December 24th 2009

Yesterday, the 24th, is when all the action went down. I went upstairs to see everyone at about 11am, and we started to decorate the tree. Bara and Pepa were cooking the carp soup & chicken soup. It seemed like they were cooking throughout the day... but really I think that was just my imagination.

The night before Christmas eve, I was getting to ready to take a late shower when Jirka (family friend/guy I rent from) came home and told me to hurry because he needed the tub for the carp. He ended up putting the fish in the sink (in a plastic bag) while I showered. They would randomly freak out and have spasms while I showed, it freaked me out because I was pretty close to them. It would have sucked if one flew out! Thank goodness though, that did not happen...
This side table was set up with all sorts of treats and goodies. All month long Bara has been preparing the Christmas cookies and saving them. I also pitched in and helped her make some. I also made chocolate chip cookies and peppermint cookies. People must of liked my cookies because I had to refill the plate. :)

Traditional Czech Christmas cookies!

Yes... I made Bella wear her Christmas outfit. She looked so adorable in it. Everyone thought it was pretty funny and cute. I think Bella's gaining some weight here though, because it was pretty snug on her. Halfway through the day, Bara's brother came over and brought his pitbul with him. Yoshi and Bella went crazy! They met the dog one other time and the bigger dog never attacked them, but he would try to play with them. They're so tiny that they'd just get pushed around. This means lots of screaming. They would bark &scream the whole time. SO annoying.

Here is earlier in the day where everyone is helping putting decorations on the tree. I though it was so weird that we waited til Christmas eve to up up a tree. I'm not sure if this is just because, or if they do it so every year... The guys selling the Christmas trees outside waited until about mid December to start selling, so perhaps in the States we're can be early birds with getting trees (or maybe it's just me).


Below is Bara starting on making the meat & carp in a batter, and then frying it. We all had to wait until 5pm to eat... I got so hungry! I did munch some on the cookies, but I didn't want to eat all of them, plus they weren't really satisfying my hunger. Nikolka and Bara were telling me that soon I'll see the "golden piglet" (zlaté prasátko). It's almost like a Czech custom to fast all day and wait for dinner... Then you get so hungry, in the evening you see the zlaté prasátko.

A very traditional part of Christmas dinner is the fish soup. Pepa also made the chicken soup because the kids don't like the fish soup as much. I tried it and it was weird. I couldn't really decide if I liked it or not. I think that I can be really spoiled when it comes to fish (since I used to live on the coast and carp are raised in man-made ponds in Southern Bohemia). Bara also made the potato salad, which was very good. She actually made it a day or two before hand. Last minute Pepa added in caviar. Yucky... But thank goodness I was not able to taste it in there.












I was so glad to finally eat! So was Eric, he wanted to get done fast because he wanted to get to the presents! He has been hanging around the Christmas tree all day begging to open the gifts early. Everyone would tease him that they could do it like the Americans and wait until the morning. He was not happy about that comment.
All the kids loved their presents. Eric was especially excited when I gave him the Nintendo DS. I'm glad that it is being in use instead of being packed away somewhere in my stuff. Mom sent me a TON of hats and scarfs, so I gave one to Nikolka (and made sure to say it was from my mom), and she loved it! They always wear random hats/scarfs since it gets so cold out.

Cindy and Nicole both got spoiled this year. They got laptops! Overall, things went great. I did get pretty tired early though and went downstairs to lay down and catch some fairytale on TV. My favorite one was on:) I still am a little sad that nobody could come visit me this Christmas. But oh well. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!