…………………………Christmas morning started as it has for many many years……..with “STOLLEN” baked that morning……..Jac always prepared the Stollen on Christmas Eve and it would rise overnight….then first thing in the morning she would put it in the oven while I got a fire going in the family room. We would open our presents with our girls sniffed every present to find the ones with the goodies in them. They always found the ones with the treats, and would start to tear the paper open. Jac wrapped them loosely so they could be easily opened. We sat watching the fire, listening to Christmas music and sipped fresh brewed coffee. Soon the Stollen would be ready and we sat at the dining table near the tree and ate our Christmas breakfast. This was our tradition for as long as I can remember…………….This Christmas morning started like all others. I made the Stolen. just like Jac had, and into the oven it went at about 6am. I started a fire and put on the Christmas music. Sammy opened her presents, and would have eaten every single treat if I didn’t take some away for later! The Stollen came out of the oven and it was perfect! I waited for it to cool and sprinkled it with confection sugar…..”SNOW ON THE MOUNTAIN”, as Jac would call it. Then Sammy and I sat by the fire and had our Stollen , me with a cup of tea…….Later when Lou arrived to take care of Sammy, we had another piece of Stollen!……..Then I got ready for the day……….I drove to my brother’s house with the Christmas presents in the “sleigh”, and a cheese cake with Oreo cookie crumb base…..”double chocolate Oreos”! It was sitting on the seat next to me……..To my utter amazement…..there was hardly any traffic driving from CT to Long Island on the CT Turnpike and the Long Island Expressway! For anyone who takes these highways they know how amazing it is to be on them at 11:00am and for them to be empty……I arrived at my brothers first which was good, because it gave us a chance to catch up…..Then the “kids” arrived…….First Matty and Michelle, than Chris, and always last Jeannine!……..I got Michelle to volunteer to be my helper handing out my Christmas bags with everyone’s present in them…….In Oct. I received a postcard in the mail [lower left], and on the card were two pictures of a black tee shirt and a black hoodie with the name DELL’OLIO on it! I thought “what new scam is this?”, but soon came to realize it wasn’t a scam at all, and this company was selling all kinds of items with my name on it. I thought what a fun thing for me to get….and so I ordered the hoodies for everyone. They came the second week of Dec. and they were perfect, and a really nice quality……..So we all donned out new hoodies and took a family picture….from L to R, Matty, Jeannine, my brother Mauro, Chris and me. Kathy is sitting in the chair in front as the matriarch of the family…..Everyone loved their hoodie….I recieved a box of Chocolate Truffles….yummy….a red Lacoste, which I needed, and a large long box filled with four large different herb scented candles……..We watched to Christmas classics, The Wizard of Oz, and A Christmas Carol, and then it was time to eat. It was more of an Italian feast then a traditional Christmas dinner which was fine with me…..Baked Ziti with Meatballs and Chicken Parmesan were the main dishes, and then desert……My SIL made a chocolate cream pie, my cheese cake, and my nephew brought the most amazing Lobster Claws filled with French cream….all were delicious……By the end of dinner we all had to be rolled out….we were stuffed!…..At about 7:00pm I took my leave for my trip back home………Santa’s job was done for another year!
Hi Louis,
The cookie exchange and Christmas sound perfect. So nice to be with people we care about. Having good food is a bonus!!! I spent Christmas in San Francisco with my children and grandchildren. It’s such fun to see the children interact and to wonder
what they’ll be like as adults. You are lucky to have experienced your nephews as babies and now as grown men.
Happy Holidays!
What a fun Christmas! Thanks to you, I was Linea all the way, including jewelry. Now I’m going to go look for Jac’s stollen recipe.
Wow Louis, what a BEAUTIFUL black sweatshirt!
You couldn’t have designed it better yourself! Let’s
see, what could you use that as a logo for????
Happy Holidays, looks like you’re doing fine.
Hi Louis,
I laughed when I read the story of the sweatshirts. We also got a flier from the same company. It read: It’s a HILL thing, you wouldn’t understand it. The picture showed the saying on a black tee shirt and HILL was in red letters. My husband wanted one and he wanted me to order one for my son. My son loved it.
Loved the family sweatshirt photo, Louis!