It's time for a Christmas-themed KITTENPAUSE.
So being confined to a tiny apartment is just no fun. I realize I should probably be working on Goldwater and my poster and REU applications, and the various and sundry things I have to do, but motivation level is low and that's my excuse.
I'm done with Siah and the first semester from Hell! Surprisingly (at least for me), ObLab was not the worst part about this semester, and the one class that I quite enjoyed going to, was actually my worst grade (take "worst" with a grain of salt, I'm a perfectionist).
I thought I'd share some of my Christmas traditions and maybe other people can share their Christmas/whatever holiday you celebrate traditions.
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve is the traditional Polish Wigilia. We have home-made pierogie (cheese and sauerkraut, yum!), mushroom soup, fish, mashed potatoes, and other stuff I'm probably forgetting. Usually my family hosts, because we rotate holidays among the family at large, but not always (for instance, this year there just isn't the room). Sometimes we have traditional pierniekes - polish anise cut-out cookies, though those aren't specific to Wigilia. We also do Oplatek (Oh-pwah-tek) which is a sharing of the Christmas wafer during which you wish every other individual good things for the new year (in our household, it's usually "health, wealth, and happiness"). This is also the time my family exchanges gifts with my Dad's parents and siblings.
Christmas Day
Wake up really, obnoxiously early because you're soooooo excited for presents! Wait at the door to the parents' room until they finally come out, and Dad sets up the video camera so we can open presents. Open everything possible, go to Mass, come back for some of Grandpa's Polish sausage, scrambled eggs, and rye toast.
Around 3 o'clock it's time to go to "The Estate," the house in the city where my great aunts and uncles live, and where my Dad's father grew up. Here we have a Christmas dinner, also generally Polish food, and open more presents! But you get a number and you have to wait until your number is up to open them. Also I generally get deigned "Santa's Helper" and have to run the gifts to everyone.
So that's what I do for the two days of Christmas. There's also the tradition of watching Rudolph, A Christmas Story, and The Santa Clause while eating Boy Scout caramel popcorn, which happens over the duration of the Christmas season, but hasn't started here yet...
What does anyone else do? Favorite gift ever? Christmas decorating with carols and dancing? Percy the Puny Poinsettia singing?
all right, you go have a very Merry Christmas with your family!
KITTENPLAY
I'm kind of envious for your celebrations, mine are pretty lazy nowadays. It's nice to see my family but it's just not as exciting as it used to be.
ReplyDeleteAs for my favorite gift, my father gave me a model of Deep Space Nine quite a while ago which he made himself. It even lights up!
Have a merry Christmas!
My favorite part of Christmas is Lara's birthday on Christmas Eve! For her first birthday, we were supposed to host the grandparents for turkey dinner, but Lara's dad had the flu so bad that I had to give the turkey away and tell everyone to eat somewhere else. Grandma and Grandpa came to Rochester anyway and took Lara to the soup kitchen at our church, where she was a hit among the homeless people!
ReplyDeleteFor her second birthday (I think), I inadvertently poisoned her cake by decorating it with holly leaves. (I threw it out before anyone ate it.)
We always took Lara to Midnight Mass, when I usually sang in the choir. She wore her pajamas to church and generally charmed everyone sitting near us.
Eventually we settled into a pattern that involved no illness at all -- fondue in front of the fireplace, an amazing cake, her presents and then Mass (now at 10 p.m.)
Sometimes we put luminarias out on our front walk. After Mass, we like to drive around neighborhoods nearby where all of the residents have put out luminarias lining the streets and driveways. It's wonderful to drive around with our headlights off -- though once we almost hit someone walking his dog.