Durham Museum Ethnic Holiday Festival and Prague Kolace Korner

Another long traveling night. :) I had never been to the Durham museum in Omaha and was excited to attend the Ethnic Festival with the Omaha Czech Cultural Club. I wasn't expecting what I saw when I walked in...it was H...U...G...E...HUGE!! From what I heard this used to be the old train station so it was a really pretty building with REALLY tall ceilings. They had a tree bigger than I think I've ever seen. I started walking around and there were booths everywhere. I looked at a few and was excited to quickly see a few familiar faces. Sandy S and Donna G from the pageant committee were there. I said hello and mentioned that I was looking for the Czech booth. They told us it was downstairs. As soon as I started going down the stairs I could hear accordion music and knew I was going in the right direction. :) I spent some time at the Czech booth with members of the club. They had arts and crafts, food, and information about Czech Christmas traditions. They also had Don Daniels and Don Trouba playing polka music. We also went and saw the ethnic Christmas trees and miniatures displays. After listening to the music for a while I got asked to dance. We started dancing and eventually people gathered around to watch us but nobody else would dance. LOL! I definitely recommend going to this event if you ever have the chance. Kids would like it too because they get a passport and get a stamp at every country they visit. It was a great time but I was only there for about 2 hours before heading onto my next destination...Praha!

Ok not the one in the Czech Republic (although I wish!) but the one here in good ole Nebraska. Brad was playing at Kolace Korner and I made an appearance as queen there. I played a few songs and sang some too. I was joined by Shandra Korbelik and Matthew Austry in helping Brad as they didn't line up a drummer for him when they scheduled it. It turned into a mini accordion jam. We had a good time and it was fun meeting some new people in Prague and seeing some people who I've seen at many previous polka events. They joked that I was "on tour" for the night in my travels from one place to the next. :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I guess I didn't post that at all before! I am thankful for SO MANY people in my life. I definitely couldn't do all of the things I do without the support of my family, friends, boyfriend, and the list goes on...and on...and on! Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone for all of your support. I'm working my hardest to make all of the Czech-Americans in Nebraska proud!

Na Shledanou,
Stefanie Vocasek
2009-10 Nebraska Czech-Slovak Queen