Families pause to honor veterans over holidays

Hundreds of children turned out with their parents and grandparents in tow for Casa Italia’s Christmas Village, a beloved annual event that features a Mass with Living Nativity, visits with Santa and La Befana, horse-drawn cart rides and traditional Italian treats. More than two dozen attendees stopped by the veterans museum while they were on the grounds. Among them were Frank and Angela Cassata; their daughter AnnaStella Grana and her children Isabella, Jack and Angela (left); and family friends Anna and Dave Olson and their daughter, Daniela (right). “It was wonderful to see and read about our military history,” AnnaStella wrote afterward. “As children of immigrants, one thing my parents always taught us was how lucky they were to have come to America and to be thankful and proud to be an American Italian.”