Our Italian Christmas Memories

An adjunct professor in Sociology who has moved from place to place around the world, Anna Colluccia, the only one of her close-knit Italian family to leave town, is going home for Christmas. This situation places her somewhat at odds with her younger sister Ella Collucia, who has felt the need to take on many of the "oldest sibling" family tasks, such as taking over running the family farm, where they have hosted a pre-Christmas Italian dinner for the community for 48 years. Their younger brother, RJ Collucia, has always felt like a failure, but, working as a dishwasher at an Italian restaurant, he 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 "nonno" (grandfather) Vincent Collucia, who is in the early stages of Alzheimer's, at the family home. 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 Nonno in Madelynn's absence, when she learns from Nonno's neurologist, Dr. Greg Krasinski, that his Alzheimer's has progressed further than the family had led her to believe. 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 Nonno's mind engaged and to come back to some lost family traditions, wants him to try to recreate long-deceased Nonna's famous sugo pasta sauce to serve for Christmas Eve dinner, but a written copy doesn't seem to exist. In the process, Anna could come to some understandings of her family, from whom she has purposefully run away in her adjunct life.