15th Annual Polish Fesitval

A few weeks ago in our church bulletin I saw a notice about the 15th Annual Polish Festival at St. Stan's, a Catholic Church maybe an hour or so away. For those of you who don't know me too well, I am very Polish. My Babci (Polish for grandmother) is 100% and is fluent in the language, as are her sisters. We always knew they were talking about something good when we were growing up because they switched to Polish so us grandkids couldn't understand. Every birthday on my mom's side of the family we sing in English and then in Polish (Sto Lat) and all of us know a few phrases at least. My Babci makes the most amazing Polish food that I miss dearly so I knew we had to go to the festival.

Saturday we slept in and made our way down to Castle Hayne NC. The festival went from 11-5 and we arrived around 2:30 or so. It was perfect! Free parking and free admission. There was a ton of Polish food, crafts, beer and music... a live Polka Band! We naturally started off with the food.

Clockwise from the top we have potato pierogies (dough like dumplings with potato inside) with buttered onions, glumpke (meat, rice and spices wrapped in a cabbage leaf with tomato sauce) and kielbasa (a sausage) with sauerkraut and a roll. Ryan and I split the plate and were perfectly content. After we ate we walked around for a bit.

We did miss out on the potato pancakes (by the time we were hungry they sold out) and only managed to get some small cookies from the bake tent. Still delicious. We also browsed the crafts (I got a Coca Cola airplane made from a can to put in my bathroom) and it made me really miss my Babci. The afghans and blankets were like the ones she knits. We skipped out on the silent auction and made our way to the music and dancing.

 Have you ever seen andyone Polka before? My grandparents did it at our wedding (and many times growing up) and let me tell you, there is no such thing as a fat Polka dancer! It is fast and fun and those old people can totally cut a rug! They were spinning around us like it was as easy as walking.

 Obviously in a still picture you can't see the speed, but these people were flying around the floor!

 We joined in for one or two dances. I know some basic steps and Ryan and I basically just hopped around a lot! Luckily I was able to bribe him with Polish beer so he was much more cooperative about dancing than usual.

The band was fantastic too. I heard songs I remember hearing at Babci and Poppy's house on the radio growing up and they even made some modern songs into a polka (see Boot Scootin Boogie and You Are My Sunshine). Naturally I wanted to get a tshirt, and a Christmas ornament, and my husband only rolled his eyes a little at my cornieness.

 Regardless we had an amazing time and definitely plan on going back next year! I also heard Jacksonville does a Polish Day in January that we also may have to check out.

Normally you don't see a lot of chubby cheeked, blonde haired, blue eyed people in one place but you could tell at the Festival that I was among my people! I was a dime a dozen in Castle Hayne!

Sunday we donated blood to try and help with the shortage from the Hurricane. Ryan is O- (and naturally afraid of needles) but we both knew we had to try and help out. We also have made financial contributions to the Red Cross and Americares. Please donate if you are able; whether it be time, money, blood, clothes or prayers all are appreciated in New Jersey and New York and all the areas hit by Sandy.

Post blood donation we made our way to the Olive Garden and had a nice dinner (and did that special deal where we took home dinner for another day, awesome concept) before coming home to watch the Giants lose. Sigh. Can't win them all! Overall we had a wonderful weekend and hopefully many more like them to come!

And if you didn't already, don't forget to vote today. I am off to the polls.... hopefully the lines aren't too long.

My give away is almost done! Have you entered yet?? Another awesome give away will be up later this week!