Day: June 30, 2013

Family and Family

Morning: Uncle B and Aunt K drop in on their way up north. B’s and K’s son is the current national ski jumping champion, but for everyone in the family, of course, they’re just B and K, with their son K.

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We drink coffee, eat cookies, chat about a little of everything.

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Babcia decides she needs to take a picture of us. It takes a little while.

“What do I press?” It’s a fair enough question: our camera has buttons everywhere, probably too many for the job most of the time.

“Where do I look?” More time. Sweet Babcia — technology is just not her thing. She’d live in the nineteenth century if she could.

We’re all set: Babcia presses the shutter release . . . and holds it down. Flash! Flash! Flash! Flash! Flash! Five quick pictures, and by the last one, we’re all laughing, even Babcia.

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Afternoon, D and A bring the three cousins. L, S, and D are soon holed up together watching cartoons. What else is there to do when it’s eleven degrees Celsius (51.8 Fahrenheit) outside?

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After lunch, we all take turns talking to K and E via Skype. It’s a bitter-sweet moment: K and E should certainly be here with us, but vacation and such being what it is, it’s just not possible this time.

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Evening: the three girls put on a show for Babcia. There’s acting.

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There’s singing and smiling.

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And of course with L there, dancing.

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And thus begin three weeks together with the cousins.

Back Home

The Boy on his four-wheeler at Sunset Park.

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Full speed at all times.

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Looking at his clothes, though, I find myself thinking, “K, shouldn’t you be dressing our son a little more warmly?”

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Of course it’s only here we’re wearing sweaters in June.

Lunch with Aunties

Lunch with Aunties who have maintained Dziadek’s family home. Since neither had seen L in close to two years, there was a lot of doting.

“Does she understand Polish?” asked Aunt A.

“Of course!” Babcia answered. “Every word. And since she went to pre-school these last two weeks, she’s begun speaking it very well also.”

And yet the Girl buried her face in my arms for the first few minutes.

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But equally as inevitable was the change that came as soon as cousin R began tickling, chasing, and generally goofing with the Girl.

“You can’t get me while I’m with ciocia!” she squealed every time R approached.

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Ciocia became the great hero, always defending L with hugs and little tickles of her own. When she gave L seconds on ice cream, she certainly moved into Most Favored Auntie status.

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Yet it was not all tickles and giggles: R is getting married in a week, which means L will experience her first Polish wedding party.

“Do you know how we’re going to dance and sing!” Most Favored Aunt reminded L regularly. Indeed. The wedding is one of the things I’ve been most looking forward to about this visit. There are of course the usual happiness for R that he’s getting married, but there’s more to it than that.

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A Polish wedding party is so unlike its American counterpart. It’s a celebration at full power, an all-night adventure in food, love, music, laughing, dancing, libation, chatting, and everything else that makes life wonderful.

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And every visit with family and friends, we get some little taste of some portion of that fast-approaching evening.

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