holiday bummer

  • Thread starter Thread starter mizznicole
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

mizznicole

Guest
We’re rather alone where we live, so family visits are a big deal. MIL was here for 10 days. We had a great time. My house turned into Santa’s workshop. I made over 100 pierogis with my neighbor, plus 2 trays of golumpki, 6 dozen cookies, a handmade wreath, silver painted pine cones, and more… We planned a great Christmas dinner for when my parents and grandparents come Christmas eve.

Well.

Milwaukee has been getting slammed with snow and cold weather for the last several weeks. The flights are canceled for two days now, and they can’t get out till the 27th! If that holds, my family won’t be coming at all. It’s baby’s first Christmas. 😦 They were already going to miss his first birthday. 😦 There’s always a chance things could change, but right now I’m pretty bummed. Guess we need to find something else to do.
 
You could always get a head start eating those pierogies!

I’ll pray that your house is full of love & joy over the holidays. Sometimes the small celebrations are even more memorable than the big ones :hug1:

–
 
I’m praying in union with EmBee!

God bless you abundantly,

Ruthie
 
I echo everyone else here–prayers for a joyful and blessed Christmas…I can imagine how you’re feeling. If you make extra pierogies, please…PLEASE send them my way. I had never had those, until I married my hubby. He is German and Polish. I’m Italian and Irish, so never had those growing up…homemade are really scrumptious.

Just sayin’…if you’re feeling generous, and want to mail me a present. lol

http://www.free-smiley.info/eating/eating-smileys-emoticons46.gif
 
one of the best parties I remember from our early married life started in circumstances similar to yours. a coworker, in a similar situation to you, new baby, and so forth, also prepared a huge batch of pierogi, and her relatives, and her husband’s could not get into Cleveland because of snowstorms. So she called everyone she could think of and we had a huge pierogi party. Somebody had made mushroom soup, somebody else brought cabbage rolls, I just chopped onions but everybody contributed. at least the beer was cold. every one even got a present, because we brought what had been intended for relatives and had a white elephant type of gift exchange, hilarious. must have drunk too much beer because my present turned out to be one of our friends’ new kittens (born about the same time as the human baby). Everybody’s kids were little, running or crawling around her tiny apartment, it was a wonderful time.

if anybody up in the frozen north wants to send me 2 dozen pierogi and a potica, I will pay. a lot. of you sent some Slovenian sausage from Radke’s you will be named in my will.
 
It’s a bummer when Christmas doesn’t work out the way you hoped. I was kind of looking forward to a Christmas at home, but we found out my MIL (who is fighting cancer) and my FIL were going to be all alone on Christmas Day, because none of the other siblings (DH has six) were visiting. So we grabbed a hotel room near them and will be driving out tonight after vigil mass, with three kids aged 2, 4 and 8, to spend Christmas Eve in a hotel and Christmas Day out in the middle of nowhere. I adore my MIL, don’t get me wrong, but we would have liked to plan this further in advance. And i am a homebody and hate packing and traveling with kids, but I will do it cheerfully, dangit.

Add to that my grandmother, who is 92 and has been in and out of the hospital with congestive heart failure, is now showing signs of dementia. She didn’t know who I was when I visited yesterday.
Last week she was fine. I think she is on the decline. Oh, and the 21st was the anniversary of my only sibling’s death. Christmas is so festive around here!

My husband and I get through things with gallows humor, were joking last night: “Let’s see, it’s cancer for Christmas with a side of dementia!” We are horrible.

May everybody with not-so-optimal situations this Christmas find peace and happiness wherever and whenever they can.
 
Oh, let me share how I spoiled Christmas when I was 16. I ended up in the emergency room on Christmas Eve Day, with horrible stomach pains that nobody could diagnose. They admitted me, and after two days of horrible tests finally concluded they had to do exploratory surgery. It turned out to be the worst infected appendix the surgeon had seen in a long time. I was in the hospital until the 29th, I think. And all the nurses pointed out that “it’s just awful to be in the hospital on Christmas!”

My mom postponed the gift opening and celebrating until New Year’s Day. My brother loved reminded me how I ruined Christmas that year. 😃
 
You are most certainly not alone! Don’t you know that Jesus has been with you this whole time?
 
samcarter14 said:
Oh, let me share how I spoiled Christmas when I was 16. I ended up in the emergency room on Christmas Eve Day, with horrible stomach pains that nobody could diagnose. They admitted me, and after two days of horrible tests finally concluded they had to do exploratory surgery. It turned out to be the worst infected appendix the surgeon had seen in a long time. I was in the hospital until the 29th, I think. And all the nurses pointed out that “it’s just awful to be in the hospital on Christmas!”

My mom postponed the gift opening and celebrating until New Year’s Day. My brother loved reminded me how I ruined Christmas that year. 😃
Click to expand...
As my great-grandma would have said, woj jej! (oy vay!) I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been down with strep/flu/colds on Christmas, but never in the hospital!

Some great stories, everyone! My parents did not make it, but our dear neighbors who have a hard time with Christmas came over. So it was really nice. And the good news is that the family are first on the standby list for tomorrow. So your prayers have worked!

My plum pierogis turned out reaaallly yummy. The other ones could use some tweaking.

Merry Christmas!
 
This may sound dumb, but what is a pierogi, what is a golumpki, and what is a potica?
 
Pierogis are a sort of Eastern European ravioli…but more substantial and filled with things like sauerkraut, mushrooms, potatoes, plums, or cheese.

Golumpki are cabbage rolls stuffed with meat and rice.

Not sure on the potica.
 
Isn’t potica a bread? Or am I confusing it with povitica? (I’ve never had either.)

I’ll trade some tamales for some of those homemade pierogies. I don’t have any Polish blood in me, but I have enough friends and relatives who are Polish that I have developed a proper fondness for the cuisine. And I suspect that my father (full-blooded Mexican) would volunteer either a trade or cash payment for the golumpki. That’s one of his favorite dishes.
 
mizznicole said:
We’re rather alone where we live, so family visits are a big deal. MIL was here for 10 days. We had a great time. My house turned into Santa’s workshop. I made over 100 pierogis with my neighbor, plus 2 trays of golumpki, 6 dozen cookies, a handmade wreath, silver painted pine cones, and more… We planned a great Christmas dinner for when my parents and grandparents come Christmas eve.

Well.

Milwaukee has been getting slammed with snow and cold weather for the last several weeks. The flights are canceled for two days now, and they can’t get out till the 27th! If that holds, my family won’t be coming at all. It’s baby’s first Christmas. 😦 They were already going to miss his first birthday. 😦 There’s always a chance things could change, but right now I’m pretty bummed. Guess we need to find something else to do.
Click to expand...
Awww! That’s a total drag! I really hope they are able to make it out. Holidays just aren’t the same without family, are they?

I’m not too far from Milwaukee and it has been quite the winter so far… snow, snow & more snow. What I wouldn’t give for a big plate of perogis and some Florida sunshine!
 
mizznicole said:
We’re rather **alone **where we live,
Click to expand...
If there is a “we” then there is no “alone”. and you even have a baby.

I’m sorry your plans got interrupted, I did get to see part of my family today for a short couple hours even though I was exhausted after playing 4 masses this Christmas.

But now I’m completely by myself.
 
Potica has a squiggle on the c and is pronounced po-teetsa, where I come from it is a Slovenian nut roll with a sweet dough. I am not Slovenian but our kids adopted Grandma and sister were, and I sure miss her cooking at the holidays. Cleveland had a lot of problems, but good ethnic food was never one of them.

golubki are cabbage rolls and pierogi dough filled with potato, and any number of other things, and boiled, then fried or bakes. can be savory like onion, saurkraut, cheese, or sweet like plum or apricot. Down here we have tamales and empanadas, similar concept but end results are different. I think most Eastern Europeans have variants of these basic dishes.
 
You wanna know what’s a real bummer?

My daughter’s father woke up at 12:15 a.m. Christmas Eve morning with chest pains. He awakened his wife and they hurriedly dressed to drive to the hospital. Before they could leave the house, he began to have great difficulty breathing so his wife called an ambulance that rushed him to the hospital emergency room. As the doctors and techs surrounded him, trying to get him stabilized, he raised up his head, looked at his wife at the foot of his gurney, and said, “I’m goin!’” One minute later the doctor pronounced him dead.

His gifts to his family, including my devastated daughter, remain untouched under his Christmas tree.

marietta
 
I was talking to my sister about pierogis and golumki/golubki. My brother-in-law is Polish. I asked her if he ever made them, and she said he makes them all the time. I told her I had never heard her talk about them before. She said “I call them dumplings and cabbage rolls, so I don’t have to explain to everyone what they are.”:rolleyes: She is such a goof.😛 😃
 
marietta said:
You wanna know what’s a real bummer?

My daughter’s father woke up at 12:15 a.m. Christmas Eve morning with chest pains. He awakened his wife and they hurriedly dressed to drive to the hospital. Before they could leave the house, he began to have great difficulty breathing so his wife called an ambulance that rushed him to the hospital emergency room. As the doctors and techs surrounded him, trying to get him stabilized, he raised up his head, looked at his wife at the foot of his gurney, and said, “I’m goin!’” One minute later the doctor pronounced him dead.

His gifts to his family, including my devastated daughter, remain untouched under his Christmas tree.

marietta
Click to expand...
I’m so sorry for your daughter’s loss. I hope she doesn’t let this ruin her celebration of Christmas in the future.
My ex-husband’s father died on Valentine’s Day. It wasn’t really celebrated in their family after that.
 
marietta said:
You wanna know what’s a real bummer?

My daughter’s father woke up at 12:15 a.m. Christmas Eve morning with chest pains. He awakened his wife and they hurriedly dressed to drive to the hospital. Before they could leave the house, he began to have great difficulty breathing so his wife called an ambulance that rushed him to the hospital emergency room. As the doctors and techs surrounded him, trying to get him stabilized, he raised up his head, looked at his wife at the foot of his gurney, and said, “I’m goin!’” One minute later the doctor pronounced him dead.

His gifts to his family, including my devastated daughter, remain untouched under his Christmas tree.

marietta
Click to expand...
I’m sorry. My husband’s father passed away shortly before Christmas four years ago. It’s a difficult time.
 
Galnextdoor said:
I was talking to my sister about pierogis and golumki/golubki. My brother-in-law is Polish. I asked her if he ever made them, and she said he makes them all the time. I told her I had never heard her talk about them before. She said “I call them dumplings and cabbage rolls, so I don’t have to explain to everyone what they are.”:rolleyes: She is such a goof.😛 😃
Click to expand...
Dang, you people make me hungry. I live in Ky now and after moving from Texas with a great Czech/Polish community I really miss Pierogis as well as Kolaches and Klobasneks. The wife and I buy yeast rolls and stuff them but it is not the same thing.

Anyone have good recipes they’d be willing to share?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top