Wesolych Swiat (Merry Chrismas)!!

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family wherever you may be!! We certainly enjoyed the holiday with our good friends Dayven, Chelsea and Wyatt. Since both of us were going to be alone for the holidays they decided to make the trek up here. It was nice to have friends to make the holiday a special one and I know Aniela loved having her buddy Wyatt to play with!

On Christmas Eve I prepared a traditional Polish Christmas Eve meal, with barscht (beet soup) and a meatless main course of salmon. Prior to the meal we exchanged an "oplatek" or thin polish wafer. As we share pieces of the wafer with one another, we exchange wishes of health and happiness in the coming year. It was important to me to be able to share my Polish traditions and have Aniela continue to experience the traditions that I myself knew as a little girl. Chelsea, Dayven, and Wyatt were troopers and made the Christmas Eve dinner all that more special to share with!

On Christmas day we had a laid back morning with some cinnamon rolls, breakfast casserole, Champagne for Mimosas that Chelsea brought, and of course presents to open. There were a few fussy moments from our "little angel" in the morning but for the most part there was excitement all around as we helped the kids open the presents. As you can tell from the picture I think Dayven and Charlie had more fun building castles with the mega blocks then the kids.

Miss Chelsea reading to the kids

Below:

1) Wyatt makes a run for it with the chocolate covered marshmallow Santa and Aniela is quick to throw a tantrum!

2) Aniela ends up getting a taste of some from daddy anyway

3) Later she makes amends with Wyatt!!

Christmas night we were invited to our friends Larry and Darlene's house where we ate the ultimate Christmas dinner! There was turkey, ham, stuffing, potatoes, salads..you name it they had it and it was good!!! Larry and Darlene also had a neat Christmas tradition where prior to eating everyone opens a "cracker" that is filled with a toy and hat. The hat is worn by all during the dinner. I do not know the origin of the tradition but have already purchased several boxes so I too can incorporate this to our Christmas next year. Another added benefit of living in different places!

The day following Christmas, known as Boxing day, our friends headed home and we hit the stores. Boxing day is equivalent to black Friday in the States. We took advantage of these deals and Charlie finally got his X-box after searching all weekend for deals on-line. Now instead of being glued to the laptop looking for deals he is glued to the t.v. playing video games and oohing and ahhing at the awesome, realistic graphics....must be a guy thing!!! I give it 2 months before it starts collecting dust!!

So we hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and continue to have a safe and blessed holiday! See you in the New Year!!