A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Last Year, the holiday season was all about waiting and hoping ... waiting to travel to Ukraine... hoping that Lera and Vitalik would be home for good soon. We spent most of the season imagining how everything might look and feel to Vitalik and Lera, hoping and praying that they would be with us the next time we celebrated the holidays.
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| Our five little elves!! |
This Christmas, what a huge blessing it was to actually be living through the holidays with our family all together. It was pretty cool. We introduced Vitalik and Lera to a slew of American Holiday traditions that we all just take for granted. They had never heard of Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer or Frosty the Snowman. They had never wrapped a gift. They had never had presents under a tree with their names on them. (They really loved shaking the presents and imagining what they might be!)
They HAD watched American movies set during the holidays, such as "Home Alone" and "National Lampoons Christmas Vacation" so they had an idea what it was all supposed to look like, and they seemed to kind of delight in realizing that our family did all of these things they had seen on TV. They really loved pulling the decorations out of the attic and making our house look all ready for Christmas. When Vitalik saw our wreath, he said, "I have seen in pictures that this goes on the front door." I loved having enthusiastic (and reasonably competent) helpers! They enjoyed making and delivering gift bags for teachers and neighbors. Since we opted to spend Thanksgiving at the beach, this was our first big family feast - we had a turkey AND a ham!
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| Lera enjoys her big-boy cousins. |
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| Vitalik feasting on roast beast! |
On the last Sunday of Advent, our family lit the advent candles at our church. It was really cool. Eugene and Vitalik shared the reading, and I helped the other kids light the candles. Vitalik practiced many times so that he could be understood, and we were really proud of him as he read (with his precious Russian accent), "We light this candle as a symbol of the Prince of Peace. May the visitation of your Holy Spirit, O God, make us ready for the coming of Jesus, our hope and joy. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." I am told that it was a really beautiful moment, though at the time, I was just focused on ensuring that none of us knocked over the candles or set anything on fire!
What a pleasure it was for all of us to get to experience all of all of these Christmas traditions during our first Christmas together as a family!
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| Singing with Grandmother on Christmas Eve. We have such a fun and silly family! |
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| Christmas Eve - Lots of Cousins!! |
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| Lera enjoying a new Exercise video on Christmas Morning. The "six minute workout" is right up her alley! I should also mention that during Christmas break, she did set a new hula hoop record of just over 2 hours! |
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| Vitalik got lots of cool Legos this Christmas, and enjoyed some quiet time in his room assembling them. |
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| Spencer is getting so big! He has had a LOT of change to get used to, moving from his old position as "oldest child" into his new role as "middle kid" with a very cool big and strong older brother. He is doing great, and we are really proud of him. Santa brought Spencer a new IPod Nano, which he really loves! |
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| Christmas Morning - Spencer and Heath introduced Lera to Webkinz. She loved it! |
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| This December has been unusually warm. L&V really miss the snow that they know their pals in Ukraine are enjoying now, but the warmer weather has made for a LOT of good times outdoors during Christmas vacation, and after school. |
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| Santa brought our family a Polar Express electric train! We hope to enjoy it at Christmas time each year. |
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| Vitalik enjoys experimenting with how many dum-dum lollipops he can fit into his mouth! |
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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Our Toast at midnight on New Year's Eve. If you think staying awake and reasonably
happy with this many kids was easy, please think again! In any case, we can say we did it. |
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| The new year has included a good dose of Ukrainian cooking. Here, Vitalik makes "peroshki" which seems to mean fried dough stuffed with mashed potatoes. It was so funny. He asked if I could make some "testo" (dough) and then after I made it, he said, "It's perfect - now all I need are some mashed potatoes." After I made the mashed potatoes, then HE made dinner! ;-) It really was delicious! |
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| Lera has done a good bit of cooking Russian foods in the new year, both at home, and at Aunt Tracy's house. Here, at home, she stirs a pot of awesome "Galushki" (dumpling) soup. We all loved it and gobbled up every morsel! |
As we look back on 2011, it has been an incredible and memorable year to say the least. For several months now, we have been realizing how very depleating the adoption process and transition to our new family was to everyone involved. We could not have asked for anything more from any of our five children - and we have all been thankful along the way. Still, we have been trying to take time to acknowledge that this thing has taken a LOT out of us, and we are still recouperating.
The new year provides a great time to be thankful for all we have already been through, and to look forward to the future with great optimism. We are feeling like 2012 is going to be a really great year, filled with lots of fun, laughter, and love. :-)
