Christmas has always been a special time for the Wrobel family and the celebrations centered around the Wigilia (Christmas Vigil) meal on Christmas Eve. Here's how I remember it:
The evening began with a short ten-minute ride over the frozen roads to Grandpa and Grandma's house. We would pull up to what would seem a most unlikely place, the Busy Bee Tavern. With the nearby trailer park and function hall where many a Wrobel and Tomala wedding was celebrated, these modest businesses were the achievement of Andrew Wrobel's own version of the American Dream. Quite an accomplishment, though, for the poor shepherd boy from the tiny village of Grón.
|
We are headed around back and up the stairs to the apartment on the second floor. The door opens right into the kitchen of Grandma Sophie, who has spent all day preparing the feast, with help from her youngest son Ron. And what a feast it is! Large pierogis stuffed with cabbage and potatoes, delicate halibut steaks as the main course with kielbasa and kapusta (sauerkraut), mashed potatoes, peas and carrots and other vegetables. Before we could dig in, Grandpa would say a quick prayer in Polish and hand out the oplatki, a thin, rectangular wafer of bread, with a sort of simple, but reverent dignity. After stuffing ourselves silly (I never cared for kapusta, but I loved the cabbage-filled pierogi), out would come the huge platters filled with kolacki (simple pastry squares with apricot, prune or raspberry filling tucked inside the folded corners, then covered with big sugar crystals). |
With all eight of us packed into the family station wagon, the way home always brought us past the old Texaco Refinery, where the main processing unit was decorated in colored lights, giving the impression of a giant Christmas Tree. Visions of sugar plums and the Christmas morning pile of gifts under the tree would fill our young heads. Dad would urge us, "Look for Santa up in the sky!"
Then the evening would end either with a trip to midnight Mass at old St. Dennis, or straight to bed for the youngest of us, although sleep was the last thing on our minds. Then one year a little boy decided to hide in the closet to try to catch a glimpse of this Santa fellow...
(Wycinanki artwork contributed by Megg Sorensen)
This page was last updated on December 24, 2017
For questions related to the organization and content of this site, please contact the webmaster.