Why I love Russians, a Tea Party and a homemade hair-do

We had our first of two Christmases this weekend. The in-laws came in and we had a lovely time celebrating with them. The kids got some really fun new gifts. Sloan has not taken this outfit off since he got it Friday night (except for church, at which point we told him he absolutely had to wear regular clothes):

Landon hates Sloan's new outfit, though, along with the Star Trooper helmet that he got so everytime Sloan comes out with one of the masks on, Landon scampers as fast as his pudgy little legs will take him into the arms of the nearest adult and holds on for dear life with this look on his face:

Sweet Katya got a cheerleader costume and a wedding dress costume. She has no idea what a cheerleader is (which I'm fine with) and when she opened it, she pulled out the poms poms and held them up and said, "It's eyeballs!" Lee doesn't like the idea of his little girl playing the bride and refuses to call this a wedding dress - he calls it her princess dress. I can understand and respect that. It weirds me out a little too to have my little girl playing "wedding." Yikes!

I took the kids to the Dollar store and let them pick out their own presents for the grandparents this year. I tried to guide them toward the practical while still giving them the freedom to choose the gifts themselves. Sloan did a pretty good job picking things out. Tia tried, sweet thing, but was very insistent on giving her Papa a small ceramic Zebra and her Bebe a wildly tacky vase. It truly was the thought that counted...

On Saturday, Sloan had his russian school New Year party. Russians don't celebrate Christmas the same way we westerners do. Their big celebration is on New Years with the Slavic Christmas being observed on January 6 (Sveta, correct me if I'm wrong). They do have a Santa Claus figure called, Dyed Moros, or Father Ice - which is very appropriate for us given the ridiculous temperatures we are experiencing right now. Dyed Moros also has a granddaughter named Snyegurichka who helps deliver the presents. I love russians and the way that they party. They have so much fun and it's so carefree. The adults get into it as much as the kids and laugh and sing and dance around and just all around have a great time. And, where else would you have a man dressed as some sort of forest witch pull out an accordian and start dancing and singing? Oh, and Dyed Moros came out singing and dancing as well. It was awesome. I just love that culture. (Incidentally, Sveta, I think I need some schooling on who the little forest witch and her sidekicks are that seem to be trying to foil Dyed Moros's New Year plans. It's a little confusing.) Another fun tradition they have is the kids dress in costume for this New YEar's party. Again, I don't really know why, but Sloan was thrilled because he didn't have to take his Power Ranger costume off. You know, because nothing says holiday cheer like a blue Power Ranger (or Optimus Prime - it might be a Transformer costume, I'm not 100% sure...) Anyway, here's a picture of the whole crew, minus the accordian playing forest man:

Afterwards, my mom, my mother-in-law, Tia and I went to a tea party at the Ladies of Lucerne Tea House.

I've mentioned before my love for tea parties and I was so thrilled to take Tia to her first. She did alright. It's a lot to ask of a near three year old to sit properly around fine china and enjoy scones and finger sandwiches, but she did very well considering. This tea was geared toward kids too so they had gingerbread cookies and p,b&j sandwiches and hot chocolate. It was a fun little girly afternoon. Of course, before we left, Tia decided that she wanted to fix her hair...without asking me for help...which as we all know leads only to disaster. A half a jar of hair gel later she walked out looking like this:

Needless to say a bath was necessary and after it was all said and done, she looked like this:She's my little doll. She's rotten, but she's a doll. Merry Christmas everyone! Have a blessed week.