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<\/a>My Christmas tree this year!<\/p><\/div>\n
What do I miss the most? I guess everything…Christmas in Poland was always very special to me, spent usually at my grandparents house, with a big family. Christmas Eve was almost more important than Christmas Day. All the kids were waiting for the first star to appear on the sky! Magical, you would think…and it really was! We were not able to sit down at the dinner table, until we spotted that very special first star. A lot of people ask me: “What if it was a cloudy night?” Honestly…I don’t remember cloudy skies…there was always at least one star! I guess Christmas is magical:)<\/p>\n
Another thing I miss is sharing op\u0142atek<\/strong> (wafer) with my family…Op\u0142atki wafers are embossed with Christmas-related religious images, varying from the nativity scene, especially Virgin Mary with baby Jesus, to the Star of Bethlehem. Each family member would get a piece of this wafer and before dinner, we would all go around the table wishing each other the best things for the upcoming year and braking a small piece of the op\u0142atek from one another. Everyone had to make sure that they spoke to everyone…so sometimes it made family members, who fought at this time, closer and forgiving!<\/p>\n During Christmas Eve dinner, there was no meat on the table. All the dishes were made without the meat and we were not allowed to have soda (hard to understand for little kids sometimes, so we used to hide soda under the table!) Traditionally you would find kompot (compote<\/strong>) and prune juice (sok z suszonych \u015bliwek<\/strong>) on the table.\u00a0Tradition calls for twelve courses to be served during Wigilia. All the dishes are meatless and should be made from foods that come from the four corners of the earth: forest, sea, field, and orchard. Even though I love meat, I always really enjoyed Wigilia<\/strong> (Christmas Eve) dinner. You are suppose to try each single dish…possible, but not always doable:) My favorite dishes were:<\/p>\n Kapusta z grzybami<\/strong> (Sauerkraut with mushrooms), ryba po grecku<\/strong> (Greek style fish – with tomato sauce), karp sma\u017cony<\/strong> (fried karp fish) and pierogi z grzybami<\/strong> (dumplings with mushrooms)!<\/p>\n Other popular dishes during that night are: barszcz czerwony z uszkami<\/strong> (red beet soup with mushroom dumplings), ryba w galarecie<\/strong> (fish in aspic), \u015bled\u017a w occie<\/strong> (herring in vinegar), szczupak po polsku<\/strong> (pike Polish style), kluski z makiem<\/strong> (noodles with poppy seeds), kutia (christmas wheat berry pudding), piernik<\/strong> (gingerbread), ziemniaki<\/strong> (potatoes), \u0107wik\u0142a<\/strong> (beet and horseradish sauce).<\/p>\n Living on a farm, my parents would always put hay under the tablecloth. Next morning my dad would feed the animals with it. We were always told that it was so special, that animals would talk if they ate it. We waited and waited and waited…they never spoke, but we always hoped they would:)<\/p>\n I also miss going to the midnight mass that night. This Christmas Eve midnight mass is called Pasterka<\/strong>. Church was packed! We were allowed to stay up super late and go to the church with everyone! That way we didn’t have to get up early to go to the morning mass next day.<\/p>\n My parents would cut the tree down couple days before Christmas…and take it down couple days after Christmas…I definitely don’t miss that part. I love that here in US most people decorate their trees at the beginning of December! That way we can enjoy it longer!<\/p>\n