post-Xmas

Well it's the 27th but family obligations continue to take up a lot of my time...Here's a recap:

Christmas Eve was at my Uncle's per usual. Food highlights included Polish mushroom-leek tarts as one of the appetizers, always-outstanding mushroom soup, the perfectly cooked salmon with Sorrel sauce, and my aunt's kołaćki. There was a break in tradition in that meat pierogi were served after years of request by my one uncle and cousin (Christmas Eve meal is meatless in the Polish tradition), but they were the only two that ate them.

Christmas morning is just my immediate family at our house - we had an Eggs Benedict Strata, which was good, and then just snacked on cookies and whatnot. Gift highlights from my family included spending money for my San Francisco Trip, a new external hard drive, cologne, clothing, and some fun knick-knacks like shot glasses with Polish sayings on them, gay-themed coasters, and some gift cards.

Christmas day was on my Mom's side at my aunt's. The new "tradition" is for my one cousin to bring some trashy friend with nowhere to go on Christmas, etc. to all of our events. Last year she brought her recently-divorced Jewish friend...Now correct me if I'm wrong, but if you are Jewish is it NORMAL to not have any place to go on Christmas nor have any qualms about it. This year we had not only the Jewish friend but some other woman. Much to everyone's surprise she was somewhat normal. We had the usual smorgasbord of ham, naleśniki, potato salad, kiełbasa, kapusta, etc. Since it was the first year that I was in the grab bag and not a regular gift-receiving child, I only got one set of gifts. I got Volver and The Orphanage DVDs, and then a small French Press coffee maker. I wanted all 3, so that was obviously good.

Last night we went to more relatives on my Dad's side. They alternate seeing us every Christmas Eve because of the usual Christmas Eve struggle between Polish families on both sides. It is always somewhat awkward seeing my two cousins (20 and 22) because we used to be like best friends and just kept drifting apart, but a steady flow of beer helped keep things light and fairly non-awkward. My one cousin who now actually has a job bought all the cousins gifts, which was surprising. I got a handle of Belvedere! Hopefully everyone realizes I live on loans and have no money.

That's about it so far. To add to my list of movies watched on account of not having anything to do I've now seen Zodiac, HellBoy, The Mummy IV, Funny Games, P2, and Goya's Ghosts. Today we are going to more family friends - they are known for always having delicious Old World European delights, so I'm actually looking forward to it. I'm ducking out around 8 to go out downtown (finally!) with some friends, so that should be fun.

TTFN!