Christmas and New Years Happenings

In the morning we celebrated Christmas as a family, read a great story, then we opened up a few presents. Violet had been waiting and waiting! We had been getting packages in the mail, and if there were things for Christmas we kept telling her that she needed to wait. She is doing very well learning patience.

In the evening were invited by our co-workers to join them for a roasted lamb dinner, and it was some of the best lamb we’ve ever had, it was awesome! Afterwards we sang some Christmas songs, even Violet sang. I’m so glad we have been singing them with her, she really enjoyed singing with everyone.

Gudrun preparing the feast

That's one nice looking leg!

Violet playing with their guinea pig

A pretty sunrise we got to enjoy the next morning before it hid behind the clouds for the rest of the day

On Tuesday, Micah’s mom arrived for a short visit to see the girls and enjoy some family time for Christmas. So we had another Christmas day on Thursday. Violet was so happy to see Grammy, and of course open more presents. 🙂

Tea time

Craft time

New trike from Grammy

On Friday, Micah took his mom to see inside the Kremlin, which she has missed the first time she was here. Inside the walls there are many cathedrals and palaces, you can read more about it here.

Saturday evening, we were invited to a New Years Eve dinner/party with Russian friends of ours and their family. This is a very good thing to be invited to, because New Years is the biggest holiday of the year. They usually celebrate by getting together with friends and family and eat lots of traditional Russian dishes. So around 9 pm we all bundled up and headed out in the cold for the party. We had a great time eating and practicing our Russian and at midnight the president gave his short speech on tv to give his wishes to everyone for the new year. Afterwards the clock tower rang 12 times followed by smooches of the couples who were there and then the fireworks began. And they continued on and off sporadically until after we got home around 4 am. BTW, Violet stayed up the whole time until we got into the car and then she was out! She was really good the whole time and they all enjoyed having her there too.