Poland's holidays are a bit more drawn out than in the States, and they actually last after Christmas has passed. It's wonderful! I always get so mad in the States, that the very next day, everything returns to normal. Here? Absolutely not! It's the beginning of the holidays, truly! Many, many Poles, for example, don't even consider buying a tree until the week before Christmas, if not a few days! Ya know where the 12 Days of Christmas actually originates from? It starts on Christmas Day and ends on January 6th, Three Wisemen's/Kings Day, if I remember correctly. That's the true Christmas season. Not beforehand.
But! I shall finish my rant on Christmas now, and first take a moment to ask all of you to keep a few people in your thoughts during this season. First, five Polish soldiers lost their lives in action while in Afganistan a few days ago. A horrible time of year to lose such young lives, so keep them and their families in mind. Aside from that, I learned that also a few days ago, my uncle in Toruń, the one I visited a few weekends ago, had a second heart attack, and yes, he did live through it. Right now, he's at home, but all I can say is I hope that he's recovering well and that please keep him in mind as well. Now that those most recent events have been mentioned, I'll actually begin to describe my day Saturday.
Woke up in the morning and mostly relaxed through the day until we left to go visit my grandmother's grave in Gdynia. My mom and aunt bought lots of flowers, decorations, and candles for her grave, and I lit up all of the candles. We spent a bit of time there, and then we drove back home. What did we do the rest of the day? Prepare our Wigilia feast, of course! My aunt had prepared most of the... danie (well, my English is going doooooown the drain) far earlier. We just had some little salads and fish frying to take care of. Oh, and more importantly, the pierogi! That was my dad's and my responsibility. We had actually prepared the cabbage filling the day before, and I think from now on, I'll actually be able to do it on my own! I think this time it stuck to my mind!
Anyways, I prepared the dough for the pierogi, and we first used a bit of it for some kluski for the mak (poppy seeds) dessert mix. From then on, though, we just used the rest of it for actually pierogi. My uncle would often roll out the dough for us, and then we would stuff the pierogi. This process took a while, mind you, particularly since the first batch of dough was super tough and difficult to roll out. Although, they say it turned out well and yummy, so I guess that's what matters! Eventually, though, we managed to make all of the pierogi from the first batch of dough, cabbage and mushroom pierogi. From there, we moved on to blueberry pierogi! Oh god, absolute joy. My aunt did the most wonderful thing and went out and bought frozen blueberries for me to use. Therefore, I had to make a second batch of dough so that we could actually make the blueberry ones, but hey, this dough came out a lot softer and easier to roll out. Therefore, the dough wasn't as thick. Unfortunately, once we finished most of the pierogi, they had started leaking from the inside because they had not thawed completely beforehand, so some of them were not sticking together as they should. At this point, though, I was out of service. I had stood for at least three hours straight, and the pain in my knee was very sudden whenever I realized that fact. I ended up having difficulty walking to sit down... however, after sitting and laying down for a bit, I came back to the table, watched my family finishing preparing, and then we were ready for Wigilia!
My aunt started off with a prayer (which.... we have never done at Wigilia at home as far as I can recall, but that tradition does not surprise me), and then we all went around the table and shared our opłatek and best wishes. Part of the Polish tradition is to share opłatek, which is like the church's wafers during communion, and to give your best wishes to everyone at the table. This was the one year I was not allowed to stand up, as my parents told me I was to sit the entire time after that sudden pain with my legs. With that, though, we sat down and ate. And ate. And ate. You see, Wigilia is usually (at least) a 12-course meal. So we had our barszcz, we had our pierogi, and our gołąbki, and lots and lots of fish. You aren't supposed to eat meat on Christmas Eve. This year, since I tried so many unique tastes, I decided to give the fish a try again. The Greek fish was delicious, because it was overloaded with carrots and other veggies, but... the other typical fish fish... not so much. Oh, the carp was good, again! Although, I was too scared to take a bigger piece, because of the bones... Yeah, that's the only reason I didn't eat more of it. My pierogi were a success, to the point where even my niece, Małgosia, loved the blueberry ones!
Therefore, dinner was very fulfilling and a huge success, with lots of wine and chatting and enjoying of the holidays. It really did feel like Wigilia, and I was truly happy to be with my family in Poland. Best present possible, to be honest. Małgosia, being 11, of course kept on looking at the presents and waiting and begging when we would open the presents; after we were finished eating, of course, but she was impatient. In Poland, since they celebrate Mikołajki on the 6th of December, which is when Saint Nicolas actualy comes to give children presents, on Christmas Eve, the Angel is the one to deliver the presents under the tree. So you open them after dinner! Of course, I kept telling Małgosia that she ought to feel lucky, because in America you wait until the morning to open presents, haha.
Finally, we did open presents. Everyone seemed very happy with their presents. My parents loved what I got them, hoorah! My dad got a Jagiellonian shot glass, t-shirt, and a handmade mug from Budapest, and my mom received a green amber pendant, a handmade festive tablecloth, and also a handmade mug from Budapest; I got the third one, as I had bought them as a set. In fact, I labeled them as our last names followed by 1, 2, or 3, because I wanted to see what luck thought each one of us should get. My mom got the one with the piano, which was perfect, my dad got the blue one, and I got the yellow one. The blue one was of the Hero's Square in Budapest, and mine was of the fortress around the church, if I remember it correctly. Aside from that, I got lots of chocolate, some nice clothing, and a beautiful Italian leather purse.
Małgosia was very satisfied with her presents as well, which is always fun to see a kid so happy as she was. Honestly, this year I really didn't care about receiving presents. I just wanted to see how my parents would like what I got them, and well, as I mentioned before, I already got the best present ever, by having my parents fly to Poland so that we could celebrate the holidays with our family, all together. I didn't need anything else. <3 For the rest of the evening, we sat in front of the table and slowly ate more, particularly desserts and cakes. Quite delicious, I must say. But that's all that the rest of the evening consisted. Pleasant, family time. At some point, I went to bed. I know the rest of them stayed up for awhile, but I dunno, I was tired.
Well, the next morning I slept in, as opposed to most people in the States, because I didn't have the entire OMGANXIETYABOUTPRESENTS thing going on. What did we do for the rest of the day? ... We sat in front ofthe table. And ate. And ate. And ate. We had breakfast. Then lunch. Occasionally we stepped away to... well some of us did to watch TV. I really didn't. Unless I planned on napping. Which was usually the intention. I haven't felt hungry at all since our Christmas Eve dinner. I've just eaten because the food is there. But true hunger? Absolutely not. My aunt keeps on running around and making sure everything is set at the table for us. It was a very enjoyable Christmas, though. Eventually, we went to my mom's best friend's apartment, and yes, we sat at another table and ate more food. We watched lots of home videos and looked at old pictures. Jagoda's mother continuously commented on what a wonderful young girl I am. At least I come across that way, eh? Haha. But really, it was a very enjoyable evening. Ania was even there, but we didn't get to talk too much. We were being proper and staying with everyone, unlike our youngen days when we would go play in her room.
We determined some logistics for our trip down to Zakopane as well, and eventually, Ania had to drive us home. So that was the end of quite the wonderful Christmas day! <3 But obviously, Christmas was not over, as today was the second day of the holidays! In Poland, you celebrate the second day as well. So yes, it was another day of sitting in front of the table and eating. And eating. And oh god, I think I started to feel uneasy when I saw food on the table. While we were planning on perhaps leaving the house today, well, other things happened, people started looking at pictures instead, haha. Which is fine, because I felt the disappointment when I realized I'd have to go outside of the house today, hahaha. (I know, I'm lame.)
I'll be honest, lately I've been missing chatting with lots of people lately, as I did through the semester. I understand why, as it's the holiday season, so people are spending time with their family, and so am I, obviously, but... I do miss people back home. In fact, I got quite a few emails today that brightened up my day tremendously! Today, Gabrysia left with her family, and my family ended up packing so that when Jagoda and her family came to chill for the evening, they could easily take our luggage into their car so that we wouldn't have to worry about it in the morning.
Yes, Jagoda and her family (my mom's best friend) eventually came. Well, her daughter, Ania, the girl I met in Wrocław with her boyfriend, hah. Or well, hung out briefly. Either way, yes, we sat in front of the table and ate and caught up some more. We determined we would stop in two places on the way to Zakopane, my aunt and uncle in Toruń, particularly thanks to the fact he had a heart attack a few days ago, and my aunt and uncle in Łódź, because I did not have a chance to see them this year! Yes, yes, shame on me.
So this evening passed by enjoyably as well. In fact, my parents even met Michał, Ania's boyfriend, because he came to pick her up. That was the most amusing moments of the evening, though, because well, my aunt lives out in the middle of a field, where people are just starting to build up houses. So she had to describe how to drive here, and every time that we saw a car driving in the middle of the field, they started flipping the lights to alarm the car which way to come. Each time was a failed attempt as well, because it was always not the right car. Eventually, though, he did show up, and we sat around for a short time, and then they all left, as we have to wake up bright and early for our drive down to Zakopane tomorrow! Fortunately, Poland does have high ways now (when I was growing up, it most definitely did not, hahaha).
I... I do think that is all, though... You see... It was full of food. Lots. And lots. And lots. ... And LOTS of food. And sitting. And thank god, I'm going to learn how to ski! (Marek, Jagoda's husband, determined it'll be far better for me to actually ski; the skis are now short.) Therefore, I'll be active over the next few days! ... Oh gosh, the New Year is around the corner. Where has time gone?! AhhhhH! Good night!
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