Polish Christmas

Part 1: Santa comes to Warsaw

The last couple years I have had a Christmas party gift exchange, where Santa comes and hands out gifts to everyone that wants to participate.  Party attendees (dressed in either nice suits/dresses or ugly sweaters) bring a small gift, less than $10 in value, and put them into Santa's bag.  Then Santa arrives and everyone can sit on his lap and receive their gift.  It's usually a really fun night and it makes us realize that we are never too old for Santa's lap (even me).  

 

Santa gets a turn sitting on a good girl's lap

 

The tree gets more slanted every year 

Part 2: Christmas in Kielce

When I booked my flights to Finland, I thought about spending Christmas there, but then I thought that in the 3 winters I've been living in Poland, I've actually never been in Poland during Christmas. I spent my first one in Riga with Irina's family, and last year in Rome with Patrizia's. There's a chance it would be my last Christmas living in Poland, so I thought that I should actually spend at least one in Poland. I didn't know exactly WHERE I would spend it, but I'm pretty good at getting people to feel sorry for me and inviting me over to their place (as you can see from the last 2 years). This year, Ewa was first (of a few, thankfully) to ask.

Even before I arrived I was assigned some work.  I was joining the pierogi production team, with an optional task of killing the carp.  Ewa's mom wanted me to have the full Polish experience. I'll help with pierogi but no carp massacres for me please. I'm still not sure if they hit it on the head with a mallet, like my grandma used to do when fishing, or if they just cut off the head, medieval execution style (I just finished watching an episode of Game of Thrones).  

Ewa is from Kielce, a town on the way to Krakow. Last time some friends visited her family's place, I heard how great a cook her mom and grandma were. So it wasn't a difficult decision to try things for myself. This is, after all, about my Polish experience, not about hearing about a Polish experience.  If the stories were true, someone was probably going to have to drag me back to Warsaw after I've had my fill. I hate to walk (or roll) away from good home cooked meals...especially if it involves pierogi.

The Polski bus was the quickest way to get there. For 20-30 zl, it took 3 hours, was very easy, comfortable and the bus has Wi-Fi (but I slept the whole way so it didn't matter). On the first night, dinner was ready when I arrived, and 7 of us sat down together. Andrzej and his wife were there, with their new baby, and Ewa's aunt as well. Some of the family spoke English with me, but even when not, we were able to communicate in Polish. I didn't contribute much to group conversations (in Polish), besides clumsily answering a few questions here and there. I can see that being around people speaking Polish all the time would vastly improve my abilities (and make my brain tired). I just hope they didn't mind me constantly translating words on my phone during the conversations (I promise I wasn't texting or checking facebook!).

To prepare for the next night's Christmas eve dinner, we (including me!) made some herring rolls (pickled herring, mustard, pepper, pickles and onions), then everyone sat around talking and drinking wine and whiskey (a LOT of whiskey). Before I knew it, it was after 2 am and everyone was still sitting around chatting.  I think they stayed up with me because they knew I wanted to watch the Seahawks game at 2:30. The biggest Christmas treat was that they have ESPN, so I was able to watch the game on TV (on the flat screen Sony in my own room). It was awesome! Andrzej said he played American football as a kid, but still doesn't know the rules. It made me think of my first Warsaw Eagles game that was like watching a freshman high school team.  The game finished at 5:30 am and was a great Christmas present...a dominating 42-13 win over the division leading 49ers. 

 

Pickled herring rolls - try one, you'll like it (maybe)

Ewa's family has 4 cats, 3 of them in their teens (that like 100 in cat years). It was nice to have cats laying around everywhere. One of them pulls all her leg hairs out each winter as she gets stressed, so you can easily tell her apart from the rest. She looks like she isn't wearing pants. She is also a bit cross-eyed, and reminds me a bit of Pinky from Pinky and the Brain. I think it was a result of getting her head crushed by a car when she was little (really). But she's survived 13 years after that, which is somewhat of a miracle, and she is really friendly and a bit crazy. She was my favorite immediately.

 

Pinky

 

One of Ewa's large cats (called "little bear")

Christmas Eve is the most important day for Polish families. People started coming over around 2:30 pm, while I was taking a nap (darn Seahawks game!). There was a bit of chaos as everyone was preparing some dishes in the kitchen. The tradition is to have 12 meatless dishes, to represent the 12 Apostles. Sometimes they count the bread, sometimes not, depending if they already have 12 or not, so I guess the 12 is flexible. It's also tradition to have one empty place setting, for the unexpected guest. This meant I didn't have to sit on the floor with the cats.

As I was waiting in the living room for my pierogi instructions, listening to American Christmas songs Ewa's dad put on (he said "they're not very good but I think they're songs you know"), I looked around the room and realized I was sitting on a chair, resting, and in every chair next to me, the cats were doing the same. I'd already adapted to their way of life...lazily laying around, waiting for food or for someone to play with me.  Nobody played with me, so I just sat there, humming along to "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas".  

 

Chillin with some lazy cats

I rolled up the sleeves of my new red Christmas cardigan and got to work on the pierogi production line. Grandma rolled the dough, while Ewa, her mom, aunt and I stuffed them. I think you could tell which were made by Polish ladies and which were made by an American man. Overall it was pretty fun and to my knowledge, grandma approved of my finished pierogi...I don't think any of them fell apart (and nobody got sick). Even if if did happen, there's no proof that mine were the bad ones since they were all mixed together! :) 

 

Authentic pierogi chef

 

Finished product

One embarrassing part of the dinner (but much appreciated) is that her mom made non-dairy stuff just for me. Actually it seemed that everyone in the family knew about my "problem" with dairy, as they would serve certain dishes then look at me and say "not for you!" and pull it away from me. I'm glad they were looking out for me, but I wish they hadn't gone through the trouble.

There are a few Christmas eve traditions In Poland...to put hay under the table cloth, serve unleavened bread to start the meal (and to exchange Christmas wishes), and everyone eats carp. Generally I don't know if many people actually like carp (which is maybe why they don't eat it on any other day of the year), but it's a tradition. I informally asked a lot of Poles about their carp eating habits, and most of them scrunch their noses, shake their heads and say "ewwww", when I ask.  Because it's a bottom feeder, people say that it tastes a bit "muddy" and the meat isn't as firm as other white fish (and there's lots of small bones). Ewa's mom fried it and it smelled really good. I wouldn't call it my favorite dish, but it wasn't bad (for one day a year). It tasted better cold for breakfast the next day as the meat was a bit firmer. 

 

Fried carp looks and smells good

I was completely stuffed after the 12 dishes, including my own 2 mountains of non-dairy pierogi. Andrzej's wife was also on a special diet because of the baby, so I wasn't the only one with a special menu. The chefs went through a lot of trouble for us!

After dinner we chatted in the living room (every meal ends with coffee or tea and sweets in the living room). I tried to answer a few questions from the family in Polish, but I was so tired and full that I could barely function other than petting the random cat that came near me. The family were all very friendly and nice. They entertained my weak Polish by speaking slowly and simply with me.
 

Ewa started the gift opening since it was her name day (Christmas Eve), then everyone got into the action. I brought some small gifts for Ewa's mom and grandma, and for the baby. And I got a blank recipe book from Santa (or maybe it was from an angel, since that's who they say brings their gifts), with a recipe for pierogi handwritten in it. Ewa (or Santa) ordered the blank book to arrive at her parents' house, and when it arrived, the parents thought she ordered a recipe book from some Japanese chef because it had my name on the cover. Then they opened it and saw it was blank inside and were really confused.  I guess they weren't too impressed with this Tristan Sakura guy.  

 

The cook book I haven't yet written

The next day we had a quick tour of Kielce city center before lunch at her grandma's. We had some really great mushroom soup, goose with baked apples, wine, a traditional fruit compote drink, and tea/coffee and cakes in the living room. It was a nice lunch and I could definitely get used to it! It even included some of grandma's homemade fruit liquor. I think grandma likes to party, as she has a closet (and/or cellar) full of homemade booze.

Part 3: English Christmas
Back to Warsaw on the Polski bus, I felt warm from the lunch and drinks...but there was no time to rest, as we went straight to Cristina's for her and Alan's annual (maybe?) English Christmas dinner of turkey, sausages, yorkshire pudding, brussel sprouts, experimental gingerbread cookies, special shots and other tasty treats. The food was excellent and I wish my stomach could hold as much as Alan's so I could keep eating.  It was 3 days of gluttony and I loved it. It was really nice to spend the holidays with friends.

 

Husky gingerbread

Unfortunately I had to leave the celebration early to pack and get ready for my trip to Finland, but that's another story...