The holidays in Ukraine have proven to be unique and interesting. Let's start with New Years and work backwards. As I sit here blogging, I can still hear a few fireworks this morning. Last night was very festive. Everyone buys fireworks for New Years and starting at 4:00 in the afternoon, we could hear random fireworks here and there. At midnight they were everywhere. We spent about 1/2 hour running from our front window to our back window, then to the side window to see all of the fireworks around us. People were lighting them in the streets, in the open quads by the apartment houses, near the train station (which we live by), and basically all over. They are actually quite big and beautiful - not like the small ones we can buy at home. These went high in the air and were very showy. There were so many fireworks surrounding us that it sounded like a war zone. At midnight, the president of the nation came on TV to wish everyone a happy new year. New Years is a big holiday. A few days before, we could see people buying their New Year's tree and carrying them home. They are evergreen trees like our Christmas trees. New Years is the holiday when they give presents. They wake the children up at midnight to see the fireworks and to open presents. I think that's also when Santa comes. On December 19th, St. Nicholas comes and leaves a small gift under their pillow, but the bigger presents are on New Years. The stores were packed yesterday - so festive! Also, all missionaries have to stay in their apartments from 3:00 p.m. yesterday until noon tomorrow. They've found from past experience that it's not safe for missionaries to be on the streets during New Years because of the increased number of drunk people.
Christmas - Christmas in Ukraine is on January 7th, so it hasn't happened yet. We will have our Branch Christmas party on January 5th. It will be the nativity acted out and some refreshments. On Christmas day, devout Pravoslavians go to church and fast until the first star appears in the sky. They meet with friends and family to eat and visit, but it isn't a time of gift giving. I like the simplicity of that. Also, in our English class we read some Christmas stories and we asked about Ukrainian Christmas stories. They all responded that they only have the one in the Bible about the birth of Jesus. How refreshing that is! They did then think of one, but it's only a Christmas one because it happened at Christmas time.
Our Christmas started the weekend after Thanksgiving when, by tradition, we went to buy a Christmas tree. We found a little bare-root tree at the Rinok.
Unfortunately, all of the love and care we gave it didn't help, and it soon turned into a "Charlie Brown" tree, loosing multiple needles on it's hanging-down branches. We decided we needed to get another tree, and so... we opted for a unique tree that wouldn't die (I think these branches are really meant for making brooms). We ended up keeping "Charlie Brown" also.
We again had the younger missionaries over for dinner - this time 12 of us.
That night we followed our tradition and read from Luke on Christmas Eve, opened gifts on Christmas morning, then went to English practice that night (December 25th is business as usual in Ukraine). We did have a fun party with our English group Christmas night. The important part is that no matter where you are, or what day you commemorate the birth of our Savior, his birth and life over 2000 years ago was more significant for each of our lives individually than we are able to comprehend. I must tell you about Tara (not her real name). Tara saw me on the bus one Sunday morning, noticed my nametag and decided to follow me. She followed me to church and stayed for all of the meetings. She related that her family is Muslim, but about two years ago she had a desire to read the Bible. She began reading and felt it was true and prayed that her husband would also want to read it. One day, some time later, her husband came home and said he had been wanting to read the Bible, so he began reading off and on. When Tara saw my nametag, she wanted to know more. After attending our church for several weeks, she bore her testimony one time during Sacrament Meeting, stating that she now knew that Jesus wasn't just a prophet, as she had been taught, but that he was her Savior. It was a very spiritual meeting. Tara, however, has to be very careful as there could be strict consequences imposed upon her and her family because of her new beliefs.
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| Ukrainian Christmas Card |
Thanksgiving - We invited the younger missionaries over for Thanksgiving dinner, and had resigned ourselves to serving chicken because we hadn't seen any turkeys on the market. Then, to our surprise, two days before Thanksgiving we notice a large, very large, leg in a meat counter at the Rinok (open market). We inquire - in our limited Russian - and through many hand signals we determine it is, in fact, a turkey leg. Through more rudimentary words we discover they have a turkey, split down the center lengthwise. We then buy both halves and are soooo excited that we get to surprise our dinner guests with a real turkey. I had also seen turkey bags at the store, so was very prepared. Fast forward to Wednesday (we were having the dinner one day early). We took the turkey out of the fridge. We took the bag out of the box. And to my dismay, there were two chicken bags - no large turkey bag. I could have sworn the picture on the box was a turkey, not a chicken! We decided to make the best of it and started covering the turkey with the split-open chicken bags, but, again to my dismay, we kept noticing that the turkey didn't smell all the fresh. We washed and washed it and began to cook it. As the turkey aroma in the house continued to be of concern, we decided to "bag" the turkey and called one of the Elders to pick up some rotisserie chicken on his way here. The chicken was yummy and the neighborhood dogs loved the very expensive turkey. Sigh. The rest of the dinner went well. Had to substitute squash for sweet potatoes. No cranberries, but we had cranapple juice. We had to sacrifice our fall pumpkin decoration to make the pumpkin pie, but it was delicious and the rest of the food was just like home.
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| We had beautiful winter weather for Christmas. Then it rained hard all night - now no snow at all! |
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| Half the group forgot to tell the other half that it was supposed to be a funny picture :) |
FAMILY - We are so blessed to have a great family and to have them all healthy and doing well. Our oldest son, Eric, was recently called to be second counselor in the Stake Presidency. He'll have a lot of work, but great experiences. Allison and the kids are a great support for all of the time when he will be needed elsewhere. All of the babies born within the last year, Libby (Matt and Caroline), Jessica (Craig and Shelyce), Creighton, Paxton and Weston (all Mark and Hillary) are growing and all doing well. We miss getting to hold and cuddle them. We also missed being at Luke's (Dave and Tammy) baptism, but we are grateful for him and know our family is blessed because we are here. We're also grateful for Kristin and Michael for diligently looking after our home while we are gone.
Our Russian is improving. Leon is able to add more vocabulary when he conducts meetings, and I gave a 10 minute talk in Sacrament Meeting - all in Russian! What an experience we're having at this time in our lives.
You are receiving updates to this blog because you have been important to us in our lives. We think of you often and feel privileged to have you as family and friends. We love each of you. Today the sun is shining, the air is crisp - a beautiful start to the new year. We wish each of you a blessed New Year!
