A Stolen Letter To My Children

So, someone shared a link on Facebook to a Mommy blog called Mrs. Gore's Diary.  I read it and it was good.  It was basically, like hey, being a stay at home Mom is hard, but remember, I signed up for this!  So basically saying, stop complaining about the hardness of motherhood and remember you want/wanted this!
Someone commented who was accidentally pregnant and said something like, why would anyone want to do this?  The author posted a link to a previous post she had written so the girl could see the joy in motherhood.  I loved it even more!  It is  called A Letter To My Children to read in 2030.
I'm going to steal part of it.  Not all of it is true for me, like she said before she had kids all she thought about was her beautiful hair, but once they were born she'd have shaved her head bald if they needed her to.  I never thought about my beautiful hair, (it's not) but I am not sure I would have shaved my head either!  Okay, if my kids REALLY needed it I would, but not without a few tears probably.
Anyway, here are the paragraph's that I am stealing, the ones that touched my heart and I agreed with - but I'm not taking credit for them, so it's not plagiarism right?  The first paragraph is probably my favorite.

Did you know that I liked to watch you when you didn’t know I was looking and study every curve and line of your face, sometimes while you were sleeping, sometimes while you were watching TV, sometimes when you were coloring? The Bible is right. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. I know it full well.
Did you know that I really didn’t care if you played sports or knew lots of poems or had the longest eyelashes…I just loved you and my favorite thing about you was that you were mine. You didn’t have to do anything to earn my love. It was your birthright, from Day 1.
Did you know that when I was grouchy with you I always felt conflicted on the inside? I couldn’t be happy in my grouchiness against you…it didn’t sit right with me, and so I worked really hard to get over it and enjoy you.
Did you know that I don’t know how I’m going to survive having you grow up? Seriously. If you go to college or get married and leave me, I’ll probably be dead by the time you read this.
Did you know that, in caring for you, I have found more fulfillment than I ever thought possible? Diamonds and fame and wealth are nothing with you under my wings. Nothing.
Did you know that God has used you to help me grow? I have never needed Him more or prayed to Him more or praised Him more or thanked Him more or confessed my failings more. He knew I needed you in order to know Him better.
Did you ever stop to consider how many times you got poop on my hand? Too many times to count. Just thought you should know.
Did you know that, even though you were tiny and young, you ministered to me so many times, and that when my heart was sad, your sweet hugs and your childish ways lifted me up?

Okay, this is me again, but I don't know how to change the font back to normal.  For some reason being pregnant for the 4th time in 6 years I have noticed that I feel a little more self-conscious about it.  If I lived in Utah with all the other quickly multiplying families maybe I wouldn't feel so awkward, but there are so few people in the foreign service who have 4 kids and somehow I feel like people are looking at me funny and thinking, oh, she's one of THOSE, or wow, is she crazy?  Don't they believe in birth control?  I don't know why I let those thoughts come to me, but I do and I'm trying not to worry about what other people think.  And ultimately, I don't.  I love being a Mom.  Sometimes I feel burdened by it and tired and frustrated and last night I had to ask Levin to give me 5 minutes of quiet downstairs after dinner.  BUT when I think of my sweet angels I can't imagine anything else.  I can't imagine my life without them and I love that every time I have a new baby my heart grows in size like the Grinch's and I am filled with more love for the other kids and more than I thought possible.  Here is to the greatest job ever!

Oliver Boliver Butt

I feel like I have been writing so many things about Leah lately that I need to write some things about this sweet kid, Oliver.  In a Dr. Seuss book about Too Many Daves there is a suggestion of naming one of them Oliver Boliver Butt.  So . . I may call Oliver that sometimes, but then I get reminded that we don't say butt.  Maybe that's why its fun to say.

The Sunday before Christmas I asked Levin to take a picture of the kids in their nice looking clothes.  Somehow I didn't get what I really wanted . . . . but oh well, its all we have.  Oliver's isn't even taken that day, but another day, but this is the outfit he wore.  Pretty handsome huh?

Now a few things about Oliver.
1.  Lately he is into the Why?  Mommy, look at me.  Cool, I say.  Then I get, "why did you say cool?" Why are we having pizza for dinner?  Why is the pizza cooking?  Why? Why? Why???  But I decided tonight part of having kids is teaching them, so I'm going to be more patient and try to TEACH him instead of saying, I don't know a million trillion times a day.
2.  At bedtime when I ask him what his favorite part of the day was and he can't think of anything he'll say, "my favorite part of the day was when I love you." And he gives me a big hug.
3.  Sometimes he wake up at night, usually after being in bed only an hour or two, and is bawling his eyes out!  You go down and ask what's wrong and when he finally calms down to talk he says, "I need water."  Whoah!  But of course I always get him some and then cuddle him for a minute so its not so bad.
4.  When he finishes a prayer and says Amen, he always ends it like he is ending a cheer and raises his hands above his head in victory.  Autumn is starting to mimic him.
5.  He still hums when he eats something really yummy.
6.  He hums when he wakes up at night and needs to get resettled.  Mostly this happens when we're sleeping in a hotel room all together.  I think it is Levin's snoring that wakes him up. :)  But he is so loud in a monotone hum and he twirls his hair while he does it.
7.  He used to twirl his hair when he got tired, but he is trying hard not to do it anymore.  I showed him how it made his hair stand straight up and so now when we comb his hair he says, "and I'll never twirl my hair ever again!"  He still does sometimes, but he honestly is tons better.  I guess he just had to make that choice on his own.
8.  He has been out of nursery at church for a couple of weeks and he misses it.  He even started calling it "church" and when I got confused he said, "church with the toys."  But at the time he was explaining it he was mad at me because I won't let him go anymore.  He does behave well enough in primary though.
9.  He used to be so shy, but I feel like that kid is gone!  He talks to strangers almost as well we Leah now.
10.  He loves LEAH!  He gets upset when he can't find her in the house.  He wants to wear the same type of shoes as her, he won't let me start reading his bedtime story without waiting for Leah, he even sometimes tries to find underwear in his drawer that looks like Leah's.  Yep, had to throw that one in there to tease him about when he's a teenager!  My favorite is sometimes he refers to her as "my Leah."
11.  He loves to get new clothes in the mail.  I guess because the girls need more clothes somehow, or when I order his I just get more of the same thing, I don't know.  BUT he is so sad if Leah gets a new shirt in the mail and he doesn't.  I have to beg Leah to try on her clothes, but he is always super anxious to try his on.  He doesn't always like them past the first day of them, but he always loves them at first.
12.  He changes his clothes multiple times a day.  It is below zero outside every day in  Moscow now and he wears shorts and a t-shirt as much as he can unless he really wants to go somewhere outside because he knows I won't let him go dressed like that.
13.  He is definitely a boy, even though sometimes he is so lovey dovey.  He definitely wants the boy colors of plates and cups unless he is REALLY hungry then he'll take whatever.  When Leah talked me into playing Barbies he grabbed a black truck and that was his "doll" with a personality.  His name was Car and he was our friend.  We played again a week or so later and he saw me agree to play and RAN over to get Car and joined right along.
15.  He starts every sentence to me with, "mom, can I tell you something?"  Sometimes it is, can you just follow me wherever I go?
16.  AND lastly, he is such a fun kid!  He is always up for going somewhere or doing something in the house and sometimes when I give him something he wants he'll say, Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

I love that boy!!  I told him I would miss him when he grew up and he said, we'll just have to get another little boy.  And we are!  Here is hoping his little brother is as fun as Oliver!  And as sweet.  He is the sweetest boy ever!  I'm trying to find other words to say though because no big kid wants their mom hugging them and saying, "you're the sweetest boy ever!" 

Trip to England

Russians take the entire first week of January off to celebrate New Years and Christmas.  We decided we didn't want to sit around getting lazy and fat so we decided to go to England and get lazy and fat.  Levin's brother lives near Cambridge University and we went to stay with them.  We spent a lot of time just around their house and going to all you can eat restaurants - big mistake said the scale when I came home.  Actually - I only went to one all you can eat, but my sister-in-law Siobhan, fed me well.

We weren't good at taking pictures around the house, but we did take a weekend trip to York and took some pictures near there when we visited some abbeys.  I've already forgotten the names.  When we go on trips I am just kind of along for the ride.  That is not to say Levin plans it selfishly.  The reason we came to visit these is because one of my favorite memories from mine and Levin's first trip to England before we were married was Tintern abbey.

If you want to learn history, don't learn it from my blog.  ha ha!  But a king was mad at the church and burned a bunch of abbeys in England so only the stone parts remain.  I just think they look so cool!  This one was by the coast which was kind of cool.

 My sister-in-law is always planned so well and so helpful.  She planned rain suits for our kids.  Leah wouldn't wear hers, but did borrow a cousins snow boots so her feet wouldn't be all wet.  Oliver wore his rain suit and some borrowed rain boots even though the suit was a little too small.  It was cold though, so he wore it.  I was shocked because normally anything Leah won't do, he won't do.   You have no idea how many times we've been ready to go out the door and he has to change his footwear when he realizes Leah is wearing boots and he's wearing shoes, or vice versa.  He always wants to be like Leah - or Yeah as he says it.

We went to a castle too.  I learned some interesting things about women.  They held the keys to the castle and in their training before marriage learned how to manage budgets, etc.  So women have always run the show. :)

We went to one more abbey - even larger and more impressive than the first.  Autumn was tired of always being in her car seat buckles or the stroller so we let her walk around at this one - she came out quite muddy.

We just need to photoshop Leah into this one.  She didn't want to go in at first.  She later went in with Aunt Siobhan and her cousin Lincoln and I stayed in and saw it with them too after Levin and the other two kids went out.

We did a lot of driving on this trip.  At first we had Autumn in the middle - not her usual spot - and she was a mess.  I think because she could see me she would cry for me a lot and also she had no window.  Finally we realized, she had to be in her normal spot where she is sitting behind a seat and can see out a window.  She was soooo much happier.  She was the happiest when she could hold my chap stick.
I wish I had a picture of it, and this picture below looks the opposite, but Leah and Oliver are so used to sitting by each other that when we first rearranged the seats and they were back to sitting by each other they just put their heads right near each other and looked so relieved to be back together.  This one below was taken another time.  Notice Leah is holding her "puke bin."  I don't think she ever used this, but she used plenty of bags before we got this.  Only one time did she not get a bag in time - once when I wasn't in the car.  I am pretty good at checking in on her and I am sure Levin and Lincoln got to talking and forgot to check in on her and she was probably too shy to ask for a bag.

We went to teh London temple our last day there - yeah, I know, no pictures.  Lame.  We got there and I needed to rush in, then Levin and I had to switch really fast so he could catch the next session and by the time he go out we were hungry and bored and it was dark.  But it was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  We hadn't been since Ukraine last February so it was nice.  And there was no blizzard to keep us trapped there like in Ukraine either!
*On a side note, thank heavens we went to the Kiev temple last winter and not this winter with all of the protests!

I can't believe these are all the pictures we took.  Autumn loved being near her cousin Eileen and Preston wa terrified she'd step on her - with good reason.  Autumn's cast came off.  I got to eat a steak one night and another night Papa John's pizza!  We went swimming in the hotel in York.  I only went one night, but the kids and Levin went both nights.  The church branch we visited inYork was the friendliest I've ever been to.  Lincoln and Siobhan have a little insert, maybe to hold fireplace tools, in their living room wall and Autumn loved to go sit in it.  We called it her chair and we'd tell her go sit there and she would.  She was good child proofing practice in their house for when Eileen gets more mobile - breaking jars of gravy, etc.  Siobhan and Lincoln are excellent hosts.  One thing I hope to gain from my sister-in-law is her ability to anticipate any need you might have and help you fill it.  So great!
My only regret was the only day we were near the Taco Bell on one of the military bases, it was New Years so it was closed.  :(  Oh well, it gives me something to look forward to in America in just 3 months!

Masha and Medved Circus

Gosh, we are bad at taking photos!  A few days after Christmas we took the kids to a Masha and Medved.  I don't know how to write an "e" sound for the and.  It is a cute Russian cartoon and they were doing a circus.  Our kids like the cartoon and we like the circus and we regretted not going last year.  We got to the expo center and WOW!  Maybe you can see all the craziness behind me and Autumn.  There was face paiting, toys, cotton candy, rides, tons of stuff.  Then we went inside for the circus.  The circus was . . . . boring and lame.  But the atmosphere before it was fun.

I wish we had more pictures, but we don't.  Levin, Autumn and Oliver didn't make it through the end, but Leah wanted to finish so I finished with her.  The best part was they had this part where snow bunnies came out and danced.  Then a man came to the top of the stairs and handed these HUGE, but soft, balls to throw down to have crowd members bop it up.  We were in the last row and he just handed one to Levin.  Levin just kind of tossed it down and it totally whacked this guy in the back of the head.  I still laugh thinking about it.

I'm glad we went because otherwise we'd always say, oh we should have. BUT I'm not recommending it to my friends.  The regular circus is better even though they don't have quite the fanfare on the outside.  But the fanfare stuff was all expensive anyway. 

Christmas

Levin took some videos, but I can never get videos to post on my blog anymore . . so, we only have a few pictures.

 Santa brought Autumn that shopping cart behind her.

 Santa brought Oliver this car racing track and his coveted, "gun that shoots pieces" aka a Nerf gun.  Santa actually brought 4 of those so we could have family wars.  Which we did, just last night.  For Family Home Evening, Levin taught a lesson on Captain  Moroni and building up fortifications against our enemies.  Leah and I went in the Dining Room and built a fort to protect our Fruity Pebbles box and Levin and Oliver built one in the living room to protect their Lucky Charms box.  Then the other team would attack and if they shot the box they won.  It was actually a lot of fun.

 Leah got this cash register - how fitting that Autumn got the shopping cart.  It is a Barbie cash register.  Autumn was a lot more interested in the other kids presents than her own which was a little problematic, but I think we mostly got over it.

 Another present Leah got was a magic scientist set.  She and Levin went through all the potions/experiments pretty fast, but had a lot of fun doing it.  It came with this sweet hat she made.

Both of the kids got a dinosaur bones game.  Mrs. Claus obviously wasn't consulted much on this one.  It was MESSY.  Actually this wasn't from Santa so let's just say, I wasn't consulted much.  They worked on this one together and the other one is waiting in a closet for a warm day to do it outside.  You excavate the bones and then build a dinosaur. 

The kids got tons of other presents that we don't have pictures of.  One of my favorites was Autumn got the Sleep Kittens book feature on the movie Despicable Me and Santa brought the DVD of Despicable Me 2.  I would document everything they got, but then everyone would see how spoiled they are. 
One of my favorite presents was a coupon book Levin gave me, "good for one whole day of mucky diapers" or "one upstairs cleaning" type of coupon book.  Oh, and did I pick a good day for the mucky diapers!  Levin, bless his heart, reminded me as we could see the leakage up Autumn's back that I could use my coupon.  And she had another one not much later!  She hasn't had those kind of diapers for months and months.  I was pretty happy with my coupon book that day!
I don't know what present Levin liked most, but I did get him a lasso.  I think he was jealous of the one Oliver got for his 3rd birthday.
Funny because with Autumn's surgery looming, we didn't think it was a very fun Christmas, but looking back at the pictures and remembering the fun we've had with the presents then and since, I have warm memories.  I am already looking forward to next Christmas!  Cross your fingers we can enjoy it without any medical doctors!

Autumn's Christmas Eve Excitement . . Uh . . Injury

Christmas Eve morning everyone was grumpy - I mean everyone!  Autumn was crying over everything, the other kids weren't playing nice, they were fighting.  I was worrying about some stuff and was busy online and not being the most attentive mother.  Leah was mad that Autumn was trying to get at her stuff and so I told her, go down stairs, shut the door, and play in your room.  She was going so slowly down the stairs that Autumn was catching up.  I said, go fast, but DO NOT SLAM THE DOOR!  I was quite clear about it because Leah has been known to be a door slammer.  Then I went back to what I was doing. I heard a door close and then a door SLAM.  The thought in my head was:  Why would Leah close her door, re-open it to slam it right after I said not to.  I was a little mad. 

But before I could think too much, I heard blood curdling cries from Autumn.  I went running downstairs and there was Autumn crying her heart out, in only a shirt and a diaper (don't remember why she didn't have pants on) and blood  - a lot.  Just to be honest, I started yelling.  I was so mad at Leah for slamming her door and Leah opened her door, but wouldn't come out and kept closing her door saying I can't come out!  I wanted Leah to get me the phone so I could call Levin to come home, I needed to get shoes on, I needed to get a towel, I needed to stop the blood, I didn't know what to do.  I finally got Leah to walk around the blood and then she was fine.  I went to get a towel and then I saw Oliver come out of his room - I thought he was upstairs.  I told him to walk around the blood.  He and Leah were so helpful!  They got me pants, a new diaper that wasn't covered in blood and a towel.  I was getting upset Levin wasn't answering his phone and Autumn had played with the house phone so it was off the hood somewhere I couldn't find.  Autumn stopped crying and I suddenly felt so much  more compassion for her!  She just hugged onto me quietly and I realized I hadn't been doing much to comfort her.  I completely calmed down then.  Levin finally called me and asked what the emergency was.  When I said, "part of Autumn's finger is cut off!" he came running home.  I passed him at the front door as I ran down to the Embassy medical unit and he came home to watch the other kids - and thank heavens, clean up the blood.

Autumn wouldn't let me cover her hand so my sweater became a human band-aid I guess.  At the medical unit - she didn't cry once!  She let htem look at and clean her finger a little.  She fell asleep whyile they bandaged it up and only stirred and let out a little whine when the nurse pressed a little hard.  Then she went right back to sleep.  We had to go to the European Medical Center to get an x-ray to make sure no bone was damaged and see about plastic surgery.  Levin came and met us there.  When Autumn woke up and turned and saw him there she got a huge smile and turned around.  She saw the bandage on her hand and acted like, hey, look at this cool thing!!  I honestly feel with all my heart angels were with her.  A few days later I hurt my finger on a stupid Russian toilet flusher and could not believe Autumn wasn't crying more, my finger hurt for a long time!

We rode to the children's clinic and Autumn was so happy.  The x-ray showed no bone was hurt and they said we'd go to the hospital and have surgery at 6 that night.  

We came home, made sure Donna could keep watching the other kids - so great to let them be there on Christmas Eve!  Autumn and I changed out of our bloody clothes, we took turns hiding from Autumn and eating because she wasn't allowed to eat or drink.  Then we went to the hospital.

At the hospital we met with a plastic surgeon and an attending physician.  They took a picture on an iPhone, looked at it and acted disappointed we didn't have the "piece" that was cut off.  Then said, "I promise you we can do the surgery by tomorrow."  Nice promise.  We went back out and later they came and told us to come Christmas Day at 3 (or was it 4 pm) and have the surgery.

One fun thing was we had to go give them some blood for some lab tests.  They took a ton!  Autumn did finally cry then.  Then they said we needed a urine sample.  We looked at them like, uh, how do you expect us to get that.  They gave us some dumb things to put inside her diaper.  Autumn hadn't had anything to drink since before the incident that morning because they wanted her ready for surgery.  

We gave her water to drink immediately, but before we got home it was in her diaper I guess.  Then I missed one on the carpet . . . it made for a stressful Christmas Eve!

The Embassy doctor's daughter has babysat for us a couple of times recently, so she brought us some cookies which were perfect to leave for Santa because we'd been supposed to make his cookies that afternoon.  Leah and Oliver didn't seem to feel cheated because they love the Dunsons so much I think they were plenty happy to have spent Christmas eve there.  We put the kids to bed early and hoped for Autumn to pee in the potty chair.

Oh, one interesting thing - while I was retelling the story I had a memory of Oliver coming out of his room.  I had to know about the piece of finger Levin said he didn't find.  I came home and found it.  I made Levin touch it and put it in a bag in case the surgeon wanted to look at it because he'd said he wanted to.  We knew it wouldn't be reattached or anything.  I found it - and not by Leah's door, but the other door.  I'd been feeling wracked with guilt for yelling at her anyway and then especially when I realized she might not have even done it!  I felt even worse now.  We told Leah it wasn't her fault, but she didn't believe us for a while.

Back to Christmas Eve.  Finally Levin put her in a garbage sack (around her legs) and he and she went to sleep on the recliner.  They slept that way most of the night with me taking one little shift.  Nothing all night long and I felt so sorry for her in that garbage bag!  But the next morning she sat on the potty chair and I think the best Christmas present was she went!!  

We had a fun Christmas morning with the kids.  Ruby came to babysit them.  She is here with no family, dog sitting for another family, and going to the Dunsons later to take the kids to Christmas dinner that we were supposed to get to be at.

Here is Autumn Christmas morning.

 Here she is eating her last meal before surgery.

 
 We went to the hospital and they put us in a hospital room with a bed you know and we waited.  The head doctor (not surgeon) and our attending physician came in and said we'd be spending the night.  That was a surprise!  He mocked us for bringing the finger, but the attending physician who was with the surgeon took a picture of it.  Finally they came back to take her away.  I walked her up to the room and then they made he hand her over.  It was not fun or easy!  Oh, we had met with the anesthesiologist too.  But still not the surgeon!  He said he'd give her a small dose and she'd be out 30-45 minutes.  An hour later they came to get me to go collect her.
She was screaming!  I felt horrible and when I got her she still didn't calm down.  The anesthesiologist told me everything went well.  Still no surgeon.  They tried to have me put her in the bed to roll her down to our floor, but she was going to roll off she was trying to get to me and I wanted to hold her so I carried her down.  As we got back to our room I realized her fingers were bunching out of the cast and no wonder she was in pain.  The nurses ran back to tell someone while I held my sad baby whose finger had completely slipped out!  We were so mad!  She had a cast up past her elbow, but the part that had surgery on it, her finger, was out of the cast!  It hadn't even been a full year since Leah's bad cast incident so were like, man Russians are stupid with casts!  She started to drift to sleep when they came back and said to take her back up.  The anesthesiologist took her form me upstairs. An hour later they rolled her into our room asleep.  That anesthesiologist must know the exact dose to give because she woke up 60 seconds later and wanted me.  She was a little fussy, but not screaming!  She had on a full cast - no holes for fingers to escape!  We waited an hour I think before the attending physician came down and talked to us for a minute.  Levin left and I made sure she'd had some pain medicine.  They said I could give her ibuprofen at bed time.  So we watched an iPad show and then got some Motrin.  Once she got it, she was drowsy, but it took her a while to fall asleep tossing and turning on her bed - the narrow hospital bed.  I had to share with her even though they brought me one, but the rails were low and Autumn wouldn't lay down without me.  We had a pretty good night sleep considering she kept whacking her cast on the rails and I was a little scared for my face.
My prayers were answered and Autumn slept in.  I was worried how to entertain a 1 year old in a little hotel room.
No one visited us the entire night so I have no idea why we had to stay the night.  I'm used to America where every time you turn around they are checking your vital signs.  The next morning at 9 the whole crew of doctors for the floor visited us.  We never saw the surgeon.  I called back our attending physician and begged him to let us go early.  They ahd said we'd stay until noon at the earliest.  He complied and within 30 or 40 minutes we had paperwork signed, bill, and we were set to go.  I was elated.  It made up for the bad job they did on the cast.
As for the surgeon I guess he was "too good" to talk to us, but we did hear he is the best hand surgeon in Russia.  Who knows what that means.
Levin had taken the day off and just went into work for a minute so that we could play games and all the presents with our kids that we felt we got cheated out of Christmas Day.

Autumn used her cast as a weapon sometimes. :)  Trying to keep it clean and not nasty was a challenge since she is at that stage of feeding yourself and getting it all over your body.  But we managed.  She was such a trooper!
We went to England on vacation and so we planned on getting the cast cut off there.  She had the cast 9 days.  Two days before the appointment it fell off!  I was a little shocked!  We kept her from picking at the scab by putting a bandage and a sock on her arm.  The doctor there said it looked okay, but he was a bone doctor, not plastic surgeon.  We have to keep it covered up so the scab can heal and everything can't get infected, but that can be done with a little bandage and tape.  By now - Jan 27th - we just have a little band-aid on it looks like we will only need that for a little longer.  And I think, fingers crossed, that it's actually going to look pretty normal!  Yea!  She is very good about keeping it covered.  When one band-aid falls off she brings it to me and holds up her finger so I can put a new one on.
Well, we've learned one thing - not to slam doors.  Leah is an angel about it, Oliver is still learning.
Leah and I had a good talk one night where we explained it wasn't her fault.  Before she hadn't believed me and I didn't know why, that night she said, "then why was Autumn and the blood outside my door."  I guess her 5 yr old brain didn't figure out that her door and Oliver's door are right next to each other, especially Oliver's hinge side of the door.  So I think she isn't as traumatized by it anymore and Oliver seems to be unaware, although we make a point not to be mean or accusing of it to him.
Here is hoping we never have to deal with hospitals again.  I'm sure we will someday, but lets at least get out of Russia first.  And especially no more Russian casts!

One More Christmas Party - Singles Party

Every year since Levin was in the bishopric we have hosted a Christmas dinner for the singles in our ward or people whose spouse is in another country.  Basically it is the Africans and Philippinos and this year we had a few Russians with the missionaries too.  This was our 3rd and last year.  We have always been lucky to have helpers who will help us escort them (we are only allowed 6 visitors each with our Embassy badge) and cook some food.  This year we have two less families living at the Embassy to help cook a turkey or ham and I was kind of worried, but just in the nick of time the Hydes moved in and in a disposable pan (since their shipment hadn't come yet) they cooked a turkey for us.  What good sports!  We also had two other families, the Murri's and the "other Flakes" come help escort and the Murri kids even babysat my kids at home.
As has been noticed, I'm sure,  I am a horrible photographer - but here are some of the guests.  Of course I went down ten minutes late with the gravy, worrying so much, and NO ONE was there yet.  African time meant even here when these people were eating *late* we had about 20 more guests show up after this.

 We had more guests than in previous years so Levin didn't offer for them to take the leftovers home, there wasn't enough and we didn't want people to get offended.  But I think I will alway last year when Vincent took the turkey carcass home in a grocery bag.

 We played Pictionary.  It is a lot of fun to watch them guess and get so involved.

 Take me back to Nigeria! I had to get a picture of this guys sweet clothes.  Seriously, it has been so interesting because when we move home from Russia I will have gotten to know way more Africans than Russians and I swear we will have as many Nigerian friends that we met here as we did in Lagos.  I like to think that was one reason we went to Lagos to prepare us for the connections we have made here.  All the Americans wanted a picture of this guy, but no one would ask, so I did.  Where did I get my bravery from? Too bad it turned out so blurry, but I had it on a wrong setting I think and I hated to make him pose too long, although I think he secretly enjoyed it.