O Christmas Tree

Yay for the holidays! We finally have a nice apartment that we can actually enjoy and we finally have essential things like a dining table/chairs so that we can have people over. Decorating is. . . slowly happening. I have a photo wall of family/memories that I'm slowly growing so not every wall is bare.

My true joy of this season is FINALLY having a for-real, adult Christmas tree. I've had a mini-tree since childhood and a tree each Christmas, but Sasha and I haven't yet had a regular family tree. I really wanted to get a live tree, but when I realized that it would be up from Thanksgiving to mid-January (old New Year) and the thought of needles (not to mention getting rid of a tree in an apartment complex), I re-considered. So my one outing on Black Friday was to Target to get a tree for $25. Sure, it isn't the fanciest artificial tree, but it sure is cute in our living room. You caught glimpses of it in the cans for comments post and my family photo from yesterday, but it was only yesterday (two days after Christmas that the decorating was completed.



The best part? I can finally use all my ornaments!! I have been collecting beautiful glass ornaments since my first Christmas in Ukraine. Some I bought in Ukraine, some in Prague, some in the US. But they are all beautiful and I LOVE them!


The first two are Santas: one from Ukraine and one silly Santa I got at Target today. The next row are also from Eastern Europe: a hippo from Prague and a monkey from Ukraine (the first ornament for my future tree that I bought--to ring in the year of the monkey). The last row has a cute snowman and a beautiful seal that my mom bought us this year.

The other great part? Our tree will be up to enjoy for at least 2 more weeks. Trees only go up around now in Ukraine and they stay up for New Year's (they're called New Year's Trees) and through Orthodox Christmas on January 7. So my little lighted joy will stay lit for a while more.

I'll try to post a bit about how we celebrate the next holidays. We're still in the process of building family traditions since it is only Sasha and I celebrating. It is kind of exciting to be able to do that and not be restricted by what has always been done ;)

Merry Christmas!

We had a great week with my family--mom, dad, and Mike drove out to spend the holidays here with us. We ate a lot, shopped a lot, and watched a lot of movies :) It was good time spent with the family.

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Now they're on their way home and we're re-grouping. It is a little crazy to have guests for the week but worth it. We have a fridge full of food, new ideas (Sasha was really inspired after watching Avatar in IMAX 3D). Today Sasha's editing, I'm working on photos and cleaning. And visiting Target for after-Christmas sales. ;)

This is only the beginning of the holiday season for us: we now have New Year's and Orthodox Christmas (to be spent quietly at home). It is my goal to find some new traditions for us--previous Orthodox Christmases have been spent at home sleeping. Maybe I'll fix a new fun traditional food. . .or something.

I hope everyone out there had a wonderful Christmas and I wish everyone a successful and happy new year!!

A Long Quarter

Autumn 2009 is over! Sure, I still have finals and portfolios to grade and a final paper to write BUT I have no more scheduled responsibilities 'till the New Year. It has been a long quarter--feels like the longest yet--and I'm so glad to be done. Teaching was fine (3rd time teaching Writing4), but I didn't really like my classes. Pedagogical grammar was just that--a lot of grammar, and my other class didn't have a clear focus. But that lack-of-focus allows me to write about pretty much whatever I want (like language and nationalism in Ukraine), so that's a good thing. Yay for writing a political paper about nationalism in Ukraine in an English class. Love it.

I think this quarter has been particularly tough because I've been really juggling a lot of responsibilities. I'm trying to be a good teacher and student AND make our business successful. I edit photos, arrange advertising, blog what we're up to, and keep a public face all while trying to teach useful lessons, understand course material, get homework done, and suck-up just enough to keep my future options open. I will finish my course requirements in March, but I'm funded 'till June so my future is open. Will I go teach (in the tough Seattle TESOL market)? I'm not sure. Will I find another job? Will I apply for the PhD program? Not sure. It is scary (and maybe a little exciting?) to not know--at all--what I'll be doing in a year.

But I love the bits and pieces of what I do. I enjoy being in front of a class (still not sure how I feel about teaching English in particular, but that's neither here nor there). I enjoy being a student. I enjoy being a photographer. I enjoy owning my own business. The little things overwhelm me at times, but overall, I love it.

One other aspect of blog-life that is unclear is how this blog fits into it all. Between my teaching face and my Photo/video face, there's little space left for my adventures. Maybe it is because I feel adventure-less or because I worry about who might read this blog (not that I'm hiding anything ;) ), but it is harder to randomly post.

So forgive my absence.
Enjoy a photo of my kitty, who sat in this box for hours today. :)
Happy Holidays!