Ricordando Natale - dall'Italia e malatissima!!

At last, I'm back to Italy! So you will probably wonder: don't you have anything better to do rather than writing on your blog?!? Well... I'm sick and confined to bed :( - so after sleeping all the morning, at least I now feel like writing something..
I'll start with memories from Christmas in Virginia, at Lucas's parents, when we were (sigh) still altogether.
Christmas in the US is quite similar to Christmas in Italy: Christmas trees, nativities, lots of food and gifts. Well, as usual, things are bigger in the US.. so this is Lucas's parents tree:
Very nice, isnt't it? and it's real, one of the many trees that Lucas's dad cultivates.

I felt particularly happy when I noticed that Lucas's mom prepared a 'Christmas sock' for me too, which made me feel part of the family:
This is a tradition which is not present in Italy. We put up socks only on Jan 6th, the Epiphany, when la Befana comes and fills them up. Pasticciera put up a very nice post about la Befana, so if you're curious, go look at her Jan 6th post!!
The food was very good as always..
In my plate, you can see (from the top, clockwise): stuffing, gelly, corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and mushroom soup, turkey and baked apples in the center. Of course there were also many different pies (see the Thanksgiving post). But what impressed me most was the amount of wonderful cookies that Debbie baked. Her e is a sample:
The pink one was a butter cookie, then the round one was a 'Christmas ball' (a delicious crunchy one with nuts inside), then there's a peanut butter cookie and then an almond paste cookie. She made hundreds of each type.. they were irresistible :)
My contribution was given by Panettone:
I made it according to a recipe that I found in 'Bread Alone'. I was really happy of how much it raised, but I think next time I'll put more sugar and butter in it (the recipe called only for 1 stick of butter, whereas panettone is a really buttery dessert), and I'll cook it for a shorter time. I'll put the recipe online as soon as I'm back, I don't have it now. I hope I remember!!