If we were a 'normal' Slovak family (which we are not) on Christmas Eve we would most likely be feasting on wafers with honey, Carp, Spicy Sauerkraut soup with sausage, & Potato Salad, Lentil & Plumb soup, possibly some Fish soup, and a ton of sweets. All of this is after fasting all day, setting up the Christmas tree, and watching old fairy tales from the early days of Czechoslovak film making. If we were real traditional we would have bought the Carp live and had it swimming in the bath tub for a few days. Then we would throw nuts in the corners of the house, cut apples in half to determine who will have good health, and an assortment of other holiday superstitions... I meant 'traditions' :) One of the more interesting is putting scales from the Christmas Carp in ones wallet for financial success in the new year. Then come the presents. Then we would top off the day with a Holy Mass- which usually means standing outside an otherwise empty church in the snow at midnight.But, we aren't a typical Slovak family. So our Christmas Eve was pretty peaceful. We had a brief visit with the Benova and Svarda families, unfortunately missed church (our brief visits to Betka never turn out to be brief... but that's ok :), then we went home. We did have a partial Slovak Christmas with a bowl of great Christmas Sauerkraut soup and wafers with honey. Part of Ivetka's childhood Christmas was that her father would put the sign of the cross with honey on the children's heads. This is supposed to make the kids be ‘sweet’ (behave) during the next year. So, we keep the tradition alive. Who knows... maybe it will work?! In short our time turned out to be a very peaceful time of reflecting upon Jesus and loving one another.
BTW - it snowed here, so we had a White Christmas!
