Picketts in Poland: Our Wintry Easter Weekend in Warsaw 2013

Easter Weekend in Warsaw

Mark wanted to title this blog post "I'm Dreaming of a White….Easter". Plenty of snow still remained on the ground, sidewalks, parks, streets, etc. But more snow was predicted for the Easter weekend. And come it did!

Reminders of the spring season filled our home…such as Polish Easter Eggs…Pisanki. This bowl is filled with hand painted wooden eggs, and also a real egg decorated with tiny stickers.

This egg below is a new egg purchased this year….it is a real egg that has been delicately painted. I love the colors and designs…hoping it will last for future Easters to come.

Our Saturday before Easter was filled with early errands….as stores would be closing by 3pm for the holidays of Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. I can't think of any public holiday in the US when so much time is taken off for a holiday.

Here we are outside our small grocery store, Super Sam, near our home…as the snow is briskly falling around us. This didn't look like any Easter we had experienced before.

We had seen lots of snow over the past 6 months…but it still surprised me that so much would be falling in March and April!

On Easter morning we went to church, and from there to an Easter dinner with a Polish family. For 3 hours we visited and ate delicious Polish traditional foods. It was an honor to have experienced a Polish Easter afternoon with this family. During our visit, the patriarch of the family told us that he did not remember ever seeing an April snowstorm like we were experiencing. It was definitely not normal!

Before leaving for home, we had to brush away the snow that had covered the car while we were inside.

Driving home in the storm.

Approaching our neighborhood.

It is a wintry wonderland…more snow than we had seen for quite a while!

The beautiful pink tulips were our reminder that it really was Spring on this white Easter Sunday.

I was ready to come inside, change into warm and comfortable clothes and think about this Easter Sunday. Mark, on the other hand….was ready to go outside and work! He thought since the gardner would be away Easter weekend, he needed to do what he had seen our gardner do many times…brush and shake the snow off the bushes….and maybe move some of the snow off the walkways. Mark was doing this while the snow was still falling and I said it would be like trying to clean up your home while children were still playing and making a mess….

On Easter Monday we woke up to….more….snow. In fact it was hard to see that Mark had removed any snow at all from the bushes.

Our yard, terrace and the trees around our home were quite beautiful…it just didn't seem like it could be April 1st! No April fool's joke…it was really was April and looking like….Christmas!

Easter Monday is a public holiday….and since it was so wintry outside we spent most of the day at home. I told Mark we could actually build another creation in the snow but instead of a snowman we could build a snow bunny! We didn't, but at the end of the day, the news was all about the weather and the numerous snow bunnies created around Warsaw!

My good friend Malgosia and her husband spent their Monday creating a snow bunny and two eggs. She sent me this delightful picture. She said it was a most strange Easter! So it was not only strange to two U.S. expats from Texas but also to the Polish people!

Our neighbors across the street built a snowman, snow puppy, and snow kitty cat (I think)….quite creative.

Mark and I however, were not creative on Monday. I was busy indoors while Mark spent a good part of Easter Monday…removing snow. Here are a few before and after pictures of Mark's work. He loved being outside, exercising and taking care of our home.

Our front porch and stairway, before….