Our Italian Christmas Memories

An adjunct professor in Sociology which has had her move from place to place around the world, Anna Colluccia is going home for Christmas, she the only one of her close knit Italian family to move out of town. This situation places her somewhat at odds with her younger sister, Ella Collucia, who, with her wife Nathalie Wolford, pregnant with their first child, has felt the need to take on many of the "oldest sibling" family tasks, such as taking over running the family farm, where the family has hosted a pre-Christmas Italian dinner for the community for forty-eight years. Their younger brother, RJ Collucia, has always felt like a failure, but, working as a dishwasher at an Italian restaurant, has discovered a passion for the first time in his life, namely cooking and love for the boss＇ daughter, Monica Banks. Their mother, Madelynn Collucia, takes care of their "nono" (grandfather), Vincent Collucia, at the family home, nono in the early stages of Alzheimer＇s. As the siblings have given their mother a well-deserved Hawaiian vacation for the week before Christmas as a gift, Anna is largely left to take care of nono in Madelynn＇s absence, when she learns from nono＇s neurologist, Dr. Greg Krasinski, that his Alzheimer＇s has progressed further than she was initially meant to believe by the family. With things in the family changing, which includes an announcement by Ella about the farm, Anna, in an effort as Dr. Greg suggests to keep nono＇s mind engaged and to come back to some lost family traditions, wants nono to try and recreate long deceased nona＇s famous sugo pasta sauce to serve for Christmas Eve dinner, a written copy of her recipe which is not known to exist. In the process, Anna may come to some understandings of her family from who, in her adjunct life, she has purposefully run away, while discovering toward what she really wants to run.—Huggo