Merry Christmas from Russia

During Soviet times, Russians had very little contact with the Western World.  But after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia began importing more Western items.  A favorite of the Russian people during the early 90's? Chicken legs!  My Russian teacher said they were one of the most delicious foods she had ever had.  And because President Bush the elder was in office then, the Russian people called them "Bush legs".  There is some Russian trivia they probably do not teach in the history books.
It is bitterly cold here in Moscow, but we are all still in the Christmas spirit.  And we are also looking forward to getting out of Moscow for 12 days and going to the island of Bali.  Sun, sand, and water- here comes the Yeates family!  And when I say bitterly cold, you should believe me.  I did four winters in northeast Iowa (which is truly horrid in the winter) and I have one Russian winter under my belt.  It is much colder this year at an earlier time, and I have to say a 15 hour plane ride with four kids does not look that bad to me.

Amalie created a book last week based on Eric Carles' The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  As in she sat down at the table and created the entire book on her own.  And she did not ask me to spell the days of week for her.  She went to the calendar and figured it out on her own.  Jesy and I were completely blown away by this.  It is very rare for Yeates children to sit down for any length of time, hence the nervousness about the long plane ride to Bali.  I am so proud of this little girl.  Maybe next she will make me a pop-up card.  Are you reading this Suzanne?

Last school year was Kathleen's first year of school.  She was a bit shy and often kept to herself at school.  Not so this year.  According to her teachers, Kathleen has become the class leader, participates all the time, and loves to play with all of her friends.  Big relief for mom and dad.  There was one little girl in the class last year who was the oldest and was always picked to be the leader of the different shows the class performed.  (Who could blame the teachers?  She was the only kid who could focus for longer than 5 minutes.)  Well, after the last performance last school year, Kathleen announced to her teachers and I "next year, I will be the star of the show".  (Sound like anyone you know, Tara Ramsey?)  Guess who opened up the Christmas show this year and was the first one out for all of the show scenes?

I love the self confidence that oozed out of  Kathleen during her Christmas show, and that she displays this confidence every day.  Sometimes I wish she would take it down a notch while at home, but I do love my little Christmas Fairy!This is Colin's second year playing basketball at Anglo American.  Jesy and I have both seen great improvement, and we just love that he is enjoying himself.  At his game on Saturday he scored 6 points, and more importantly was always under the basket getting rebounds.  It does this former center proud.  And says a lot about the great coaching.  From Coach Jesy.
One reason my older son is a better person than me:  I spent some of the time during Saturday's game watching the game next to us and fantasizing about how great it would be to beat this other team.  The coach is a bit annoying and I am super competitive.  When we got home that afternoon I was telling Colin how proud of him I was, and if they wanted to, his team could get a trophy.  Colin's response- "I really don't care if we win or lose, Mom.  I'm just happy to be playing with my friends and being better than I was last year".  Ah, the lessons we learn from children.

By the way, Colin's jersey spells out Moscow Youth Basketball League, and there is a picture of St.Basil's Cathedral on the front.  A pretty cool uniform I think!
I love our Christmas tree this year.  It is short and fat and has lots of personality.  And is it ever strong!  John pulled it down on Saturday night, and we put it right back up, no problem.  When Colin was John's age, my mom and I had that tree completely blocked from Colin.  And I was always in a panic that if somehow Colin did get near that tree, he would pull the tree over on himself and suffocate.  No such concerns anymore.  While Colin, Amalie, and Kathleen fussed at John, I just laughed and helped clean up the mess.

This is John's mad face at me after I put him in his highchair while we cleaned up the needles from the tree.  John does not like to be fussed at, and he does not like to be told no, so you can imagine the fun we have.
Finally,  I hope this Christmas story puts a little smile on your face:
Two weeks ago, while we were at mass, Jesy pointed a fellow out to me and said he thought he knew that man.  Yesterday, we met said man.  They served together in Iraq with the Louisiana National Guard.  And here they were, in Moscow, Russia, meeting up again for the first time since they served.  Our priest and the director of religious education were standing next to me during this meeting, and we all had goosebumps.  And I don't know, it just made me happy.  And grateful.  Happy and grateful that I love this man, and I love these four children. 
Merry Christmas!