Chritmas Lights, parties, and a budding photographer

We have been having a lot of fun this Christmas season!

Last Friday we drove out to the Lake Lanier Magical Nights of Lights with our friends Webb and Lindsey to check out a fabulous light display.

We saw fun animals, like this ba-jraff, a favorite of Melody's.

And this tractor

Scenes from famous movies like Aladdin

and the Wizard of Oz!

Afterward, in the village area, we braved the cold long enough to ride a few rides

and some of us wanted to see Santa.  Some of us did not.

On Saturday we attended New Horizons' welcome party.  Sasha was excited to see some of the children from his school and it was fun to see/hear him running around, talking excitedly in Ukrainian.  Now I guess we got a little taste of how he feels all day while we're running around chattering in English!

We also got to meet some of the chaperons, like Igor here.  He has a pretty amazing and inspirational story that I will share on a later post. 

and if that wasn't enough, we also attended our church's live nativity.  Sasha took this picture of Jack with a sheep.

He also took about a million other pictures.  In 24 hours, he blew through two disposable cameras I gave him and then moved onto my camera.  That, combined with his love of all sports, makes me think a career as a sports paparazzi might be in his future.

We've had Sasha with us for over a week now.  


I'll admit the first few days were rough for me.  It was emotionally challenging and the language barrier was especially getting to me.  However, with each passing day, Sasha's English has improved.  His comprehension is really good and I can usually get my point across with minimal confusion.  In the past few days he's started speaking more in English as well.  And he's taught us some Ukrainian.  Jack, Melody, and Charlie are learning how to count and I can say 'cow', 'dog', and 'thank you'.   Does this make us multi-cultural now?  :)


We are looking forward to Christmas (only 2 days as my kids remind me every 2.4 seconds) with Sasha.  Tonight my brother, Ben, and his girlfriend, Bekah, are flying into town.We already have quite a stash under the tree but hopefully Santa will find room to add a few more.


Merry Christmas Eve!