We hit the road again towards Grajewo to celebrate Christmas, New Year and Marzena’s birthday. There would be a lot of celebrations and family time in the weeks ahead and I was happy to celebrate it in my little hometown for the first time since 2006.
Departure mornings have become very hectic for us. It typically takes us around 4 hours to pack and get everything and everyone ready. First, it’s the packing part with the addition of Christmas gifts this time, then it’s making sandwiches and snacks for the road so we don't have to stop and waste time, and finally making sure we leave our condo clean so we don’t come back to a total mess. The six hour, roughly 360-mile drive is a bit tiring for all of us. We do stop a few times to use the bathroom and stretch our legs but mostly they are short stops. Fortunately, the kids are usually pretty good on the drive and only get a bit antsy towards the last hour or so. We made a rule on travel days that if the kids behave during the first portion of the trip, they get to watch cartoons on the iPad for the second stretch. This time though, the iPad stayed in my backpack.
We always plug in our destination into Apple Maps and sometimes it takes us through different routes, which probably depends on traffic. The highway system in Poland has improved dramatically over the last 10+ years and you can easily drive from the southern part of the country to the northern without taking any narrow side roads, mostly staying on 2-3 lane highways. This time, for some reason the fastest route happened to take us through about 80 miles of side roads with little towns every few of those miles. The roads were curvy, narrow, uneven and were riddled with pot holes. We weren’t sure why it didn’t keep us on the highway like it usually does. Next time we’ll have to keep a closer eye on the map recommendations. During the drive, Damian fell asleep, Grayson kept himself entertained and we listened to a Joe Rogan Podcast where his guest was the former Governor of IL, Rod Blagojevich. Time seemed to fly by and when we got off the highway for the final ten-mile stretch, it was dark.
There was a big accident in Popowo, a small village, maybe 5 miles on the outskirts of Grajewo. Lights from emergency vehicles took over the area along with a helicopter circling around, most likely looking for a safe place to land. The two-lane road is narrow with nothing but empty fields surrounding it. We found out later that the accident was very serious with several fatalities. We made a quick detour and arrived at Marzena’s house only 15 minutes late.
Dinner was waiting for us and to say that we weren't excited about it would be an understatement.
The next morning everyone slept in. After breakfast, the kids decorated the Christmas tree and later that day I visited my cousin Darek who lives within a 10-minute walk from Marzena’s house. The following couple of days were uneventful. I visited my cousin again but other than that we didn’t go anywhere else.
Artur was delighted to iron his own shirts for the holidays.
A huge wind storm from the prior weeks took down a couple of trees. My brother Artur and I took care of it.
We managed to make delicious “zapiekanki” that evening.
Before we knew it, Christmas Eve was in full swing at Marzena’s house. The tree was decorated and Santa left a few presents. The meals were prepped and the table was set to serve 12 traditional dishes. The kids were eager to start tearing open the gifts but were told that their plates had to be empty first.
After dinner we took a short drive to a cemetery to visit my family who have passed away since the last Christmas when I was here in 2006. My dad, uncle, aunt, two grandmas and grandpa were no longer with us and they all have passed within only the last seven years. It was time to light a candle and pay our respects. Polish cemeteries are quite different than the ones in the U.S. The large and elaborate granite headstones are clean and well maintained and there are flowers and candles everywhere, especially during the holidays. This was my first time in a cemetery after dark and I must say it looked beautiful.
Before driving to Darek’s house on Christmas day I wanted to show Sylwia a piece of land that my grandpa owned since I was a kid. This property now belonged to Darek, although he agreed to sign over half of it to me. The village of Konopki is where the seven-acre parcel is located and is only a ten-minute drive from Grajewo. The main, paved road turns into a gravel road which then turns into a dirt road before arriving at the property. We realized quickly that due to the previous days’ rain and lack of sun, the road was wet, muddy and inaccessible with our vehicle. We weren’t going to make it without getting stuck so we decided to turn around before things got ugly. We’ll have to come back another day, park the car on gravel somewhere along the route and walk the remaining distance.
We made it to Darek’s just in time for Christmas dinner. My grandparents built this house around the time that I was born and they’ve lived there until their passing a few years ago. I have fond memories there, Darek and I lived there as kids when both our moms left for the U.S. It was nice to spend Christmas there with him, his wife Beata and their daughter Martyna. We ate, talked, laughed, reminisced about old times and the kids played with Tolek the cat. Christmas in Grajewo was officially in the books.
