2006

Capodanno 2006 II
Originally uploaded by margiana.

I've been able to connect only today! It has been hectic in those last days!

The 23 we left to Rome and Monocolo came with us... he mewed for half an hour, then he slept.
Once in Rome, we simply started eating. My dad is on diet (he lost 8 kilos but needs to loose some 50 more) so we had a sort of light Christmas Eve dinner (hihihihi...light!!!) but the fattest was on Christmas day. Basically we never stopped eating. And poor Andrea spent 6 days on computers. My brother and 2 of my cousins started an ADSL internet connection and Andrea helped them to do everything... and to adjust all the problems those pc had. Wireless connections, new electric connections and such. And everybody was looking at him behind his shoulders and this is something he really hates:-( This is should be the 'programmer's spell'!
We both were looking forward to go home,(as for me, of course I had a big political argument with my dad right the day after I arrived home).
We headed home on the 29th. We emptied the car, freed Monocolo and then run to IKEA (we received a consistent gift certificate) and we spent it buying the furnitures for the 'living-room', a table for Andrea and his PC and some other little things.
Andrea got his backache again since we had to load on our small Toyota Yaris a big and heavy package. We finally got home and the lack of patience overwhelmed us.
We started assembling the furnitures but we've been awake until 2 am and could finish only the base of it. Next day we helped Patty to move from her apartment (she just bought an apartment) and took our few boxes away from her garage. In the afternoon we kept on assembling the furniture until 4 am. Next day we woke up around 12.30 pm, finished to assemble everything and tidied up things around, that means we had to find all the CDs, DVDs, Playstation games and stuff like this, organize them and put into the shelves. Finally we cleaned the house and arranged the table for the dinner. I started cooking lentils (the tradition says that the more lentils you eat, more money in the new year). Shower and dressed up for the party. The guests arrived with the other courses... the menu was:
Appetizer-salame and cheese, potato chips, tortillas with different sauces, salmon and olives canape, and a bottle of Rossini to drink.
Main course-Lasagne in different shapes and colors!
Fabiola is from the region where the lasagna is characteristic... so she just made wonderful and great-tasting lasagne: 1 lasagna with mushrooms, another with artichokes, the traditional one with ragu and besciamella and last but not least (my favourite) with fontina (a kind of cheese), diced bacon and porcini mushrooms. Oh my... this was really fantastic!
We drunk Vino Nobile di Montepulciano red wine.
The tradition says that on New Years Eve one must eat lentils and 'zampone' (pig's trotter stuffed with seasoned mincemeat) or 'cotechino' (kind of spiced Italian sausage). Just to be sure I cooked both.
To finish Pandoro e Panettone (typical italian X-mas sort of cakes) and dried fruits...
As you can imagine, once the midnight arrived it has been a very difficult task to stand up (and not roll out) and go outside to light up sparklers and kiss best wishes with Arianna and the gang (my next door neighbor)... once back in the house, we could simple sit and play some games. At 2 am everybody was gone and after cleaning dishes and glasses (still no washing machine)Andrea and I were able to look around and feel blessed for what we have... a shelter, friends and our love... we missed you 'overseas friends'!