In December, my American neighbors do not count the uszka “little ears” to see if they have enough for the beet soup barszcz. Unlike in Poland, they also do not shop for carp, but they do buy the Christmas tree sooner. They decorate it with lights and put inflatable snowmen in front lawns. Some homes are decorated with white-and-blue lights for the upcoming Chanukah, the Jewish Festival of Lights. In the shops you can buy for gingerbread man, and even a gingerbread woman, ham, but also the products you need to prepare for mentioned Hanukkah.
In the television the best deal gifts continue. The morning talk show anchors dressed in colorful ugly sweaters and red reindeer horns wish viewers Happy Holidays! Since Thanksgiving, I see more charity commercials. As in Poland, family pictures of Santa Claus are trendy.
Thanks to contacts with the local Polish community, I was able to order homemade pierogi, barszcz with uszka and a cheesecake. I cut up traditional vegetable salad. I found already necessary pickled cucumbers. If I needed in Polish Delii in San Francisco I could easily buy many Polish products, like Christmas Eve wafer.
This year, we were invited for Christmas Eve dinner (on 24th of December) to my Polish friend. It will for sure will be different than at my parents, but Polish carols are the same everywhere. I cannot wait to have Polish mushroom soup. Herring will be eaten only by Poles, because for our American husbands it is even hard to be in the same room with them, not to mention swallow them. It’s only a shame that we will not have time for the Christmas carols evening at the Berkeley Dominican Church. In the US, there is no habit of sitting at the table on the 24th of December.
To keep up with the Anglo-Saxon tradition, we will also unpack, in colorful pajamas, Christmas presents in the morning of December 25th.
This will be my third Christmas away from my family home.
Although I miss Christmas in Krakow, it gives me pleasure that I pass some Polish traditions to my daughter and in some way to my husband. Our first American guests already enjoyed traditional pierogi stuffed with cabbage.
I can’t say that I have gotten used to Christmas in the United States. Everyday I am checking if my package from the Polish Santa has finally arrived. But I see that here too there is a unique atmosphere and the desire to celebrate together with our loved ones.
We will spend New Year’s Eve at home. During the day, we will attend a nearby community center and join other parents with children for celebration. Like last year, there will be a big countdown and dropping the balloons suspended from the ceiling. Happy New Year!
There is no snow here, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be snowman. By the way, this is not our house:)
Happy Hanukkah! Products necessary for making for example potato pancakes “latkes”.
Rose’s first toy-advent calendar. Happy Holidays!