Have a Holy Moly Christmas (as Misha says)

New Year's Eve arrived at last, and Misha reveled in the idea that Dyed Moroz was coming that very night. We took some more pictures in front of the tree, 

admired the decorations at the Vefa Center, 

and finished last-minute gift-wrapping. Since wrapping paper is only found in certain places and it's a bit expensive, we only bought a small amount. For many of the presents, I recycled Sebby's beautiful and numerous drawings to use as Christmas wrapping. It worked extremely well, and Sebby was proud to have his work displayed in such a manner, never forgetting to point out that "Sebby do it!"

We left the cookies by the tree and the kids went to bed with bottled-up excitement  - and visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads.

At some point during the night, the scene in our living room changed to this.

Misha was the first one up at 8 a.m. He came bounding into our dark room, chattering in a voice that couldn't quite be contained by his attempted whisper, "Mom, Santa CAME! There are MORE presents! And one of them is wrapped in Calvin and Hobbes paper ! Wait, let me go see if the cookies are gone!" Off he dashed, quickly returning to announce, "They're GONE! He ate them ALL! And the stockings are full! And they're on the GROUND, Mom! Come see!" 

Having stayed up far too late, Josh and I were exhausted, but I dragged myself out of bed to keep Misha from opening everything himself. He was ready to rip right into the Calvin-and-Hobbes-covered package, knowing full well that inside was the Hobbes I made for him that he had decided he really wanted a few weeks before Christmas. When he saw the tail that I had purposely left poking out from the package, he said, "Look! It looks JUST like him!" He also started test-driving the remote-control car that Santa left by his stocking. Appreciating the quick steering response of the car, he said reverently, "It must be made with magic!"

He then began peering into his stocking. To slow him down a bit, I told him we should wait for Daddy, and that he should go wake up Sebby. On a normal day, Sebby wakes up so slowly that I usually have him completely dressed and am putting on his coat and boots by the time he opens his eyes. But when Misha shook him awake exclaiming, "Sebby, wake up! Santa came!" that little boy hopped right out of bed and went running so quickly toward the living room that he crashed right into my legs and fell down. Without stopping to cry, he jumped up and charged into the living room asking, "Where's Santa? Where's Santa?" Misha had to explain that he wasn't there - but the stockings were.

Josh staggered out to join us as the boys dumped out their stockings to find toys and candy. Misha got his laser light and Sebby got a mini flashlight. Sebby downed at least three chocolate bars before we managed to stash the remaining candy up high for later.

Then we moved on to the presents. Sebby loved ripping open the packages, no matter whose they were. The only thing that was able to halt his relentless unwrapping mission was a Santa coloring book. After opening it, he ran out of the room, returned with his box of crayons, laid down on the floor, and started coloring.

On to the photos. Here are a few highlights:

First order of business - opening Hobbes

Misha and Hobbes

Sebby with his new bear, just like Misha's Growl

Driving the remote-control car

 A little dragon Misha drew for me

Opening books with Sebby

Sebby with his new flashlight and spiffy Spiderman tights

Westlandia - a fabulous book from Aunt Tanya

The game that Misha and I made for Daddy, modeled off the Munchkins Board Game, with rooms to explore, monsters, treasure, and more.

.

Opening their presents from our friend Saule ...

... to reveal adorable sweater vests she knitted :)

Sebby modeling his sweater and checking out his zoo sticker book

a new puzzle

Sebby's Dr. Seuss matching cards from Grandma and Grandpa

All-purpose little Legos to beef up Misha's collection

Sebby with his Santa coloring book.

My big surprise: I opened a little present that said "For Mom" to discover a balloon, inside of which was a piece of paper containing a pick and a note: "Ask Misha to bring you your present." Misha ran off and came back with a guitar!

The Story of Hobbes

Since about age four, Misha has enjoyed having Calvin and Hobbes comics read to him from time to time before bed. We brought several of the books with us to Kyrgyzstan, so we have been reading a lot of Calvin's adventures lately. A few weeks before Christmas, Misha told me that he really wanted his very own Hobbes this year. When I told him that Hobbes just isn't sold in stores, he was undeterred, and knowing I couldn't let him down, I decided to make one. Meanwhile, Misha spent his time preparing for Hobbes' arrival. He made origami clubhouse hats for himself and for Hobbes, as well as treasure maps and telescopes. He even drew a "Misha and Hobbes" cartoon. In his room, he taped up a little sign for Hobbes that read, "Come heer on Day 25." (He was originally hoping that Hobbes would make it by Christmas so he could participate in the New Year festivities with the family, but I didn't get around to it in time.)

I made a trip to Madina Bazaar, a large market known for having everything from fabric and sewing machines to insulation and building materials. There I found an amazing array of fabric and I easily found soft, strong, non-fraying material for making a Hobbes. I also got a half kilo of cotton stuffing, which, as it turns out, is an awful lot. During Misha's last morning at school before the break, I spent four hours cutting, sewing and stuffing, just barely finishing in time to go pick up the boys.

Here he is all cut out and ready to be sewed. I drew the stripes on with permanent marker.

The end result!

I wrapped him in Calvin and Hobbes paper, printed from our computer, with his tail peeking out. (Josh added the sock.)

Happily, Misha thought Hobbes was just right. He only requested one modification - claws on his paws drawn with marker. Check!

Of course, fulfilling the prophecy of my parents and sister, Sebby wanted one too. So the next day, to keep the peace, I made a second Hobbes. This one went a little faster, since I had two helpers to turn limbs and stuff them. As I worked, Sebby kept popping over to see my progress, saying happily, "Sebby's Hobbes! Not Misha's." 

When he was done, Sebby clutched his Hobbes in a tight hug, and now he carries him around everywhere.

Everywhere.

Now that it's winter vacation, we are spending quiet days at home, playing with new toys, reading new books, eating a lot of pancakes, and enjoying the snow in the afternoons.

Sebby explores the fluffy, freshly-fallen snow.

Misha gives Sebby a lesson in snowball-making.

There's not a lot of snow to work with, but Misha managed to create a small snowman! 

Happy New Year!

Presenting Misha the Snowman

Since New Year is the focal point of the season here, school children don't even start their vacation until around Dec. 28. That fact plus our work schedule, the cold weather, and being sick made us decide to celebrate our Christmas on New Year as well, thus magically gaining an extra week to do Christmas shopping. It wasn't hard to explain to Misha that Dyed Moroz (Father Frost, aka Santa) comes on Dec. 31 in Kyrgyzstan. All the children here have to wait until then for their presents.

Even so, we did let the boys open a few presents on Christmas Day, and we enjoyed a breakfast of snowman-shaped pancakes.

On Wednesday, I got to see the results of Misha's much-anticipated, much-rehearsed Novi God (“New Year”) school program. It was adorable! (I am aware that I am probably biased).

Before the big event, we had to buy Misha a white shirt and white pants to wear under his snowman costume. We found a good shirt, but to Misha's dismay, we could only find grey pants in our last-minute shopping run. However, we discovered that if we turned them inside out, the soft white lining looked just like snow. With Misha appeased, we took his white clothes to school the next day. I sent Misha off to his classroom, only to have him come running back out saying that his teacher wanted to talk to me. Oh great, I thought. (His teacher is a nice Russian lady, and Russian people in my experience are extremely blunt.) Didn't you bring any white tights? she asked in Russian. I confessed that the only pants we could find were these sweatpants. She looked at the pants and gasped in surprise, "Ani na-iznyanku, chto-li?!" (which would translate rather like, "You meant to tell me they're inside-out?!") -- to which I explained that Misha and I thought they looked nice and snowy. She paused and said, “Nu, da, mojet-bit.” (Well, yes, maybe.) In the end, they worked out perfectly. After all, it's only a party for six-year-olds and their own parents!

My cute little snowman

Santa, Kyrgyz style

Misha and his partner performed a Snowman Dance

All the kids in Misha's class were dressed up in various costumes, from mini Santas to snowmen to animals and even pirates. The teaching staff also dressed up to give the performance its own Dyed Moroz (Father Frost), Sniegurichka (Snow Girl, the granddaughter of Father Frost), Baba Yaga (the Russian witch of folktales), a snow-woman, and an animated bag of toys. The kids sang and danced and remembered their choreography quite well! This time, Misha was able to sing along much better now that he has learned more Russian, and it was easy to tell he really enjoyed doing the songs and dances. At the end of the show, Dyed Moroz reached into his bag of toys and gave each child a big bag of candy and a game. 

This is a short clip from their performance. They sing, "Ni zamyorz! Ni zamyorz! Ni adin iz nas. Dyed Moroz, Dyed Moroz, greyet nas sechas" - (Don't freeze, don't freeze, not one of us. Father Frost, Father Frost, warms us up right now.)

Afterward in the hustle and bustle of parents collecting their children and getting them changed back into their normal clothes, Misha whispered to me conspiratorially , “Mom, do you know who that Dyed Moroz REALLY is? He's our teacher, the one who teaches us the dances!” He is firm in his belief that the real Santa is indeed out there, although his questions are getting more detailed, like his recent query, “Is Santa really real, or does he have an airplane?” Way back in summer, he came up with one that still makes me smile: “Do the elves make ALL the toys, or only the wooden ones?”


A few other cozy moments:

Sebby loving his hot cocoa.

Little watercolor painters

Misha's masterpiece

A moment of peace: brothers watching the Grinch.

We have just witnessed the craziest fireworks display we have ever seen at midnight. People have been setting off firecrackers all day, gradually increasing as the hour grew later, but nothing could have prepared us for 12:00. We watched open-mouthed from our window as some people shot Roman candles directly from their apartment windows while other groups of people spread out below to blast firecrackers across the small courtyard. Little children as young as five and six clutched firecrackers as long as their arms. Huge city fireworks lit up the sky in green and red in the background as misfired balls of sparks went spitting across the lawn, crashing into our building and exploding. Car alarms went off left and right from the jolts of deafening explosions. A mini hot-air balloon drifted as high as the 9-story building across from us before catching fire, falling rapidly, and burning out from its position stuck in a tree. This went on for more than half an hour, with intermittent firework fun continuing the rest of the night. Thank goodness for winter and cement buildings!

Today, Josh and I finished last-minute wrapping, while Misha conspired with Daddy about my presents and then conspired with me to finish up our secret gift for Daddy that we've been working on for quite some time. We also made oatmeal chocolate-chunk cookies, some of which we left out for Santa. I asked Misha, “Do you think Santa needs one or two?” “Mom, he's HUNGRY! I think he needs four!” was his response.

Now the boys are sleeping peacefully (they missed the midnight madness), and Josh and I are looking forward to watching them discover their stockings and toys in the morning.