Merry Christmas

Every Christmas Eve, our family celebrates Wigilia (Polish Christmas Eve) at night.
For us, this is the only event, and it is one that my Mama has celebrated since she was very little. The food is 'meat-free' and includes pierogi, cucumber-dill salads, boiled potatoes, mushroom barley soup, crushed beets, shrimp, chruschiki (not sure I am spelling this one right--it is angel wings, fried crisps with powdered sugar), rye bread, and oplatki, which are Christmas wafers used to wish each other well.

Unfortunately, my Da couldn't make it since he had a migraine,
courtesy of a run in with Mama and some almonds, so he's not actually in any of the pictures.

Also, Rebecca ate all the oplatki beforehand, so we didn't have any.

This was the first time I could actually eat all of the food.
Here we are at the table:

I snuck some food in before everyone else!

Some fancy chocolates that I gave to Big Mom.
She always likes those very much.

My Auntie Rebecca introduced me to sauerkraut pierogi. Yum!

Teddy and me eating dessert.

Opening our presents after dinner

Lauren had to help me out with the wrapping paper

The only picture of all three of us kids

Another Lauren assist.

Teddy and me coloring

Trying out my new sofa lounger. So comfy!

Teddy liked my Thomas present for him

Playing with Lauren and Baba

Lauren and her new game set

Lauren hauling her new game set.
She wanted to play it, but my Mama said I would eat all the pieces.

Playing with Lauren on our new animals

Lounging after playing very hard

A fun party

Last Sunday I went to my friend Liam's 1st birthday party.
It was a lot of fun seeing my friends, some of whom I hadn't seen in quite a while.
(all that summer rehab and Grandpe's illness has really kept us soooooo busy!)

Here I am checking out all the toys

So cool to be 1!

This was the only shot my Mama could get of Kaitlyn
(Actually, it was really really hard to get any shots of us kids at all!)

We all said NO WAY! to a group shot!

Grace dancing!

Another attempted group shot

Grace was patriotic with her outfit and gift

Playing together...I was obsessed with the texture of Liam's hair

Grace and Liam together

Here I am trying to hug Liam (and dance, too!)