Before we begin talking about our 2015 adventures we still need to share our European Christmas celebrations.
Boys school had put together a very lovely Christmas show - everybody, including teachers participated. The event was held in a facility that is located in the middle of old town square.
Twins class had prepared a Wombat Divine play. Tadas and his friend Réka from Hungary had shared a narrator roll. There were many lines to remember but they did an amazing job. Magnas was a kangaroo. He had no lines but he needed to do some acting and to have a costume that Jurgita sowed for him by hand the night before the play because the one we ordered on line didn't come in on time.
Camerons class had prepared a song: The Happiest Christmas Tree by Nat King Cole. They also did "Silent Night" - Cameron played xylophone.
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| Getting ready to sing "The Happiest Christmas Tree" |
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| Cameron and his best friend Rio. |
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| Cameron is playing xylophone in "Silent Night" |
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| Teachers and administration sang a song "When a Child is Born". |
We had a nice Christmas party at American Ambassador's house. Lot's of good food, wine, crafts for the kids to do and Santa came.
Our travels continued to Lithuania for Christmas. It's been over 20 years since Jurgita last celebrated Christmas with her family. Chris and the boys have never experience this holiday till now. So we packed out Volvo with presents and took an 8.5 hr. ride from northern Estonia, all the way through Latvia into southern Lithuania. I have to say that after Christmas Eve dinner our boys were left a bit hungry because they are not use to eating hearing, beet or mushroom dishes. They did like a traditional cold "Kleckuciu" soup. The easiest way to describe this soup is like American cereal with cold milk. Except that small bread balls are made without eggs and the liquid is made out of soaked poppy seeds that have been grinded to extract milk from them to make liquid white color. Sugar is added to make extra hummy:-)
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| This is Lithuanian Christmas Eve dinner. 12 meatless or dairy-free dishes. Dinner begins by sharing blessed communion wafers and a prayer or a wish/tost said by one or all family members. |
Christmas day Jurgitas mom made traditional Lithuanian potato cakes called "Bandos". The boys and Chris couldn't wait to see how they were made. So a bunch of potatoes get's peeled and grated to a fine mesh. Then the mesh is placed on a dried cabbage leave and it's placed in the wood burning oven to bake for about 1 hour. We also had a Lithuanian Santa come visit in the morning. That was the most energetic Santa that just wanted to dance with everyone:-)
The boys gave Lithuanian grandparents a silver christmas tree to plant in the back yard. They are excited to see how bigger it gets every time they visit them now.
We couldn't leave Lithuanian without a big party. Jurgitas uncle Pranas and his family had a house blessing party. We met at the new house for the blessing ceremony by a priest. Then went to a party hall to celebrate not only a new house but also an extended Christmas joy. We have never been to a house worming party like this before. It more looked like a wedding, but Jurgitas uncle said he wanted everyone to be able to get together at Christmas time and spend time together as family. We had entertainment by a "Christmas Ornament" character - who was dressed as Tele Tuby, Told jokes and make guests do silly things. Then we had a Santa come and bring every single guest a present. Not to mention that the party was MCed by a life band and for the finally there was life fire show outside and fire works. Spectacular!!!!
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