Thanksiving and Susannah's 10th Birthday

Well, in the time since I last posted, winter has officially arrived her in Kyiv.  We have had snow a few times already and the temperature hasn't broken freezing in the past 6 days.  It is COLD.  And DARK.  But we are making the best of it and have enjoyed some really good times over the past month with Thanksgiving and Susannah's birthday.  Here are the pictures......

The view from our bedroom.  Snowy and gray, but also beautiful.

Sarah Avery built the biggest snowball she could muster. 

Susannah and Honey wanted their picture taken one morning. 

Thanskgiving morning the girls and I headed out for some fresh air before heading back to the kitchen to finish up our feast.  

This one loves to climb.  

The girls helped set the table.  They look so grown up in these pictures.  

This photo required many treats and many takes, but we got it.  I love all four of my girls. :)

I always cheat on gravy and use the seasoning pack, but this year we didn't have one so Susannah helped me make the real stuff.  She did great and it was delicious!

Fresh Rosemary sprigs brightened up the place-settings. 

Thanksgiving family selfie.  

Some of our new friends from the neighborhood joined us for dinner.  And another family came over for drinks and dessert. We had such a fun evening.  

Black Friday we ventured out to find a fake tree.  We have always had real trees in the past, but because Orthodox Christmas is later, finding one this early is a challenge.  

And we were ready for Christmas cheer ASAP, so we went for this artificial one.  

The girls were so excited to see our old Christmas cards and all of our Christmas books. 

And we were all excited to find Honey's Christmas sweater.  

Sally has been a good girl and hasn't knocked over the tree or eaten any ornaments.  Yet. ;)

We ended our decorating day with one of our favorite Christmas movies. 

Buddy the elf never gets old.  

We were so excited to have a real staircase this year so we could hang all of the silver sleigh bells that Shoo Shoo gave us every year.  I polished them and hung them with fun ribbon.  So love how they turned out.  

Sam, our elf, is back and he even brought little gifts this year.  He gave both girls new gloves and our favorite Ukrainian candy bar.  

And then, before we knew it, she was 10.   

We had cupcakes delivered to her classroom.  This is her class.  She only has 6 kids!

After school we had take-out cheeseburgers for dinner and pumpkin cupcakes.  Then it was time for presents.  

She has been waiting three years to wear dangly earrings which explains her face when she opened a box of assorted dangles for every occasion.   

Grammy got her this sweater.  I think she looks so grown up here.  

Reading her card from Peter and me. 

One of her birthday wishes was a corded phone like on Full House.  She was so excited about this thing.  

We ended the night with The Grinch Stole Christmas and snuggles by the tree.  

The next day was birthday party day.  Our neighbor is an amazing baker and she designed this cake for Susannah. 

We were so thankful that COVID didn't spoil her little party.  

Five girls came over for candy pong, 

Charades,

And pin the tail on the donkey.  

After pizza, Susannah opened her presents.  

And then cake and ice cream were in order.  

Yes, we broke the rules and blew out candles.  

So there you have the last four weeks in the life of the Mallory household. The girls have one more week of school before a long three week break.  We hope that all of you are healthy and happy.  We miss and love you all!

 

Our first Autumn in Kyiv

I don't know how an entire month has passed since I last posted.  Time has flown because we have been busy with lots of fall fun here in Kyiv. Stricter restrictions seem to be put into place everyday as COVID spreads here in Ukraine, but we have managed to have lots of fun while still trying to mitigate risk as much as possible.  Here are the pictures from our last four weeks.......

Diplomacy must go on, even during pandemics, so I'm still participating in the Attache Spouse Association.  This photo was from a coffee morning hosted at one of the Hungarian spouse's homes.  We had traditional food and drink from Hungary.  It was such a fun time. 

Chatting it up with the Romanian Attache spouse and Peter's commanding officer's husband, with whom I was also accidentally twinning.  

I was so excited to find a pumpkin patch type sale here in Kyiv.  It was for one day only, but I got enough gourds to make a centerpiece and a couple of carving pumpkins for Peter and the girls. My uber driver was definitely confused by the American woman who wanted to fill his trunk with these items though.

We didn't have time to order Halloween costumes because the mail is so slow to arrive here, so we created home-made costumes.  Here Susannah is working on her Susan B. Anthony accessories.  

One of our neighbors hosted a super fun Halloween party so the girls were able to dress up a couple of times in addition to trick-or-treating.

All the fall fun made Sally really tired. 

Sarah Avery is in a little story-time group in our neighborhood that meets once a month.  Susannah is the helper.  This was the end of their Halloween meeting.  

The girls also had a virtual Halloween parade at school so they dressed up on this day too.  (Susannah was Hermione Grainger this time.  Sarah Avery stayed true to her original costume and went as Sally.)

Speaking of Sally, she has been such a perfect addition to our family.  On this day, I had washed her bed and put it on the steps to carry up to her crate in our room later.  She found it and squeezed onto it for a nap right there on the stairs.

Peter and the girls carved pumpkins.  This year, Daddy brought out the power drill to get the job done.  ;)

We were so thankful that our neighborhood has enough American families to do trick-or-treating.  

It was cold and rainy, but the girls had a blast.  

Sarah and Sally

The girls have had a two week period of home learning last week and this week due to community spread of COVID at their school.  Luckily, their recess periods coincide everyday so we can walk to a playground together and get some fresh air.  

I've tried to soak up every minute of these mornings with my girls.  

Aunt Liz sent us a care package with these painting kits for the girls.  They loved working on them in their spare time between zoom meetings.  

Peter got dressed up for a fancy dinner one night last week.  We wouldn't let the girls get any closer for the picture because we didn't want to get him dirty.  ;)

My baby and me during a school break.

The girls have both joined girl scout troops here. This year, Susannah is a junior girl scout which means they start earning some really cool patches.  On Sunday she earned her archery patch and even hit the bullseye!

This is Sarah's little daisy troop.  We met in a neighbor's outdoor kitchen for COVID safety, but the fire and hot cider made the girls toasty warm for their meeting.  

And now we are looking ahead to Thanksgiving next week and then Christmas break.  Next week, we will be thinking of all of you and saying a prayer of gratitude for all of our friends and family that support us and love us and pray for us from afar.  We love and miss each of you.