Every year, the holiday party conversation starts the same way: Where are we going? What are we doing?
This year, Anna had a different idea.
Last fall, she went to Italy. (We know. We've seen the photos.) While she was there, she did a cooking class at a local woman's home — big kitchen, big table, homemade pasta, the whole thing. She came back with a tan, new recipes, and a vision for our holiday party.
The vision: ditch the usual and cook together instead.
Honestly? We were a little skeptical. Would people miss the party? Would it feel like a field trip?
Reader, it did not feel like a field trip.
Anna connected us with Michelle Carly — someone she'd met years ago at Saint Anthony's Feast in the North End, through the kind of mutual-friends-of-friends network that only Boston can produce. Michelle does deep work around Italian heritage and culture, brings people to Italy, and knows her way around a kitchen in a way that is genuinely impressive.
Together, they built a menu that worked for everyone.
All 11 or 12 of us took turns prepping, cooking, and then — the best part — sitting down to eat what we made together. No one was off in a corner. No one was waiting on the sidelines. Everyone had a job, and then everyone had a plate.
We also did Secret Santa. It snowed. The NFC Championship was happening. It was, somehow, exactly the kind of day you want to end the year on.
What Anna wanted was an experience that wasn't centered around alcohol or performance — something that worked for a team that has genuinely grown and gotten more diverse over the years. Something that just felt good. Connected. Real.
That's what it was.
We left with new recipes, full stomachs, and the kind of easy comfort that comes from actually spending time together — not just being in the same room.
We'll be doing something like this again. We don't know what yet. But the bar has been set, and pasta was involved — so the next experience has a lot to live up to.
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