A Late Christmas Post

 I know, I know... I got lazy! I wanted to tell you about our family Christmas!! I told you about Preparation Day. I told you about Christmas Eve. Now it's time to share with you our Family Christmas of 2012!

I will start with the early morning, when some of us went to Midnight Mass and some stayed home (because they went that evening) and helped Santa arrange all of the presents. After church is a time to sit down on the couch by the tree and drink Godiva liqueur and talk with whomever stayed up late enough. I normally get pictures, but I was so worn out, I went straight to bed.

The next morning, the little ones were up by 6:30am. Since it is tradition for everyone to be awake and present when the opening of gifts commence, they had to wait a little bit. I'm pretty sure Tim (my brother), Paul, and I were the last to wake up at 8:30, so the kids were allowed to open their stockings while they waited. It took us about 3.5 hrs to open all of the presents because we go one at a time and in order from youngest to oldest. Here are some of the pictures from that morning!

 BIG Family :D

Papa and Brynach-Joe

 My wonderful, loving, amazing parents.

Paul and Brynach-Joe

Brother in-law, Colin.

Little Miss (niece)

Noah (nephew)

Little Miss and Mommy

Tea time with Uncle Paul!

After all the fun in the morning, we had a very nice rest of the day. We played games, went on walks, took naps, and just hung out. It was a good day :) Here are more pictures from the rest of Christmas!

Little Miss snuggling up with Uncle Tim. She had a routine this Christmas. Every evening around 4, you could find her sleeping on this couch or on the lap of someone. So cute!

Cousins, Tiger and Brynach-Joe

 Bearded sons with their father/father in-law. This past year, after the wedding, my father dawned a new look... a beard. He has always been clean shaven so it was so new for everyone and it has been a topic for discussion ever since seeing him. 

I think she looks like a Who out of Dr. Suess.

Siblings, Little Miss and Tiger

Monopoly! Auntie Katy, Beth, and Ethan.

Nutmeg and Brynach-Joe

Eddie and Uncle Paul, the explorers.

Making a fire with Grandpa!

The fabulous Katy!

So excited to make a fire!

TV time/ nap time (this was around 4pm).

Story time with Grandpa!

Story time with Grandma! Brynach-Joe loves to be read to.

Little Miss with Auntie Katy

Story time with Mama

Knitting time!

Guess what time it is :P

Another family dinner

Sisters, Erin and Katy

Sisters

Playing with Grandpa

Story time with Auntie Mary

All of the grandkids with their Grandma and Grandpa! (4 girls, 5 boys... so far)

(From left to right) Noah, Ethan, Gemma, Auntie Katy

Smiley Brynach-Joe!

The Fam! (minus Tim and Paul)

Grandpa and Little Miss playing.

Movie and popcorn!

Little family (minus Little Miss)

The two youngest cousins with their movie theater popcorn.

Banjo player

Happy family!

Sisters, Gemma and Mae

Grandpa and his Little Miss

The happy couple!

Another family dinner!

Sisters, Katy and Shannon

Sisters and their mama (minus Erin)

I have no idea what they were looking at, but it was a great shot!

Story time with Uncle Tim and Kelly

Kelly and Tim

It was a wonderful Christmas with the family. Kelly, my brother's girlfriend and one of my best friends, came on the 28th and spent a lot of time with us. It was so great to have everyone in Colorado for Christmas and I am looking forward to next year when 2 new littles ones will, hopefully, be there! My sister, Shannon, is expecting her third child, due in July, so it'll be great to see the whole family back together again with the new additions :) There is so much in store for us this year!! <3

It's a...

...long story, but the gist of it goes like this:

My mother and father have 6 children (5 girls and 1 boy). Their first born was a girl and the boy did not come until after the third girl. My 3 oldest sisters all have boys as their firstborn. Therefore, it is natural for me, and everyone else for that matter, to think that this little one I am carrying is a boy. Long story, short:

We are having a girl!! 

... and Paul is waiting for the next ultrasound... just to be sure :P

Wigilia

As I wrote before, our BIG family participates in many activities. These activities are better known, to us, as 'traditions. ' For example: it is tradition to wait until after Christmas Eve dinner to start eating the Christmas cookies; only after we open presents are people allowed to start taking the candy canes from the tree and eat them; it doesn't matter what time of day it is, alcohol is always an acceptable drink in this house.

One tradition that is always anticipated, by the children that were raised by my parents, is Christmas Eve dinner. My mother is 100% polish and every Christmas Eve, we have 'Wigilia" (Vee-gee-lia), a traditional Christmas Eve vigil dinner. This meal is 12 courses. When I was younger, we had 9; then we had 5 further on in my childhood. Eventually people picked their favorites and the number dwindle down a bit more. Last night, we had 3 courses and even though it sounds like it's a big change from before, a lot of us only did eat 3 courses anyway when there were 9 served.

This is how it begins. Every place setting (even a place for baby Jesus) gets what is called a opłatek (pwah-tek), a polish wafer. This symbolizes the bread that is eaten daily.

After the blessing, everyone goes around and wishes each other a Merry Christmas and good fortune for the new year by taking a piece from each other's opłatek and then hugging or kissing on the cheek.

(Wonderful demonstration by my brother and husband)

 Then the meal starts!

This is the first course: cream sauce and herring, pickled herring, and crackers.

the Gang!

This is the second course: Borscht (borsh), a beetroot soup with mushrooms. We first prepare our bowls by cutting up hard-boiled eggs, kielbasa (polish sausage), hash browns, and rye bread.

It may look weird to you... but it is DELICIOUS!! This has been one of the favorites for many years.

This is the third course: Pierogis (pye-roh-gees), dumplings of unleavened dough some stuffed with sauerkraut, cheese, cheese and potatoes, and we do fruit (this year was blueberries and cherries). They are boiled and then fried with butter and onions (not the fruit ones, of course). They are yummy!

After all of this, we clean up and hang out for a while before desert! This year, we had 12+ kinds of cookies, a chocolate chip cookie pie, and cheese cake for desert. I wish I had gotten a picture of the cookie platter but, the food was so filling, my memory seemed to have gone with my consciousness. The food coma was wondrous ;)

Here are more pictures of Christmas Eve:

Brother-in-law Matt, Brother Tim, and Husband Paul

Our first Christmas together!

Nephew (1 of 5) Eddie

Mom, sister Shannon, Dad, sister Nutmeg

Brother-in-law Colin with his two kids, Tiger and Little Miss

sister Shannon

Story time with Uncle Paul!

2 of my beautiful older sisters cleaning up!

The parents with 5 of their children (Erin, my 3rd oldest sister, isn't present in this one)

Oldest sister and her DH

They're so cool!

Knucks!

Playing catch with Uncle Tim

Tiger and Little Miss

Catch before bed.

Brynach-Joe and the Nativity scene.

21 stockings all hung in a row.

It was a wonderful Christmas Eve!