Two little faces

We were given this ornament in 1983 to commemorate the birth of our twin daughters. It’s still one of my favorites.
Someday I’ll have to write about the woman who gave it to us. In a nutshell, she was one of many British children who were sent to America during World War II. [...]

Read Full Post »

Jeem

Jim has received many penguins — books, stuffed animals, erasers, suspenders, pajamas, you name it — but this is one of the favorites. This particular Christmas we had felt the call to move to Ukraine, and many of us spoke to each other in pitiful fake Russian accents.
Our friend Lynne could not [...]

Read Full Post »

Treat your mother right

Jim has been singing bits and pieces of this song throughout the day. Typically at least one of our children would bring this up on Mother’s Day. So what a surprise to realize that it’s on YouTube! (Why didn’t I know that earlier? Don’t know. I just knew the music [...]

Read Full Post »

New Year’s trees

Okay, you can either turn your laptop on end. Or you can just turn your head to the side. I have a couple short videos of New Year’s trees, but I totally forgot that I couldn’t hold the camera vertically while filming…and I can’t rotate them. Soooo, fair warning:
First is the tree [...]

Read Full Post »

New Year’s Eve

A few sights around Kyiv…
The New Year’s tree on Maidan Nezalezhnesti (Independence Square) with the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Music in the background:

Looking down Khreshchatik Street (the main road in Kyiv):

(I just tried to put two 30-second videos of New Year’s trees, but I couldn’t make them work. Ugh. I’ll try to put them [...]

Read Full Post »

Zhek notice

Periodically we find posted to the apartment-building door various notices written by the Zhek. The Zhek is the person in charge of how everything runs in the building. He is the one that you go to with requests to have water temporarily turned off during remodeling or any emergency situation. (Like when [...]

Read Full Post »

That time of year — Day 22-25

It’s not like I didn’t have anything to post. It was just a matter of finding the time to upload the pictures and actually write a post. Soooo, here are some other signs of the times here leading up to Christmas.
Some of my all-time favorite Christmas books. With a new addition from last [...]

Read Full Post »

That time of year — Day 21

We only have a few good days that we can actually wear Christmas sweaters — you wouldn’t want to be too early…and you can’t possibly wear them AFTER Christmas. (Unless you live in Ukraine and you celebrate Christmas both in December AND January!)
My dad absolutely loved dressing his wife and daughters in [...]

Read Full Post »

That time of year — Day 20

Today featured the best snow of the year! The kind of snow that is steadily coming down…with the outside temperature not so cold that you can’t enjoy it. The kind of snow that just makes you want to be out in it.
Tonight Jim chose the Christmas movie of the night: not surprisingly, [...]

Read Full Post »

That time of year — Day 19

December 19 is celebrated in Ukraine as St. Mykola Day. Children anticipate chocolate or special cut-out cookies, so I did some baking before I went to visit my special friends in the hospital — only three were in the room on Friday. Have I mentioned lately what a treat it is for me [...]

Read Full Post »