Our family Christmas

In our family, we usually set aside December 25th as our family Christmas. It's not much of a holiday here (although it's recognized more in Ukraine than in Russia. They call it "Catholic Christmas" here.) For us it's Jesus' Birthday! Then we celebrate again on January 7th; that's church Christmas for us.

After the big evening at church the night before (more about that later), everyone actually slept in a little. Then, when they got up. . .

Raia discovered Baby Jesus in the manger!

I loved how she arranged everything: Jesus is the center of it all!

Then, they ate pistachios with Papa, to keep the Hunsucker family tradition alive. And I made breakfast.

Quail eggs! (I think they outshone the cinnamon rolls.)

Asya celebrating

Showing off her tummy afterward
Она говорит "пузик арбузик."

Then we counted up the money that we had collected for Jesus' birthday present, and set off for the market to choose something. This year it was raining, so our shopping trip took the place of our usual Christmas sledding. While we were out, Will got a good photo of us on the square, in front of the New Year tree.

Just in case anyone is dreaming of a slushy-mushy-drippy-muddy Christmas

That's the pile of snow out on the edge of the square. Jaan and Raia wanted to stay there and play. Yucky!

Later Slavik and family dropped in for a fun visit.

Christmas dinner

We had turkey! I found it hilarious that we "had to" have turkey, because there just wasn't any chicken available. Turkey is usually one of those hard-to-find specialty items. However, the road from Zaporozhye has been closed to heavy traffic, so many of the trucks weren't getting through. And with people buying supplies for their New Year's celebrations, all Will could find was turkey breast. (Mom, don't worry. It wasn't like anyone would have starved; just less variety than usual, and people were getting worried about what they would have for their holiday meal. I think traffic is moving again already.)

Happy birthday to Jesus!

Papa got to open the last Advent envelope.

Then we listened to Luke 2.

Mixed in with that, we had several fun talks with family and friends over Skype. A movie had been promised, so even though it was late, we watched a quickie, and then off to bed.

Our family Christmas was wonderful, and it's just the start of the holidays here!

Third week of Advent

Sunday: Isaiah 9:2-7




Monday: 1 Kings 18:17-39

Tuesday: Isaiah 11:6-9


Wednesday: Jonah

Thursday: Micah 5:2-5

Friday: Esther 4:10-17 (We read a children's book.)


Saturday: Habakkuk 2:1, 3:16-19

Second week of Advent

If you didn't see it already, I also wrote about the first week. This week continued on, in the same way.

Raia's turn to open the envelope

That night, the picture didn't fit in the envelope. Raia found a picture of one of our children's books (written by a friend ), instead. Then, when she found the book and opened it, the ornament was waiting inside.

Reading about Jacob

They wanted to get dressed up and dance one night.

Jaan's turn

We decorated a cup to collect money for Jesus' birthday present.

Oksana read to us about Rahab.

Samuel anointed David with oil that probably smelled good, so we sprayed cologne on our oil horns, after coloring them.

Letting Papa smell

Last night, as they were working on decorating crowns to remind us of King David, Jaan and Raia agreed that "This was such a good day! We played all day, a friend came over, chicken nuggets for dinner, and then we got to glue beads onto a crown!" It's the simple things in life that count.

Look at all that glue!
(And those cute little fingers!)

First week of Advent

I wrote a bit about our first two days of Advent, with Anna and on the train. Here's more from the rest of the week. Every evening I read. . .

Noels Piper's Advent Story

. . . and we add to our nativity scene, if we have a figure for what we read about.

Asya's poster

Then someone gets to take down the day's envelope (pictures of that a little further down), which contains one of the pictures from Ann Voskamp's book. We hang the picture on our "tree," sometimes trying to guess what the story will be just from looking at it.

All the posters

They each color, cut out, and glue a similar picture onto their posters. This year all of them are excited about that, even though in the past, they haven't much liked coloring in anything. They really work hard to make something beautiful! Sometimes we read the story during the artistic process, and other times we wait until Will gets home to do the reading.

"Take a picture of me, Mama."

Artists at work

That's an aerial view of what most December evenings look like. For some reason, Asya likes to wear a bag on her head while she listens and colors. I have no idea why.

Raia showing off the Advent envelopes

After I stuck them up like that, they all fell, so I moved them over to the window the next day.

"Hiding."

This was hilarious to me. When we read "Laying Down Isaac," I gave them cotton to glue on to their ram pictures. Asya kept gluing and gluing, until she had a huge fluffy mountain in front of her. I had to give her a plate to contain it. Then I asked, "Asya, where's your sheep?" She got a puzzled look on her face and answered, "Don't know!" I asked her again, as I took the photo above, and then she told me, "Hiding."

Jaan's ram
(Compare to Asya's )