Have yourself a Vesele Vanoce

Christmas proved to be fairly uneventful. Mom and I watched the classic Christmas movies (It's a Wonderful Life, White Christmas, the animated version of the Grinch, etc.) and spent all day in the Christmas markets. We also ate jatrovymy knedlíčky polévka (liver dumpling soup!) at U Dvou Koček. The waiter brought us the bill without us asking and then stood there waiting for us to pay...very un-Czech. Not only that, but the gesture made me fear going back to the states where you are rushed out of a restaurant after eating. I have become quite accustomed to sitting around for an hour or so after the meal and not having anyone come by to bother your conversation.
The previous day/night we went to Christmas Eve midnight mass at Svaty Salvator across from Karlova Most. The church was cold and had heated seats that made your butt feel like it was on fire. I won't even go into detail about the number of people that would walk in during service with cameras just to take flash pictures before leaving in the middle of mass..tourists...
Since everything was closed Christmas Eve (it's Czech tradition to have big celebrations that night as Christmas day itself is less of a big deal) we decided to go see a string quartet perform at the oldest church in Prague, Svaty Martina (Saint Martin). We, strangely, ran into Nancy and Jordan on Národní Třída sometime in the morning and then later ran into my friend, Kaylyn, at Kavárna Slavia (I didn't know she was still in Prague!). I quickly remarked to mom, "who else is hiding nearby??"

Christmas itself felt..un-Christmaslike. In my house, Christmas is ALL about family. 100%. So to be away from them, was really difficult, but thanks to skype, we were able to talk to them. The one main perk to the arrival of Christmas day was the removal of the carp-killing stations.
Since Czech families traditionally eat carp on Christmas eve, the city sets up carp stations ALL over the streets. It was fine walking by the first couple times: seeing the fish jump and swim, and people point out which one they wanted. It was NOT fine when we walked by just as a woman beat a fish senseless with a bat. It quickly lost it's cool factor after that...