The Reason For The Season... Traditions, Family And The Miracles of Christmas

“where do you think you’re going?  Nobody’s leaving.  Nobody’s walking out of this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas.  No, no!  We’re all in this together.  This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here.  We’re gonna press on, and we’re gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-dance with Danny Kaye…”

Every Christmas I struggle a little by getting into the spirit of the season for many reasons.  Missing my parents who are two thousand miles away from us, feeling nostalgic about the scents of my mom’s kitchen, aching for those in need who are struggling financially around the holidays and remembering family members and dear friends whose lives have left the physical world

Growing up our family traditions around this time of the year revolved around food, lots of family parties, spontaneous get togethers and midnight Mass.  Gifts were most definitely not the center of our celebrations, I actually don’t remember ever having an abundance of gifts under the Christmas tree, the only gift I remember (probably because it was the most significant gift from my childhood) was a Baby Alive, I loved that doll.  I’m sure we received gifts, but that part of our Christmas traditions was never the main focus of the season.  Now, as a grownup, having spent the majority of my adult life submerged in a different culture and raising my children in such culture, I struggle “having” to pay attention to that part of the celebrations... gifts.  Social media doesn’t make it any easier either.  Shopping has never been a strength of mine either, so it makes the struggle a little more difficult.  I, however, go out of my way in the best of my abilities to make sure our girls wake up to plenty of gifts under the tree on Christmas day.  Not having any grandparents, or aunts or uncles around us who gift them makes it hard, but Stan and I have done a great job (I think 😊 ) of filling that void.

Our own Christmas Elf

Now, let me tell you about our own Christmas Elf, Stan the man.  Clark Griswold and Buddy Hobbs got nothing on him!  Stan just LOVES Christmas, and when I say he loves it, he really, really does.  Stan goes out of his way every year to bring Christmas cheer into our lives, he loves shopping for food (lucky me!), getting presents, tiding up the house and decorating and always makes sure the girls and I are having the best of times around this time of the year.  Maybe, just maybe, it was meant to be that way… one melancholic gal pondering about the why’s and if’s of the world balanced out by the most Christmassy guy around.  Life works in mysterious ways sometimes I guess.

Remember the story I shared about why I had been feeling blue this Christmas season?  Friends experiencing loss in different ways and me feeling their pain deeper than I ever thought?  On Christmas Eve I was redeemed in the most incredible and serendipitous of ways.  I can’t fully describe the events that occurred the morning and afternoons of Christmas Eve because the stories don’t belong to me, but it turns out, I was invited to be part of each of these friends Christmas miracles by them or their families spontaneously, almost as if they had knowledge of my intimate suffering for them.  I can sincerely say that participating in their Christmas story, healed me just as much as it healed them.  I will forever be thankful for this heavenly gift to me, my own Christmas miracle that allowed me to fully enjoy the festivities and be present and joyful for my family at home.

Let’s talk about food, one of my FAVORITE subjects, yum!!!  I grew up eating lots of meat around Christmas.  White meat, red meat, pork, you name it, we ate it all.  Stan however grew up eating NO meat at all, on Christmas Eve.  Fish and vegetarian dishes were always the focus of his growing up years in Poland.  This year, I decided to honor his traditions by preparing an entire Polish Christmas Eve supper.  Twelve dishes to be exact.  The twelve dishes are supposed to represent abundance, the twelve months of the year and the twelve apostles.  They don’t all have to be complicated dishes, but it’s important to have twelve.

Our Twelve Christmas Eve Dishes This Year Were:

1)    Barszcz (beet soup)

2)    Smoked Northern Walleye (pike)

3)    Salmon

4)    White Fish

5)    Pierogi

6)    Krokiety (mushroom filled pastries)

7)    Vegeterian Golabki (boiled cabbage leaves filled with rice stuffing and simmered in a tomato based sauce)

8)    Sweet Potatoes

9)    Baked Potatoes

10)  Lazanki Z Grzybami (noodles with mushrooms)

11) Steamed Vegetables

12) Homemade Kolaczki

The main idea behind the “not eating meat” on Christmas Eve is to honor the animals in the nativity.  Stan follows the no meat tradition religiously year after year and it was very special for our entire family to experience this big part of his growing up years together.  The girls and I got to hear stories from Stan’s childhood back in Poland years ago and the many dishes his mom prepared for their Christmas table.  Food will always be the essence of our roots.

Another important tradition in the Polish culture is the breaking of the Christmas wafer, better known as Oplatek.  Christmas Eve marks the end of Advent and the Oplatek ceremony seals this wonderful season in a very special way.  Stan always starts the sharing of the Oplatek by breaking the first piece and sharing it with me.  We then continue to break the rest of the wafer and making our rounds to every family member, expressing our appreciation to them and our wishes for the next year.  For whatever reason, the sharing of the Oplatek at our home this year, was a very emotional one, and we all ended up with tears in our eyes, some with ugly crying, me included.  I won’t share who the other ugly crier was, but her name also starts with “M”, oops! 😉

After sharing the Oplatek and pouring out our hearts and souls to everyone in the family, it was time to feast on the delicious meal we had waiting for us… which some was cold by now and had to be reheated, because who wants a plate of cold fish, not me, unless it’s called Ceviche and served on a tostada! There!

We couldn’t end the day without watching our favorite Christmas movies, Christmas Vacation and Elf.  It doesn’t matter how many times we’ve watched these movies already, every time we hear Julia Louis-Dreyfus say “And why is the carpet all wet Toddddd?  I don’t know Margo!!!” We all laugh hysterically!  Why, “Because, Smiling Is Our Favorite!”, get it?! 😉

We woke up on Christmas Day to the smell of freshly brewed coffee, fried eggs and gift opening.  Based on Michelle’s Christmas list, she’ll have enough reading material at least until November of next year.  Bella’s favorite gift… a poetry book.  She squealed so loud as if Rupi Kaur herself had handed her the book.

 All in all, our Christmas was pretty great.  Filled with love, miracles and a little bit of magic and feeling especially thankful for the gift of each other.

I hope you had your own moments of peace and love surrounded by family and friends.  Wishing you many Christmas blessings to last a whole year! ♥

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; the stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there…”