The barszcz takes several days to prepare because you have to ferment the beet juice first, and that takes a while. The herring salad takes a couple of days to make because it has to marinate. Or rather, re-marinate. The fish course -- trout this year -- is unpredictable, so we ordered it a week ago, for pick up on Saturday morning.

And of course for the kids, it's been a year in the waiting.