Stasha and Jan in Krakow

Today we had dinner at the home of Stasha and Jan Kaganek in their small apartment in Krakow. They are both in their 70s and Stasha probably spent the past 2 days cooking. We had the delicious mushroom stuffed cabbage and home made pierogis that melt in your mouth. She would light up with joy when she saw someone taking 2nds or 3rds and always ran over to their plate to put more gravy or sauce on whatever you put on your plate. We were all apparently being rather skimpy on our gravy and sauce portions. Jan talked me into 2 shots of very cold Polish vodka and pressed to fill my glass a third time but I held firm at two. Lyle held firm at....I I lost count. We sat around and talked most of the evening with the help of translations by Kristopher and Jan's niece Helen who lives in England and was visiting. She reminded me strongly of my Slovak aunts..very pretty..very talkative. The kids were rather bored on this evening as they were often asked questions in Polish by Stasha or Jan that they did not understand, were being force-fed or they were being squeezed, kissed, hugged or otherwise man-handled. They did like most of the food and they got lody (ice cream) for dessert which always brings a smile to their faces. Nick was eager to play Jan at chess and was even a bit nervous. He won the game much to Jan's surprise and we all were teasing Jan the rest of the night about the loss. I think he does not like to lose and it kept weighing on his mind throughout the night...he kept saying that he had not played in 35 years and that Nick had an unfair advantage because he plays against computers. It probably did not help that he had a few shots of vodka prior to the game...but maybe it does help...who knows. We were invited to the home of Peter (Stasha and Jan's other son) later in the week for another family meal.