Our Russian Christmas Celebration...Jan 7, 2006

We had a great time celebrating Russian Christmas on January 7th. We take down all of our trees and decorations after our Christmas celebrations except for the ones in Evan's room, we leave those up for Russian Christmas so that Babushka can visit.

Babushka is a traditional Christmas figure who distributes presents to children. Her name means grandmother and the legend is told that she declined to go with the wise men to see Jesus because of the cold weather. However, she regretted not going and set off to try and catch up, filling her basket with presents. A snow storm covered their tracks and she never found Jesus, and that is why she visits each house, leaving toys for good children. Every year Babushka visits Evan and leaves a Russian book. She left, "A Little Story about a Big Turnip" Next year, we will hang the Russian Stocking that Judy Holmes picked up for us in Angarsk for Babushka to leave candy. It can be a little confusing so I pasted a little bit of Russian History at the bottom. Basically, Babushka visits on Christmas Eve and Ded Moroz and the Snowmaiden visit on New Year's Eve. You can read why below...it's pretty interesting.

We went to Dunwoody to visit Russian Calvary Church. We had a great time listening to the music and hearing Russian speaking voices. The sound of Russian voices will always warm my heart and take me back to a place where everything seemed so simple...no jobs, no obligations, no bills, (though it was all waiting for us) but just our family.

After church we went to the Groff's house. You've heard us mention them often. Their daughter Anicka and Evan were in the same groupa in the baby home in Irkutsk. There beds were right across from each other at one time and now they both live in GA. How amazing is God's plan for that!!!

Anyway, we attempted to have a traditional Russian Christmas meal. Russian Christmas is very ritualistic and was a lot of fun to attempt. Here is what we did...

I made Kutya (Kutia) and Kirsten made a Russian type soup. The Wimpy family was also there with their two sons from St. Petersburg. The Kutya is the primary dish and to be eaten fist. The ingredients symoblize hope, happiness and peace. We ate with white on the table to symbolize Christ's swaddling clothes. We brought hay as a reminder of the poverty where Jesus was born and a tall white candle is placed in the center of the Table, symbolic of Christ "the Light of the World." A large round loaf of bread, symbolic of Christ the Bread of Life, is placed next to the Candle.

As following our online instructions...Vince as the head of the household said the Lord's Prayer and a prayer of thanksgiving for all the blessings of the past year is said and then prayers for the good things in the coming year are offered. Vince then greeted us with the traditional Christmas greeting: "Christ is Born!" We responded by saying: "Glorify Him!" Then this we just said and didn't actually do... ;-) The Mother of the family blesses each person present with honey in the form of a cross on each forehead, saying: "In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, may you have sweetness and many good things in life and in the new year." This part we did...Following this, everyone partakes of the bread, dipping it first in honey and then in chopped garlic. Honey is symbolic of the sweetness of life, and garlic of the bitterness. The "Holy Supper" is then eaten.

We had a great time and the kids enjoyed playing with each other as always. It had been a few months since we had seen each other and Anicka and Evan have grown so much. It is very important to us that Evan's culture always remain a big part of him and we will never deny that. We are very open with him and his story and where he came from. We want him to learn lots about his Russian Heritage because after all...that's a big part of him.