Reindeer Food: Not Intended for Human Consumption

Merry Christmas Eve!

There is definitely an added excitement this Christmas.  Although up to this point, Alyona has been "hard to impress", I think Christmas has finally started her engine! 

The morning was nothing spectacular- haircut for Reid, a trip to the grocery store, laundry and cleaning, baking, etc.  After lunch we busted out the gingerbread house kit, and ding, ding, ding...we have a winner!
Our intent was for it to be a family project (or at minimum, a project for the kids), but Alyona was pretty bent on doing it herself.   She was very meticulous, icing the house "just so", and definitely had a vision in her mind of what she wanted the house to look like.  And let's just say that Loren apparently didn't share that vision.   Although things started out OK, when it came time to decorate, Loren tried several times to add a piece of candy, but Alyona would remove it immediately and shout "No, Loren!"  Finally, she had had enough and just burst into tears.  Ugh.  That was a bummer.  Poor Loren so desperately wanted to make the house with Alyona, and Alyona didn't quite clue in that a 6 year old needs to be spoken to a bit more gently, and just wanted to help. 

After much snuggling,consoling, and explaining, Loren finally backed off and let Alyona do it herself.  She is very proud of her finished product!

We went to the 4pm "kid friendly" Christmas Eve service at church, and Alyona really seemed to enjoy the music.  She kept asking me to point to where we were in the program, which was cute since I knew she couldn't read any of it. 

After church, we headed to our annual Christmas Eve shindig at the Jarvis' home.  That was fun!  I was thankful that their niece came over, so Alyona wasn't the only kid there older than 10. She was a good sport and seemed very comfortable in the chaos!  She was (and is) quite independent, and just does her thing.  She took a special shining to the the Jarvis' 8 year old, which was cute.  I think he was smitten, too!

As is tradition, "Papa Powell" did his annual Twas the Night Before Christmas reading...which always has a twist!  This year, Rudolph was MIA, and Santa needed some substitutes.  Not knowing what was being said, I'm sure Alyona was completely confused!  She followed the lead of the other kids, and just rolled with it!  Does she even know who Rudolph is?!

 Papa Powell always gives each child a bag of Reindeer Food when they leave.  The girl who won't eat soup, pizza, salad, lasagna, ham sandwiches, or a burger, dove right into her bag of Reindeer food.  Ok, that she'll eat?!  We explained that the Reindeer food was to be scattered on the lawn when we got home.  She looked at me like I had two heads, and got in the van.  I Googled Translated "Americans are crazy", and she nodded.
When we got home and she saw our 3 scattering the food on the lawn, she followed suit!

Just a few minutes after we came inside, there was a knock at the door.  There were about 20 Christmas carolers (our neighbors) who stood there with candles and Santa hats, singing at the tops of their lungs.  Alyona gasped and grabbed her camera.  Perfect timing!

Like usual, she got ready for bed and headed up to her room with the Android to watch her Russian shows.  Only this time, she was shouting "Merry Christmas!" over and over, and even had a big hug for host mama.  A perfect ending to a wonderful day.