Advent

Our Christmas preparation this year was finally organized enough to have an advent calendar full of activities to do every day! It was all stuff we do every year anyway, but spaced out nicely and (mostly) planned for. Do you want to see my list? (sometimes I wish I allowed comments...) Well here it is - just scroll past if you don't want to read it:

1. Watch Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (an elementary drama production at the kids school).

2. Put up Christmas tree.

3. Go ice skating (this didn't actually work out, because I can't ice skate being 6 months pregnant, and we neglected to remember that they probably wouldn't have super giganto rental ice skates for Dave. The kids were too young to go by themselves. But we had gone to Red Square for the activity, so we still enjoyed all the lights - Moscow has great lights all over the city during the holidays, playing in some snow, and a yummy snack at Chocolodnitsa. Not a total fail).

4. Read the Tale of the Three Trees.

5. Have a picnic dinner by the Christmas tree.

6. Have hot chocolate with marshmallows.

7. Decorate gingerbread houses.

8. Read Mr. Finnegan's Giving Chest.

9. Watch White Christmas.

10. Go to Ward Christmas Breakfast (we had to skip this one too, due to "possible political demonstrations", a working Daddy, and a sick mama, so we made muffins, and had hot chocolate instead).

11. Deliver Holiday gifts to friends and neighbors.

12. Invite friends over to play games.

13. Have hot chocolate with homemade bread toast.

14. Read Christmas Day in the Morning.

15. Make treats to share with friends at school.

16. Watch Muppet Christmas Carol.

17. Go sledding (you would think by the 17th of December in Moscow, we would have enough snow to go sledding. All we had this year was mush, so we went out to breakfast for this one instead. We have had a really warm winter so far!).

18. Deliver toys to someone in need.

19. Watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

20. Make cookies to donate to someone (the idea was for them to go to some people at Dave's work).

21. Have hot chocolate floats.

22. Open family Christmas presents.

23. Go to Spain!

24. Read the true story of Christmas and act out the Nativity. Go looking for Christmas lights.

It was a lot of fun, and it's nice to have some of these things down on paper, so the kids can start recognizing them as family traditions (for example, we have a TON of Christmas books, and we are not lacking in Christmas movies, but there are a few I want to make sure are family traditions, so I included them in the advent).

HOWEVER, I felt like the advent could definitely have been a little more Christ centered, or at least more service oriented. This is something I will have to think a little more about. A couple of years ago, we did one that had a scripture and a little activity to go along with it every day. Maybe we can find a way to incorporate that next year, but still keep it simple.

Because above everything else, it's the simplicity that I love!

Hope you had a great December!

Snapshots

It's been a while, so here's a double dose of snapshots:

She just keeps bringing me more, and asking me to put them in her hair.

I love getting this little girl into her snow clothes, and she loves playing in the snow. Win-win.

Owen "bubble wrapped" at a birthday party. This was after chasing two pirates around an indoor amusement park for an hour on a treasure hunt. Now do you see why we don't do birthday parties?

and p.s. what does it tell you about Moscow that I don't even blink an eye anymore when someone shows up dressed like that to entertain at a children's birthday party? Dave had to point it out to me when he saw the picture.

Outside a car dealership near Red Square.

Ev in uniform. When she's not in this, she's in t-shirts and jeans all the time.

Riding with Dad while she waited for Owen to be finished at his friend's birthday party.

Getting out the Christmas stuff.

Dave playing with the crazies. Barb especially love to play "up high".

Feliz Navidad... (and Happy New Year!)

I Have a Little Boy...

The other day, he was talking to his sister. She was trying to come up with an example to explain something to him, and she started talking about football.

"I don't think I like sports," he said to her.

"Interesting insight," I thought to myself.

And let me be honest and tell you that I don't know how this happened.

Happy...

Birthday!

Owen's Nerf cake that I made. The marshmallow fondant was incredibly easy. I was just too lazy to order good dye, so he has a pastel Nerf cake. And he's okay with it. Dave's traditional pineapple upside down cake that he never remembers is the tradition until I make it. Evelynn's star cake to go with her American Girl theme. I know, it's an awesome cake. Don't be jealous. (Dave's Mom actually frosted it, because I couldn't do it without crumbs all over the place) And finally, the Boston cream cake that Dave made for me. When I remind him that this is the tradition, usually he buys one (can you tell he's not into traditions?), but I would feel pretty safe saying that they are impossible to find in Russia. So, he made it!

And of course, birthday cake has to have ice cream. Even Russian style Neopolitan. Grab yourself a slice.

Happy Birthday everyone!

Halloween!

A strawberry, a peacock, and Frankenstein (who left his hair/hat thing at school and was most often mistaken as Hulk). I was super sick, and couldn't even think about making costumes this year, so we bought some cute ones. Barb loved dressing up and trick-or-treating, and I loved her doing it!

Thanksgiving!

The kids still had school, but Dave had the day off, so we still cooked, and then got together with some friends for dinner and some football.

Dave's parents sent us a package with all of the ingredients and instructions to make these cute little turkeys! We opened the package in the car, and the cookies almost didn't make it home.

Those little marshmallow ones are my favorite! and Oreos? Fuhgettabout it.

Now we are getting ready for Christmas!

Yay!

And now we don't have to rationalize the Christmas music we've been listening to for over a month.

Sankt Petairsboorg (and roll your Rs)

While Dave's parents were in town, he took them to St. Petersburg. I was sure to remind them to keep their wits about them. St. Petersburg is a popular European tourist town = pickpockets.

They came back safe and sound, and gave me a few tips.

Then, when my Mom was in town, I took her.

By myself.

On the train.

And I don't even speak Russian!

I was so proud of myself.

This was the view from the front door of our hotel. It's St. James Cathedral. I think.

This is a corner on our way to some sightseeing. Check out the - let me see if I can spell this - trolleeyayboos (trolleybus) tracks? Lines?

This is something. I don't speak Russian. And this is where we were "accosted" by two men trying very physically to sell us calendars. It was a little disconcerting. Nyet means nyet!

This is the Baskin Robbins that my Mom asked me to take a picture of as we recovered from our confrontation and continued on our walk.

This is the "Cathedral on the Spilt Blood". That's not the actual name of it, but Tsar Alexander II was assassinated here, so for some reason it picked up the name. There was an English sign.

Hi Mom.

This is where I asked my Mom to hand me my wallet from her purse, so I could buy our tickets, and she realized it was missing (after the photo).

It appears we paid for a calendar after all.

We forgot to keep our wits about us.

This is where I decided that I couldn't let having my wallet stolen ruin our trip. I didn't want to go home without seeing anything because I spent 36 hours worrying about a stolen wallet, so we turned around and went back to the church. And also, I prayed.

This is the inside of the Cathedral. I'm glad we went back. It was amazing inside. A huge room, and all of the walls and ceilings covered in these mosaics made with tiny stones. The real name of the Cathedral is the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, so most of the mosaics were of part of His life, with a few of his apostles. It was really pretty.

Then we headed back to the hotel, and kept praying about my wallet (it had all of my IDs in it).

This is the walk back, where around the corner, another man (not the calendar guys) came running up from behind us, and handed me my wallet.

Aside from the cash, everything was left inside.

The end.

This is the metro. I don't know if I'm supposed to take pictures of police/military guys, or if they appreciate it, so instead of doing the honorable thing, and asking, I always just wait until they look the other way, and try to sneak it.

This is Peterhof. It's Peter the Great's summer palace, and it is amazing!

After visiting Versailles, Peter wanted his fountains to be better, and they are! And I think that the fact that it's Russian is even more impressive to me. This might sound bad, but I usually find that Russian things are not the same level of quality that I have seen elsewhere, so to see a big, pretty palace, with seriously impressive natural fountains that are all old and still in good condition is just... amazing.

Peterhof is actually known for it's gardens (which were still very pretty in the fall), but with cold weather and nothing blooming, seeing the inside of the palace was the highlight for us.

THIS is the Hermitage. Russia's version of the Louvre.

Used to be a palace, now a huge art museum.

This is where I discovered that I love Rembrandt. They have the world's largest collection of Rembrandt's (if I overheard correctly). The Hermitage has some great art (and funny things like walls painted to look like carved reliefs).

St. Petersburg impresses (read: surprises) me again.

And this is us on the speed train home, after 36 hours in St. Petersburg, carrying our backpacks in cold, rain, and sunshine, with my wallet now stowed safely away and all our wits all about us.

Our First Birthday Party

We don't do birthday parties. Theoretically, we do "other parties". Like, one year we had an end of summer party, and we've thought a lot about Halloween and Christmas and Valentine and Just Because parties, but it doesn't really happen.

I don't want my kids to have to feel like they need to keep up with the billion dollar birthday parties that some other kids have, and I also don't like having a bunch of random toys around (my toys are organized into categories, and birthday gifts are just way too much of a risk).

We do other fun traditions, which I've mentioned, like our birthday gift treasure hunts, and fun themes.

However, it has always been in our plans to have birthday parties at 8, possibly 12, maybe 16,... it's kind of a "cross that bridge when we come to it" deal.

Well, Evelynn turned 8.

We were at the bridge.

So, we had a party.

We waited until a month after her actual birthday, because my Mom was going to be in town, and she wanted to be there (and I wanted her help). Also, since she was baptized very close to her birthday, I wanted to keep that time special, and the focus on being baptized, not on partying. It was her first birthday party, after all. Very exciting.

She wanted an American Girl party, so I went with the red and white star theme (you can't just pick up American Girl party supplies on the shelf at Target). I was back in the U.S. for a long weekend a couple of months ago, so I picked up anything red, white, or stars, as well as a couple of American Girl craft projects.

We kept it simple, invited just a few friends, made Evelynn's favorite foods, and played a few games with dolls that the girls brought. We finished up with our crafts (fortune tellers was the favorite), and the girls went home! Easy peasy!

Hey Evelynn, what did you think of your birthday party?

"I thought it was awesome. It was the best party I've ever had."

There you go folks. Best party she's ever had. I think we better call it quits while we're ahead.