WIGILIA - CHRISTMAS EVE

We spent a wonderful Christmas Eve with

the family Cielenski.

Bro Cielenski is the Branch Presdident

and his wife Agata is the YW President

and their daughter Emilia is their pride and joy!!

Agata's mother and step-father and Lukasz

a friend from Szcsecin also were there.

I had the HONORED responsibility to enterain

Emilia while the others made the final preparations

for the dinner and CELEBRATION!

The TABLE is all set and so lovely.

The setting at the far end of the table is for the

uninvited GUEST that may drop in when they pass

by and see the lit CANDLES in the window

signifying they are WELCOME at this HOME for dinner.

The wafer lies on the dish with the straw or grass.

Typically the straw is placed over the table under the cloth.

Agata and I sharing the WAFER.

We all sat at the table and before the

prayer President Cielenski gave each

a PIECE of the wafer. We went to each PERSON
sharing our WAFER with each and saying

something GOOD about them and also

WISHING them well for the next YEAR.

Beet root soup - BARSZCZ -

was the first of TWELVE dishes served for dinner.

Tonight it was served with lima beans.

Often it is served with OCHO -

small PEROGIE with cheese.
This is one of President's favorite

soups and is usually not made except

for WIGILIA so he really

enjoyed it tonight.

No meat is served but FISH is.
This is fish in red SAUCE.
It was very good. The sauce was
much like the sweet and sour meat
sauce that I make.
The FISH in it tasted good, too.

Lukasz was kind enough to serve the
- - very delicious CABBAGE with MUSHROOMS.
The plate on the bottom left of the picture
contains the perogi with cheese and potato.
DELICIOUS!! DESSERT was Apple cake and Poppy seed cake
and also FRUIT.
Also gingerbread cake and a cheese cake.
We also had a DESSERT called
that I really liked made from
minced FRUIT and NUTS and served
with milk like cereal.
Another FISH dish was also served.

SMACZNEGO

There are TWELVE dishes served

that represent the twelve months of the year.

Nuts and poppy seeds are served that represent

prosperity for the coming year.

I may do this when we come home.

Lukasz took a picture for us.
President Cielenski, Agata's mother with
Emilia, Agata, Sister Moon, Elder Moon
and Agata's step-father.After dinner Mikolaj comes in the form of a family member
(President Cielenski) and passes out the presents.
He even gets one.

As well as everyone else at the dinner.
There is always clean-up and Agata

and her mother getr right to the task.