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Wigilia 2016

Saturday 24 December 2016

What makes this Saturday different from any other Saturday? If I look back at Saturdays over the course of my life, what a change I see. How I spent my Saturdays when I was my children's age is so very different from how they spend they theirs. Better? In a way. Worse? Also true, in a way.

The Boy started the day with a speech for us all.
The Boy started the day with a speech for us all.

If K were to take the time to look back over the Saturdays of her life and compare them to what her children do, how they spend Saturday, there too would be enormous change. Better? In a way. Worse? Also true, in a way.

The point is, K and I are both in a place in our life that we probably never would have imagined when we were our children's age. Both of our lives at their age were about waiting, in a sense. K and her family were often waiting in lines in still-Communist Poland; I was waiting for the end and a new beginning.

Finished zakwas and mushrooms

And yet, there's still the waiting today. It's part of life. Waiting for the wild mushrooms (picked in Poland, dried in Babcia's kitchen, smuggled in our checked luggage, and waiting for months in the freezer) thaw then re-hydrate. Waiting for the zakwas to finish its fermenting so we can have the properly sour barszcz for dinner. Waiting for the prunes, apples, oranges, cloves, cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, ginger cubes, and brandy to release their magic to make the Christmas kompot.

Magic in a pot

The preparation, the waiting, is itself magical. K keeps everything moving, and I am constantly asking, "What now?" I dice the potatoes for the mushroom soup. "Not too big, not too small." I hold one cube up.

"They could be a little bigger." I try again and hold up a cube for inspection.

"That's a bit too big." But I don't mind. I'm just glad that I've found a place to help other than taking out the compost again and again -- peelings from all the fruits and veggies, then the cooked veggies from the stock, those that won't go into the salad that is -- and cleaning up the house.

Grating beets at a one-second exposure

While all this waiting is going on, there are things to do, of course. The table needs to be set. This is one of the things I leave to K. It's not that I wouldn't know how to do it -- I'm not that bad. But it's something K enjoys doing, a creative endeavor as I enjoy creating this site.

Gospel reading for the evening already prepared

We begin with a Gospel reading and sharing the opłatek. The Boy likes the wafer enough that he just sits and eats it as if it were a snack.

The dinner itself goes by in a flash. No matter how we try to slow things down (which we actually did this year), it still seems to go by entirely too quickly. We putting the barszcz on the table, and suddenly it's desert time. For the kids, that's a good thing: they can't wait to tear into their presents. For K, I guess it's a little bittersweet.

The menu is a traditional one (mouse-over to see details).

Barszcz z uszkami
Kompot made of prunes, apples, and oranges, spiced with cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and honey
Zupa grzybowa
Trout with potatoes and Orawian-style beets
Pierogi z kapusta i grzybami
Baltimore-style crap cakes
Makowiec, gwiady betlejemskie, cygan

Dinner over, we head to the living room for presents. Probably this is the best part of the day for the kids: they can't imagine what it's like to go to bed Christmas Eve without the presents as we do it Polish style -- everything opened tonight.

And I guess, truth be told, it's everyone else's favorite as well. The gifts we get? Who cares, really, except for one gift: the kids' joy. The Girl got what she's been talking about for ages: a bow and arrow set. When she saw one in Kmart the other day (when we went to find something or other for decorating), she was insistent that we buy it. That she buy it.

"Please Daddy, I have enough money!"

Papa demonstrates proper drawing technique.

But I already knew Nana and Papa had bought a set for her, so I held my ground and played the mean Daddy. "Can we get it after Christmas?" became the mantra, to which I answered, "Nope, probably not." Now she understands; then, she was just frustrated. Yet another thing Daddy says "No" about.

The four-year-old's heart's deepest longing

The Boy's big prize: a fishing rod from our fishing neighbor. "Oh, I've been wanting one of these for years!" he exclaimed.

We talk and laugh, and before anyone knows it, it's almost time for Christmas vigil Mass. Nana and Papa head home, and we pile into the car and head to our new parish.

Father Longenecker's homily focuses on the three animals that are traditionally thought to have been in the barn with Mary, Joseph, and the newborn Jesus. There's the donkey, which seems to symbolize how we're all so stubborn in a way. Yet it was a donkey that Christ rides into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. There's a continuity there.

Next, there's the ox, which usually labors under a yoke. Three decades later, Jesus to his disciples says that "my yoke is sweet and my burden light" and invites the disciples to take up his yoke. But the early Church Fathers saw in this a parallel with taking up the cross of Christ. Just as the older ox in a pair takes the heavier load, so Christ.

Finally, there's the sheep. This reminds us of the fact that Jesus is both the Good Shepherd and the Agnus Dei. (Below: Penderecki's Agnus Dei -- not from tonight's Mass.)

In closing, Father speaks of the simple crib the infant Jesus had, a manger. It's close to "eat" in French, and therefore etymologically related to the Latin, the original language of the Church. The Church Fathers saw this as symbolic too, with the manger foreshadowing an altar and Jesus as the Eucharist.

It's a blessing to end the evening in such a beautiful space; it's a blessing to have a priest who gives you something to think about; it's a blessing to have a choir that sounds like this.

I kneel on the concrete floor, careful to put my left knee down since we don't have a kneeler as we're sitting in the overflow seating and I know what will happen if I put any weight on my right knee, and I think back to the beginning of the day, to my thoughts that have been bouncing around all day: what makes this Saturday any different from any other Saturday? We do. Our decision to make it different makes it different. We could abandon all tradition, we could order pizza and watch silly movies, or just go about our day as if it were any other Saturday, but we don't. And that's what makes it different.

I look to my fellow parishioners and familiar thoughts swirl about: even if all of this is human-made, even if the wafer the priest holds aloft as the altar server clangs the altar bell remains just a wafer, there is value in all of this, in the singing, in the humbling (after all, isn't that Christmas is about, the ultimate humbling?) of ourselves, the stopping one day a year and looking about us and seeing all that's beautiful in the little spheres we orbit.

Previous Years

Wigilia 2003

Wigilia 2004

Wigilia 2005

Wigilia 2006

Wigilia 2007

Wigilia 2008

Wigilia 2009

https://matchingtracksuits.com/2010/12/25/wigilia-2010/

Wigilia 2011

Wigilia 2012

Wigilia 2013

Wigilia 2014

Wigilia 2015

Baking 2016

Friday 23 December 2016

It's been a tradition in our house and on this site for years now -- a record of all the chaos that's been going on the last day or so getting ready for Wigilia tomorrow night. Almost ten years' worth, starting in 2007.

Christmas Preparation

It's always the same -- sometimes even the same menu. Sometimes, like this year, we try something new, but not too new. Makowiec -- a traditional dessert for Wigilia, but one we've never made. And even if it were the identical menu year after year, there's more: there's the act of baking, the act of cleaning, the fussing, the worrying.

Nearing

There are the disasters and near-disasters: cakes that didn't turn out like they were supposed to; mixers that cease mixing; real and imagined worries and stress.

Christmas 2011 Baking

Some years K is always trying to bake while I try to clean up the mess behind her, which usually ends up cleaning up beside her, which ends up making more mess than if I'd just leave it all alone.

Pre-Wigilia Messes

Some years I turn my attention outdoors, smoking meats or mowing the lawn one last time to get up the leaves that have accumulated and occasionally because the grass actually needs it, even in December.

And Repeat

But those are just repetitions that have longer cycles. I don't mow every year around this time, but the mowing falls on the baking day every now and then. I don't force my way into the kitchen every year, but every three or four years, I fancy myself helpful.

Wigilia Prep 2015

Today, though, I managed to do a little of everything. Perhaps that's because, despite the repetition, we have one new element in this yearly ritual: it's all happening in a new kitchen.

Steps

Thursday 22 December 2016

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.

Making the List

Wednesday 21 December 2016

Making the list for tomorrow’s shopping is a process that takes as much planning as the cooking itself. I guess that goes without saying: you want to make sure your list has everything you need so that you don’t have to go back out. There’s no way I want to have to go out on Saturday to get anything — anything — we’ve forgotten, so making this list now reduces the chances of that happening. It began last night, sitting at the kitchen table, cookbooks everywhere, and it continued in the afternoon and evening tonight.

Taking a short dance break requires less planning. When you’re listening to highlander Christmas carols and you grew up dancing, it comes naturally. And that’s to say nothing of K.

Cooking

Tuesday 20 December 2016

We had a beef stew for dinner. E mixed the meat with some spices and flour prior to browning. L learned how to peel and to cut potatoes.

An Almost-Inside Joke

Tuesday 20 December 2016

To get this, figure out the name of the piece of music and look up the imperative form of the Polish word for “to roll out dough.”

Grinding

Monday 19 December 2016

The Boy always likes helping in the kitchen. He likes helping anywhere, but especially in the kitchen. These days of Advent, that’s always a good thing: K can use all the help she can get in the kitchen.

Tonight: filling for the Christmas Eve dinner dumplings — the uszka (for the barszcz) filled with mushrooms and the pierogi stuffed with a sauerkraut-mushroom mixture. There’s lots of sauteing and grinding. We probably go through two sticks of butter in the process.

“We’re Polish, so that means we use butter for everything,” the Boy exclaims as we cook.

Tonight, we try out our new grinder attachment for the silver Beast, which usually sits on one of the racks in the basement but has spent Advent on the counter top upstairs. We finally have enough counter space to do it, why not?

We have definitely moved past the “It’s so new — don’t touch anything” phase of our new kitchen. It’s like the old one never existed. Certainly makes the pictures look better.

Jasełka 2016

Sunday 18 December 2016

K baked.

The Girl sang.

The Boy wrapped it all up.

10th Party

Saturday 17 December 2016

We've done it ten times now, and there are some constants, as there would be with any birthday parties. What's changed, however? The gifts. Toys are gone; jewelry has arrived.