There's so much more to the Polish heritage than just polka and pierogi; but living away from an active Polish community and one can quickly forget the rich history. Luckily for us our new home town of Chicago has the largest population of Poles outside of Warsaw, Poland and this allows us to introduce more Chopin and Caviar. The community is not only large but very passionate, driven and committed to preserving the culture. Weekly events highlighting Polish art, music, dance and theatre are easy to find.

However, I was worried how my young children would respond to an afternoon of Chopin. Their first piano concert featuring pint-sized musicians playing Chopin (Chopin was Polish). The concertos were long - very long, and the kiddos usual attention span is short - very short. But not once did they stir, squeak or squirm. Bravo, kiddos.

It wasn't difficult because the performances were truly captivating - one in particular of the young Mr. Igor Lipinski (a Doctoral student at Northwestern University & a concert pianist - need I mention that he was yummy to look at? Look).

That's Lola holding one of Mr. Lipinski's many amazing magic tricks and that's Mr. Lipinski (standing) to the right of my brother dealing out a deck of cards.

I'm having a hard time describing his performance because it was truly unique. Unlike anything I've ever seen. He's an outstanding pianist and an outstanding magician and managed to tie the two together for one thrilling show. Seriously. It was a mind blowing experience. So entertaining! I'd book him in a heartbeat if I had a mini-mansion-with-a-piano to host his event.

I let the Polish "culture" settle in, after the weekend and made no mention of it at all. The event that my parents can not stop talking about is however, sorry to the amazing Mr. Lipinski and the talented pint-sized Chopin musicians, was when my eldest child told his Babcia (Grandmother in Polish) to keep the Polish Christmas carols on when they were decorating the Christmas tree. Babcia wanted to put on American carols to make my kiddos feel more at home. "No, Babcia. It's important for you to keep your culture alive." were his exact words. "Keep the carols on because I want to hear and remember the songs."

And then I wept. Someone pass me the sour cream for my pierogies.