Today was a long day of cooking and cleaning and cooking and cleaning and then trying to get the family together and maintain “the peace” since this year, the role of The Grinch was played by my brother. He took every possible opportunity to make disparaging and angry and offensive remarks about the various members of the family.

He even refused to participate in our traditional breaking of the bread before dinner. When my mother threatened to not let him have dinner with us, he kinda cooperated and just wished everyone, “happy holidays” in a heartless and generic manner. Just to clarify this tradition, our family is, on paper anyway, Roman Catholic. Every year, our family in Poland - still very observant - send us holy communion wafer which they’ve already symbolically broken and “shared” with us.

Before we sit down to eat, each member of the family takes a piece of the wafer and goes to every other member of the family, breaks off a piece, gives it to the other person while wishing them something for the new year. For example, I wished my father continued good health and relaxation and more cruises, and wished my sister a good final semester at school and success in her future endeavors seeking a career in art, etc. My brother, instead of even giving us each a generic, “Be happy,” crapped out and just said, “Happy holidays.” Honestly.

Then we ate our meatless Christmas Eve dinner. There was really good Polish dried mushroom soup (it defies description - it’s just really REALLY good and the mushrooms can only be purchased at a Polish dry goods store, as far as I’ve seen), red borscht with hard-boiled egg slices, tilapia filet, carp, sauerkraut (Polak style with veggies), various forms of herring (yuck), fresh Polish rye bread, mushroom-filled pierogi, potato and cheese filled pierogi and sweet farmer cheese-filled pierogi, all home-made. Then we cleaned up, took a breather, and after about 45 minutes, I brewed up some tea for everyone and set out the cheesecake with strawberry sauce, the pear and pecan tart my mother baked and the poppyseed roll.

The superstition/legend there is that the amount of poppyseeds you eat on Christmas Eve is indicative of the amount of good luck you’ll have in the coming year. I didn’t have any, but that’s because the LAST thing I need is poppyseeds stuck in the areas of my gums around my impacted wisdom teeth.

After an hour or so delay, during which we watched the beginning of Diamonds are Forever on Spike TV’s “008 Days of 007″ James Bond marathon, we gathered everyone together to open presents. My parents really made out like bandits this year and got some good gifts from us kids.

I got some good things, too. Most of the items on my “list” were covered, and the only thing I wanted more than others and didn’t get is forthcoming… a new watch. My parents saw lots of nice watches while on their cruise, but weren’t sure which one I would like. They don’t really “get” my tastes. My mother likes watches that are very feminine and sort of, well, boring. She got herself the very traditional generic Movado while on her cruise (1/2 off at the duty free shops somewhere in the Caribbean) and that’s just not my style, as lovely as those are. So, I showed them the watch that I liked on the Fossil website and I think they may have to order it from there since my brother was unable to find it at our local Fossil retailers. Meh. I’m so difficult.

I didn’t get the Thundercats DVD boxed set, and I didn’t get a new pair of gloves, but I did get some lovely silver jewelry from Mexico, courtesy of my parents, as well as the Golden Girls season 1 DVD set, the new Beatles book, CSS pocket reference guide, gift certificate to my salon, Henri Bendel “Fig” candle, and a bottle of one of my two favorite perfumes (Dolce & Gabbana “Light Blue”).

Now I am tired and have set about watching disc one of volume one of “The Adventures of Pete and Pete.” Such a delight - the theme song brought all sorts of memories flooding back… just an early 90s kind of thing. I was early into my high school career… yet, I found this Nickelodeon show fantastically entertaining.

Oh, the wisdom tooth pain, though. Every time my sister or my mom gave me a hug tonight, they chose to put their heads against the side of my head with the massive pain. Even repeated mention that this is the “owie” side of my head did nothing to correct the behavior. Oh, well. We suffer for family.

I’m tired, though. Physically - totally drained. My knees, my feet, my elbows, my wrists - especially - just all sorts of tired and in pain. Even my eyes hurt from the smoke from the fireplace.

I think I can sleep in a little tomorrow. I should get up moderately on-time so I can help my mom prepare the big kielbasa-fest that is Christmas morning breakfast. Mmmm. All sorts of kielbasa - I’ll have to photograph and describe since most non-Polaks know of only one kind of kielbasa… the kind that Hillshire Farms sells as “Polska Kielbasa” in the refrigerated meat section of the supermarket. That’s OK in a pinch and if you don’t know any better, but the stuff we’ve got tomorrow is the real, honest-to-goodness kind… and we have about 6 or 7 varieties! Can you imagine?? VARIETY! KIELBASA!

Yuppers.