Our little snowflake! Thanks to our teammates Lena and Natasha, she had a stellar snowflake dress and crown for her preschool New Year's performance. (It was held on the 23rd, which is wonderfully early, and made it feel like Christmas.) Russians celebrate New Year's with the same traditions we use for secular Christmas celebrations, with a few exceptions (see below)!
The little snowflakes and rabbits in Ella's class dance around Grandfather Frost and his Snowmaiden. The kids dance, sing, say their rhymes and play games with him before receiving the gifts.
Tima's group at preschool were elves (boys) and 'beads' (girls). This dance was Tima's favorite part. Though he talked about not performing, he ended up taking courage and doing it. He had a lot of fun! 
More worship of the Tree, games, and ...
Notice anyone strange in the photo above? Part of the games was the appearance of Baba Yaga, the witch of Russian fairy tales. Ella, watching from the audience, was quite scared! I kept explaining to her it was just a teacher in a costume, though she was a great actress. After the kids sang a lullaby, Baby Yaga fell asleep and they were able to steal the key she had locked Grandfather Frost up with...
So all worked out in the end, and Eric and I also learned more about Russian holiday traditions!
Danya was fortunate to have the 25th off of school, since it was Saturday. He performed in an English carnival with the kids in his school who are learning English. While the translation of the traditional Russian fairy tales was pretty sketchy, the kids did a great job of delivering the lines they were taught. Danya is one of the roosters- in an orange hat below.
Danya will have three more days of school, and a soccer tournament! next week, and then have 11 days off for winter vacation.
