Every year at about the same time our office turns into a place where we gather around to pause for a moment and reflect. Christmas Eve supper is the most important celebration of the year and is normally reserved for the closest family. However, we decided to start Christmas together in a family-like atmosphere shortly before the real celebration at our homes.

Our Christmas banquet menu was composed of all the must-haves of the Christmas tradition in Poland, including pierogi(es) stuffed with sauerkraut and mushrooms, cabbage rolls, croquettes, traditional Polish vegetable salad, red borscht and cheesecake. All of us contributed to food preparation for that very special occasion, including Maciej who got really serious about making “home-made” red borscht for us :-)

Every element of the Christmas tradition in Poland was preserved - we started the feast as soon as the very first star appeared. We had a special Christmas wafer to share and some hay under the tablecloth, as well as an empty place for an unexpected guest. Moreover, everyone was more than obliged to taste a bit of every dish but, apparently, it wasn’t a problem for us ;-)

As all the Synergy Coders were extremely nice and hard-working that year, Santa Claus left a few generous presents under the Christmas tree. He turned to be very practical this year and decided to gift us mostly with funny mugs and warm socks. Looking at their happy and relieved faces, we could have assumed that most of them expected to receive a twig :-)

Our Christmas supper lasted forever, as the most persistent participants left the office long after midnight. We spent that evening laughing our heads off, playing some tabletop games, summing up our achievements and discussing resolutions for next year. It was a joyful and bonding experience which we’re impatiently looking forward to relive next year.