The holiday season part III: Christmas Day

Christmas was fairly quiet. In fact, it was weird celebrating Christmas when no one else was (except the Americans living here)! For those of you who don't know, Ukrainians celebrate Christmas on January 7th, and even then its not that big of a holiday. The real holiday is New Year's. More on that later (The holiday season part MCIVIII). Some friends in America asked me if we had a tree, and the answer is yes no. We didn't have time for one and we also didn't really feel like spending the money to buy a tree, lights, and decorations, so I improvised!

Our first Christmas tree in Ukraine! This was the most convenient Christmas tree ever. It took 30 seconds to put up; I think I will sell it on Ebay because it's so little fuss!

Christmas morning started with Daniel making me breakfast in bed! I love him. For some reason, I love him. Next on the agenda was presents! I got Daniel a bunch of stuff imported from Poland, including cherry coke, Polish whoppers, a book called The Man who Broke into Auschwitz, and a manly scarf. Daniel got me lots of stuff for the kitchen--an oven mitt, a utensil holder with utensils, and some candles. However, best of all, he got me a treasure chest!!! He also got me some tools and a DVD. More on the tools later! I am making them "special."
We went to Safe Haven for church, and many of the kids wished us a Merry Christmas in English (with lovely accents)! I wore a Christmas sweater that some friends sent me from the thrift store I used to work at, and everyone loved it!
On our way back from Safe Haven, we stopped by Meisha's to use internet. We both got to talk to everyone in our families, and that was wonderful. It was so good to hear everyone's voices!
We had banana bread for dinner and that concluded our first Christmas in Ukraine. However, the season was far from over!

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The Voices of Ukrainians

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