It's All About the Polish...

Yesterday was all about the Polish...

The Polish Racing Sausage got the Brewers' season off to a very good start yesterday at Opening Day (I had a great time, even though the Brew Crew lost)...

And I got to see my Polish cousins (here, Madelynn draws a picture, and right after mispronouncing my name in a very endearing way for about the 40th time)

A Little Baking

Just a good old-fashioned Pierski Christmas cookie baking assembly line at Grandma's...you know, like back in the day before child labor laws made Grandma give you an occasional break from all your hard work.

(If my grandmother is reading...I'm just kidding. And I love you. Do I still get a Christmas present?)

We Put the Kitsch in Christmas

My Grandma Marge is a big fan of her 1960s Christmas decorations: big, multicolor lights and home-made Christmas tree ornaments. My cousin Cassandra mugged for the camera as Grandma gave us decorating instructions...and I wanted to give you a close-up of her ornaments, because I'm pretty sure she and her mom (my grandma Alma) made a lot of them by hand. They just don't sell ornaments like this at Target, now do they?

Grandma's Cookies

My great-grandmother Alma passed away this past week. She was a whopping 96 years old, and just decided one day not to wake up for us. I decided to blog about her because she was something of a family matriarch (she shared that title with my other great-grandmother, who is herself an impressive 95 years) and because it's the Christmas season. Grandma Alma's parents owned a German bakery when she was growing up, and every Christmas she still brings over plates of homemade cookies, just like she used to make in the bakery. These cookies are a family favorite, and no one makes them like Grandma did.

The recipe is a simple sugar cookie one, and the taste is not unusual as far as cookies go. The real secret to their deliciousness is that Grandma hand decorated each one with chocolate chips, colored sugars, sprinkles, nuts, powdered sugar, sno-caps, and hershey kisses in the shapes of candy canes, stars, christmas trees and ornaments. At her funeral, one of my younger cousins was crying because he was afraid he wouldn't get to have any more of these...not exactly grief for the loss of Grandma, but I'm sure she would still be pleased to know that she, and her cookies, will be missed. I'm hoping the recipe won't get lost, so I'm putting it here for myself, and for any of you, if you're interested.

In Grandma's Basement

I belong to a family of music lovers, and my Grandma Marge (who still puts on tight fitting jeans and goes out dancing) is no exception. She has a Jukebox in her basement that plays old 45's, and insists on the occasional impromptu dance party...call her a dancing queen, just don't call her old.

Another Typical Family Photo

I love it when my relatives do this: ask us to take a picture and then all look in different directions. This is from yesterday's celebration of my cousin Stephanie's baptism. (She's the baby in the white christening get-up.)

Belated

My belated birthday cake from my Grandma Marge was epic: it looked like a Swiss Cake Roll, and had ice cream in the middle. Nothing says Happy Birthday like Chocolate-chip-ice-cream-birthday-cake. Cheers to that!

Everyone Loves a Parade

Ah, the 4th of July. A time to spend with family, celebrating our country's independence. If you're from my family, you celebrate by getting up at 9 am, putting on an outfit of red, white and blue and driving to your Great-Grandmother's house in Niles, Illinois to watch the annual Niles Fourth of July Parade from her front lawn and then enjoy a classy afternoon of Boston Market catering and Bud Light. Here's Michael J. ("the J is for Jackson") Pierski setting up the obligatory red, white and blue lawn chairs for the parade.



The parade approaches...it always includes the marching bands, the clowns, the elected officials in shiny convertibles, the Shriners in their funny hats and bicycles, parade floats, and free candy and mini-American flags. We're Polish, so we love anything cheesy, like the parade, and anything free, like the candy and handouts.

My cousins are, by now, experts at this yearly parade stuff. They're saving their enthusiasm for the good stuff, the parade floats that throw out candy and cheap toys. If you look closely enough, you'll see that just about everyone's wearing the red, white and blue, and two of the girls are even sporting red-and-blue eyeshadow.


Everyone loves a parade...except if you're two years old, like my cousin Madelynn. She mostly preferred to check out the bugs in the grass.

Ethnic Festival Adventures

So I went to Polish Fest this weekend, one of the many ethnic festivals that goes on every summer in Milwaukee. In a very helpful book in the genealogy tent, I found out that contrary to my father's favorite story, our last name does not mean "by the side of the road." Our original last name, Przepierski, actually means "quail." Pretty cool tidbit. Of course, the polka dancing was pretty spiffy too.