On Christmas Eve we have a big Italian meal. My mother always had pasta with meatballs and eggplant Parmesan. My husband's family had cold poached salmon with homemade mayonnaise and mangiarini (sic?) In my home we have small Italian appetizers:little puff pastries filled with savory,then cold poached salmon with mayonnaise,next pasta with homemade sauce & meatballs, eggplant Parmesan, then a salad of baby greens with pine nuts, pomegranate seeds & grapefruit vinaigrette, an Italian cheese plate with clementines and nuts,, Christmas cookies,and cakes, then cafe...mmm...buono! Forgetting I left something on the stove & burning it...