Loved the story.
As a kid, celebrating with my large Italian family on my dad's side, we never did the seven fishes as was never big thing in his family, plus it was a really large crowd of people coming in and out, so fish dishes didn't really work well anyway.
As got older, and since been married, we have been doing the Seven Fishes, but we do not do any of the "old school" stuff like eel, baccala, smelts, etc., as we stick to the more mainstream dishes.
Merry Christmas to all. Buon Natale.