Today is the holiday that is called the Immacualte Conception while not actually celebrating the immaculate conception, and as per Italian tradition it is the day we put up our Xmas decorations. Woo!
Living with a total grinch for a boyfriend and having an Italian half of the family that is just the same, this means that there are zero decorations going up in my house, but here at my grandmother's I get to decorate the tiny plastic xmas tree she bought fifty years ago for 7lire (which is.... oh dear.... consider that when we went over to the euro 1USD got you 1700lire).
Let's not be too hard on them though, because the Italians are never really about the xmas tree, it is all about the nativity scene and my grandmother happens to be particularly proud of hers, complete with pebbles I collected from a park at age 4 and terracotta figurines some of which I painted for her myself. It doesn't matter that she has been an atheist since the '40s, it's tradition and she enjoys having the wise men travel across the table top to the manger and putting the baby jesus in its cradle on xmas morning.
So lo and behold the Roman mystery ladies and gents. This morning my grandmother goes up to where she keeps her xmas decorations and takes them all down to the living room. The tree, the lights, the plastic colored balls are all there. The nativity box is opened.... there is the manger, there are the pebbles, but no figurines!!! What the hell happened?! They're always kept individually wrapped in that box. She didn't mistake the box cause the manger is there, so where the hell are the nativity figurines??!!!
As soon as I got here I climbed up to where these things are stored and opened every single box and piece of luggage there. Not even a little sheep to tell me I was on the right path. So you tell me, what possible explanation is there?!
So here I am on my 88 year old grandma's computer hoping that by typing out this crazy story an answer will spring to my mind. Nope, got nothing.
Any ideas?
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