Christmas Gifts

As was traditional in my family growing up, the kids opened one present on Christmas Eve. We let them open their gifts from Totya Klava (our babysitter). She amazed us with her knowledge of the kids--a plastic dish set for Ella that brought a chorus of "ooh's," a big Spiderman figure for Tima, and a checker and chess board for Danya. He's really wanted a chess set but we thought he was too young for it. This morning he insisted that Eric teach him chess. So it was a nice relaxing morning (for me at least) and we had to tell them it was time to open stockings!

It is so amazing to see how animated Ella is, as she opens gifts, and then cares for her baby. She had a two-hour long playpen time with the doll this morning. Although her old, cloth doll is only called "lya-lya" which is what Russian kids call babies and dolls, this one was immediately christened "bay-bee".

One of their favorite gifts is electric toothbrushes, complete with cartoon characters. Most of the boys' gifts were similar, but we forgot about Ella. Who knew she wanted an electric toothbrush also? Happily, her normal one placated her... so far! There has been a lot of whirring noises all morning!

Advent

Our daily advent celebration is very simple:

Light the candles
Color a downloaded Christmas page

Read a Bible passage centered around the coloring page verse
Sing a Christmas hymn

This year, we bought an interactive nativity set as well. So each day we opened a box with one character in the Christmas story and read about him or her. It's called What God wants for Christmas, and the last box holds only a mirror.

VISA!!

Just a quick note to let you know that, along with the rest of the family, I received a visa to return to Russia today! Thank you SO much for praying for us! For the past two and a half years, we have been in a season where we haven’t been able to live in Russia. The end of that season is now very much in sight. The date on the visa is January 15, and there are a LOT of details to be worked through in order for us to move. But we are VERY excited to have the opportunity to work through those challenges!!!

Pa-pa?

Ella misses Eric. She asks ‘Pa-pa?’ all the time. It’s funny, but she’s reminded of him mostly when I’m singing the little drummer boy. She starts to repeat the drum beat as ‘pa-pa-pa-pa’ and then remembers Eric and asks ‘Pa-pa?’ Really last week was the first time when she seemed aware of him missing on a trip. And he’s gone for a short trip this week and she definitely misses him!

Tima's airplane

Tima was so excited this morning that he built his first lego airplane. The one in the picture is actually his third of the day.

What they are thankful for

Here’s some week-after-Thanksgiving thanks. (Yes, I forgot to post it!)

Danya
A family
That you’re my dad.
that Jesus came to die for us

Tima
My stocking
That I have stuffed animals—doggies. You know why I’m thankful? Because I like them!
That I have a daddy


Ella likes to list the members of our family. We’ll trust she’s thankful!
De-Da
Da-da
Ma-ma
Pa-pa (It’s become a joke that she used to say ‘Dah-dee’ but now says the Russian ‘Pa-pa’. And even if she says ‘da-dee’ and I ask her to say it again, she changes it to ‘Pa-pa’, looks at Eric and chuckles.

Fun with Neighbors

Two neighbor girls, Liza and Veronichka came over last week with their mother Galya. They had fun...as you can see, a little too much!

Yes, Galya did catch Ella before she fell... since I was busy taking the picture I was too slow.

Let it snow!

Last week, we finally had our first snowstorm. The boys were delighted. Unfortunately, by the time we got outside to play mid-morning, it was raining. But we went anyway, and the boys even made a very humble (and dirty) snowman. Rained on snow does stick well, which is a plus. But we got soaked!

The boys spent a lot of time just watching the snow fall.

Ella even brought her stuffed animals to show them.

The Day After

Ella is not feeling thankful today. Yesterday, I let her nibble some pumpkin pie. I guessed that it had milk in it, both the filling and the crust. But she’s had a few things like cookies made with butter that haven’t bothered her terribly. In fact, she usually wakes up once that night and cries until I comfort her. But previously, that was all. Last night was much worse. She cried four times, and would quiet in my arms, but then start crying again 5-10 minutes later. She was belching and passing a lot of gas. The lasat time, I kept her up a while, giving her some water, exploring the apartment in the dark. Then I rocked her for a minute and put her to bed.

Today I forgot to say anything to the babysitter, assuming that all had passed (literally). But she commented that Ella had a lot of gas, and diarrhea. So she only let her have mashed potatoes and bananas for lunch. I decided not to tell her that the mashed potatoes had real milk. So now I guess we’re going to have another hard night, and another day at least of diarrhea. Aaah, the joy!

But, let me put this in context of how well Ella is doing in general. We stopped giving her reflux medicine over a month ago, and she has been fine. And, as I mentioned, we’ve been less careful about things like margarine with real dairy. Overall, she is so much happier than she was even this summer. The whiny evenings are rare, the clinginess much lessened. As the Bible describes a peaceful soul, “Like a weaned child with her mother.” So, I’m thankful that today is now a rarity!

High King Josh the Astronaut

Josh is a 10-year-old friend of our boys.

High King Peter is from the Chronicles of Narnia.

and the astronaut--we watched a Sesame Street clip about astronauts, which showed how they went into air locks to change into their space suits.

So High King Josh and High King Danya, the astronauts, left the spaceship (our apartment) through two airlocks (the first is the hallway with locked doors and the second is the elevator. )

They went exploring among the stars (trees) of outerspace until their Mom said they were almost out of oxygen in their tanks and beter return home. High King Danya said, "But there's a long tube that goes back to the spaceship, so we won't ever run out of oxygen."