Stiletto Diaries™

Khrystos Rodyvsya!

Posted on January 7th, 2010 in Are You Gonna Eat That?, Life List, Made In Ontario, Polyamory

I think I may have mentioned last year, here in the Gibson house, we celebrate Christmas twice.

First on December 25th, like most everyone else, and then again today, which is Ukrainian Christmas.

When Jack and I got married, there was some sorting out as to how holidays should be observed.  We combined our separate traditions into our own unique and mutually agreeable hodge-podge of festive goodness.  He now gets pajamas on Christmas Eve from The PJ Elf, and I now get to make up for crappy over-commercialized Christmas with quiet and stress-free Ukrainian Christmas.

While most people are packing up their ornaments, our tree will remain up until at least the 10th.  We don’t usually exchange gifts for Ukrainian Christmas, because it’s really not about that, and who wants to go shopping AGAIN, after suffering through weeks of insanity the month before?  We prefer to focus on enjoying good food with people we love and our plans for the coming year.

This year I am really excited about “Second Christmas” as Aiden called it.  We are not having the traditional 12-course meatless meal, but I am making a number of customary dishes (kutia, kolach, pyrohy) that are usually served as part of the traditional meal.  We’re also having Cornish game hens and cabbage rolls.

We’re actually celebrating it tomorrow, so that Aiden can join us for dinner.  I bought chestnuts for toasting, and I’m planning to attempt my great grandmother’s old-school homemade fudge recipe.  Neither Jack, nor Aiden, nor the kiddos have ever had fudge on snow, which is one of my fondest winter memories as a child.  My grandmother would make a batch of fudge, and when it got to the soft ball stage, I would run out into the yard with a pan and scoop up clean snow.  Then she would drizzle patterns of liquid chocolate into the snow, which would immediately cool to the consistency of soft taffy.  We would eat it until we were nearly sick, and then we would all take turns beating air into the remaining fudge until it was ready to set.  I was the oldest cousin, and I remember watching all the little cousins and siblings gathering eagerly around (or on) the counter, waiting for the candy to be just right.  Then we’d all scramble to be the first to get our paws into the pan, even though we knew that there would be more than any of us could possibly eat, without risking a significant tummy ache.  My grandma would utter a few futile warnings about waiting our turns, and then give up with a chuckle.  I don’t know why it never occurred to use to pour it over ice cream, LOL, but perhaps we’ll have to try that here.

Being so far from our families, I don’t want my kids to miss out on experiences like that.  I want to make sure that I at least attempt to pass on some of the best parts of my childhood.

Aiden and I were both rather sad that we didn’t get to be together for Christmas on the 25th (I mean who doesn’t want to be with ALL of the people they really care about during the holidays?) so I feel like we get to do it over, the way I would have preferred to celebrate “First Christmas”.  Maybe that’s why I’m actually feeling more festive than I did during the entire month of December.

On Saturday the three of us and the kiddos are going to hole up in front of the big screen and watch all of the Star Wars movies (I got Jack all six movies for Christmas).  Maybe we’ll go out and frolic in the snow a little if it’s not too far below zero.  I’m looking forward to some down time with my two most favorite males.  Hopefully Aiden and I will have a chance to play on Saturday or Sunday as well *Cheeky Wink*.

I hope everyone has a great weekend (even if you aren’t lucky enough to get a second Christmas).  I have to go knead some bread dough.

Merry Ukrainian Christmas!