It's Wigilia Bożego Narodzenia (Christmas Eve) in Poland!
Mark and I spent the day going on a few errands, wrapping, baking and preparing for the Christmas weekend.
Most Polish families do not purchase their trees or decorate them until very close to Christmas Eve. Throughout the week we would see corner lots selling small, live trees.
At the Christmas market close to the Cultural Palace there was a pile of small trees bundled and ready for purchase. We rarely saw big, tall trees for sale as in the U.S.... mostly small ones as in the above pictures.
I baked Christmas sugar cookies by myself this year...usually it has always been with my children....they turned out pretty good even though I used Polish ingredients and our Polish oven.
Mark and I made a delivery of a 30 lb. food basket to a member of our church. We had tried delivering it the day before but just as we neared the flat we found out she was not home. So on Christmas Eve morning we tried again and this time Mark used my rolling cart...it was good to make the delivery and fun to share with someone else.
We also dropped by Mark's office to pick up our mail (thank you to any who have sent us cards...we have enjoyed them and have been thrilled to receive any cards at all this year) and we noticed the mall that adjoins next door was practically empty! I don't think we would have seen this at the U.S. malls on the day before Christmas.
I also attempted to bake a pumpkin pie. I had a can of pumpkin brought over from the US...my biggest challenge...finding a pie tin!
We couldn't find our pie tins so I thought I would just buy another one... but no pie tins in Poland! Not because everyone is baking pies...but people in Poland don't bake pies in round dishes like in the U.S. (I just found that out!). But I found a round baking-type of dish with higher sides, and made an attempt....it worked, though it does not quite look the same.
Christmas Eve Dinner.... A Shepherd's Dinner
We were invited to an American family's home for Christmas Eve.
On Christmas Eve they eat around their coffee table on knees, by candle light and only eat with fingers! It's to simulate how the shepherds might have eaten.
We had simple foods, yet probably better than the shepherds had. It was great!
Here is a picture of a few of the foods we ate....ham, chicken, crackers, cheese, breads, fruits, vegetables, nuts, raisins and craisins. We later enjoyed hot chocolate and cookies for dessert...it was so much fun and delicious too!
Here is the family that kindly invited us to join them (sans the photographer father).
Mark and I ready to enjoy this fun meal and activity.
Here is our dessert spread....white powdered sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies, my sugar cookies, and hot chocolate also.
We watched the movie "Mr. Krueger's Christmas", then the family acted out the Christmas story while it was read aloud.
We had such a lovely evening with this wonderful family...we got to know them better and felt so lucky they would include us in their family Christmas Eve activity!
Merry Christmas Eve in Poland....2011!
No comments:
Post a Comment