Merry Christmas! Vesle Vanoce!
Christmas Eve is Christmas here in the Czech Republic. I've spent the day baking pies from scratch, one for tonight (apple) and one for tomorrow (pecan-thanks Mom!) I've wrapped all the presents and I am just waiting for my hosts to pick me up. It's 5:22 pm here and we will have Christmas dinner at supper time. And like the good Bohemian that I am, I haven't eaten anything all day. Well, I had a bowl of cereal this morning but don't tell anyone. If you don't eat all day on Christmas (Eve) you will see the "golden calf" before dinner. It's supposed to be good luck. Czechs eat fish (carp) and potato salad for their traditional holiday meal. But I am eating at my principal's home and her husband, Jaroslav, doesn't like fish. He prefers turkey. So Lenka fixes both. After dinner we will wait for a bell to ring. That tells us that Baby Jesus has just left the presents under the tree. I am sorry to say that we were lied to as children. Santa doesn't go all over the world bringing presents on Christmas Eve. He lets Baby Jesus do his job in the Czech Republic. They have no idea who Rudolf is either.

Tomorrow I am off to Prague to spend Christmas day with my ESI friends. I may stay a couple of days to take advantage of the after Christmas sales. Funny, for an atheist country, they don't mind calling Christmas what it is...Christmas. Hmmmmm, point to ponder. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a very blessed New Year!