My Holiday Tradition

My Holiday Tradition

12/06/2006 09:13 am
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This will be the first year without Helen to prepare the traditional Christmas Eve dinner - and only 2 times in my life have I not be with Helen for Christmas. Luckily, Dan has been professionally trained by Aunt Helen to prepare the Christmas Eve dinner.



We never really talked about the "Italian traditions" in our family and now that I research it on the internet I see that we have the Caprarulo twist on them.



We always have 13 items on the table. I found out that it's because 13 is lucky in Italian culture and also because it has to do with the religion - the 12 apostles & Jesus. We always had fish/seafood on Christmas Eve. Once again, based on religion. Similar to Fridays during Lent.



Along with the fish, spaghetti aglio olio, orange salad, zapala (the Caprarulo spelling for zeppole), and knots (cenci). All with the Caprarulo twist. I found out that the orange salad that I know usually has some kind of fish in it. The zapala & knots (both fried dough) we had during dinner are actually desserts. Zapala is the Caprarulo spelling of zeppole and is usually in a wreath shape with powered sugar on it . Ours were always balls of dough.



We also open our presents on Christmas Eve. I can remember "Santa" making a special early stop so that I could open my presents at Helen's before we went to church at 7 p.m.



This year, Dan and I will continue the tradition and have his family over for dinner. We were hoping that my family would come down, but we're not sure that will happen due to the weather - which you can never predict.