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!