Russian old New Year

Russia has two New Years. One falls on the January 1st and the other on the January 14. Russian Christmas comes on January 7. I grew up saying Happy New year and Merry Christmas. Such a discrepancy with the rest of Europe is due to late adaptation of Gregorian calendar.

Today we went to a Russian old New Year celebration at UVU. I enjoyed the food. Jeremy convinced me to enter a dance contest where we held a balloon between us. We had such a good time but got eliminated first because the balloon fell. Sonia loved watching a couple doing ballroom dance. She also loved Russian puppets.She watched intently Kolobok and Repka; two stories she knows really well because we read them almost everyday and she loved the show.

Then Babulya sneakily showed Sonia how to peek behind the curtain. I wanted to shout: "Mom what are you doing!"

Snegurochka (Santa's grand daugther) and Ded Moroz came with games, Russian traditional songs, horovod, and little gifts "podarki."

Sonia's second picture with Santa is a little better than her first one last year.

Last year she really didn't want to be around a strange guy with a white beard.