It's Lany Poniedziałek (Wet Monday), and our Easter break is coming to an end. Per family tradition, I was the first one up so I was the water
sprinkler, not
sprinklee. Also as per tradition, one child was laughing while the other one was crying. Mommy almost cried too when she discovered that the crying child had slept all night on a chocolate egg! I must admit when I first saw it, I thought it was something else so I'm grateful it was just a smooshed and melted chocolate egg. Small mercies.
The weather is absolutely beautiful. The sun is shining. The sky is blue. The birds are chirping. And we are all inside with our noses in our books or gadgets because we're all sick. We've all got the same sickness, but at various stages and degrees of severity. That means no walking, running, cycling, or playing outside for us. It also means pajamas, syrups, cups of tea, and mountains of used tissues.
Good Friday we spent getting the house ready. My husband arranged a wonderful lady to help out. She's a lifesaver even though she didn't do the windows "bo i tak nie świętujecie". Yes, she decided to leave the windows for later because we don't celebrate Easter. We had a good laugh. She promised to do them next time. It was during this time of cleaning up and decorating that we realized that we simultaneously have Easter, Christmas, and Halloween decorations up in our house. That's okay, right?
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| The girls made an Easter egg tree |
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| This is my Easter tree with handmade glass ornaments and blown-out painted eggs. |
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| I found the perfect use for this yellow vase I bought in Bolesławiec. |
On Good Friday, we also paid a visit to our local egg dealer, an older lady from our neighborhood. Our old egg dealer is in prison. Our current egg dealer was feeling a bit lonely I think and wanted to chat. I got to know that her grandson was the getaway driver for our old egg dealer. He went to prison for that, but now he's out. He's been trying to grow marijuana in the garden and in the little woods near their house, but grandma and the chickens keep destroying all his attempts. We also got to know that most of the young people in her family have gone to England to work and that she'd much rather her grandson went to England to work than engage in questionable activities here in Poland. Then she had to run off to the shop to buy dishwashing liquid, you know, because she had to do her windows.
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| This is the first batch of eggs. |
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| Some of the eggs got dyed. |
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| The rest of the eggs were made into pickled eggs. |
Good Saturday we packed up the sick kids and forced them to go for a walk near the church to get some fresh air and to see people taking their Easter baskets to be blessed. My children were not interested at all, so nothing has changed since last year. I, on the other hand, love looking at the baskets. My favorite basket carriers this year included a small gang of surly teenaged boys decked out in their favorite sweatsuits and a leather-clad biker dude carrying the most delicate basket of all. We wanted to peek inside the church, but the crowd made it impossible. Plus our children were bored to death, and our pockets were full of used up tissues. We came back home.
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| It was standing room only at the church on Good Saturday. |
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| At church |
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| A billboard outside the church "YOU crucified Jesus" |
Easter Sunday is our girls' favorite day because the Easter bunny visits them, and did he ever. I think they were satisfied with what they found in the garden. We also found a chicken in our garden, a real one. This chicken has been hanging out in our garden, making a big mess, for the last three days. It's ours now, right?
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| They missed one..we found it today. |
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| "Easter eggs" |
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| Our new chicken. Rosie's named it "Rosół". That's Chicken Soup in Polish. |
While the girls sorted through their Easter baskets, we could get breakfast ready.
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| Pickled eggs and Spinach and Salmon Tart |
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| It wouldn't a Polish Easter without veggie salad. |
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| The spread |
I almost forgot that we went to an Easter Market a week ago for Palm Sunday. I love small town markets.
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| There were so many stalls, these selling crafts and decorations. |
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| There was also a palm contest. |
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| I always wondered how they transported those big palms. |
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| Jealous? |
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| Honey, jams, and syrups |
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| Bread with lard and a pickle and hams |
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| Eggs, bread, heavy cream, sausages. The seller asked me, "Are you buying or just smelling." I was just smelling :( |
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| Eggs |
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| Fresh bread |
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| These lovely ladies agreed to pose for a picture. |
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| The Mazurek that we bought. |
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| The selection of Babki decorated for Easter. |
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| A selection of Easter cakes from the local bakery. |
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| Lamb cake for Easter only 10 zl. |
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| The Mazurek we didn't buy :) |
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| An entry in the Mazurek cake contest |
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| An entry in the Mazurek cake contest |
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| An entry in the Mazurek cake contest |
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| I believe this Mazurek took first place in the cake contest. |
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| These baskets were much emptier after my visit. |
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| Bunny decorations |
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| Glass eggs ornaments plus one Maluch Fiat 126 |
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| A close up |
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| It's not very Eastery, but I couldn't resist. |
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| Little loaves of bread for the Easter baskets |
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| Easter cemetery candles |
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| Felt Easter baskets |
All in all, it's been a very nice Easter holiday. Now it is time to think about going back to school and work.
