Even though Christmas has passed, doesn't mean we don't wish we could do it all over again. Being Italian, we have a reputation of being loud and having a million different food items for holiday dinners. Christmas in an Italian household goes a little like this:

First, the scheduled arrival time is set at 2 p.m. however, no one shows up until 2:45- 3 p.m. at that latest.

Disclaimer: If you want people to get there at 2 in the afternoon, I suggest telling everyone to arrive at 1:30.

Second, once everyone finally arrives, hugs and kisses hello take 15 minutes alone because the entire family is there. The entire family includes but is not limited to Grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, great aunts & uncles, cousins, second cousins, brothers, sisters, and pets. It can get pretty crowded so whoever has the largest house has automatically volunteered to host.

Third, on Christmas eve in an Italian family, you can almost guarantee there will be the "7 fish pasta". The 7 fishes include shrimp, scallops, lobster, clams, muscles, oysters and a form of fried fish. You can also assume that there is a loaf (... or five) of Italian bread on the table along with Locatelli cheese and a nice bottle of red wine.

Three A: On Christmas day, steps 1 and 2 will happen again. As for food, there will most definitely be some form of pasta (my family does raviolis that my cousin makes FROM SCRATCH for THREE whole days. There were 200 raviolis this year). However, there are 5 courses give or take. The antipasto is first, then the pasta (ravioli's and more bread). There will be a break after the pasta to begin the process that is opening presents, then there's the meat course (which I opt out of) THEN there's the artichoke course, which is exactly what it sounds like. Another break for presents and lastly dessert. (I don't know about you but I'm full from just writing that all out)

Fourth, sticking with Christmas day, presents will take 5ever (that's more than forever). Chances are, if you're in an Italian family, you have little children. Between the children who get millions of presents and the rest of the fam, opening presents will take anywhere between 2-4 hours max.

Fifth, you all sit around and talk about how full and tired you are. So it's around 10 p.m. and everyone heads home with bags of all their unwrapped presents and leftovers.

Lastly, whoever hosted the evening, is up until 2 a.m. cleaning all of the dishes.

(Steps 5 and 6 will happen on both Christmas eve AND Christmas eve)

So basically, Christmas in an Italian family revolves around when the next course is going to be and being with family.