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......
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| The view from our bedroom. Snowy and gray, but also beautiful. |
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| Sarah Avery built the biggest snowball she could muster. |
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| Susannah and Honey wanted their picture taken one morning. |
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| Thanskgiving morning the girls and I headed out for some fresh air before heading back to the kitchen to finish up our feast. |
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| This one loves to climb. |
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| The girls helped set the table. They look so grown up in these pictures. |
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| This photo required many treats and many takes, but we got it. I love all four of my girls. :) |
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| 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! |
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| Fresh Rosemary sprigs brightened up the place-settings. |
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| Thanksgiving family selfie. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| And we were ready for Christmas cheer ASAP, so we went for this artificial one. |
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| The girls were so excited to see our old Christmas cards and all of our Christmas books. |
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| And we were all excited to find Honey's Christmas sweater. |
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| Sally has been a good girl and hasn't knocked over the tree or eaten any ornaments. Yet. ;) |
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| We ended our decorating day with one of our favorite Christmas movies. |
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| Buddy the elf never gets old. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| And then, before we knew it, she was 10. |
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| We had cupcakes delivered to her classroom. This is her class. She only has 6 kids! |
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| After school we had take-out cheeseburgers for dinner and pumpkin cupcakes. Then it was time for presents. |
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| 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. |
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| Grammy got her this sweater. I think she looks so grown up here. |
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| Reading her card from Peter and me. |
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| One of her birthday wishes was a corded phone like on Full House. She was so excited about this thing. |
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| We ended the night with The Grinch Stole Christmas and snuggles by the tree. |
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| The next day was birthday party day. Our neighbor is an amazing baker and she designed this cake for Susannah. |
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| We were so thankful that COVID didn't spoil her little party. |
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| Five girls came over for candy pong, |
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| Charades, |
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| And pin the tail on the donkey. |
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| After pizza, Susannah opened her presents. |
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| And then cake and ice cream were in order. |
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| 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!
