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The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Christmas day is always special, but with three kids it takes on a magical feel. All the kids still believe in Santa and I know this may be the last year this is true. We even watched Polar Express for the first time and Adam, who had been expressing some questions on Santa’s existence, was back to being a true believer. In the movie all the little boy wants for Christmas is a reindeer bell from Santa. Adam also requested this (three days before Christmas when we watched the movie). Living abroad means Santa and all gift givers in our house have to get their acts together and order presents well in advance to arrive in time. After 7 years of holidays and birthdays abroad I have learned to order presents two months in advance. A missing bell situation might have been the moment that Adam lost faith in Old Saint Nick, except that Aunt Sandra had magically gifted Adam this same reindeer bell two Christmases ago and I had squirreled it away with our Christmas stuff. It was pretty magical to see Adam’s face when he opened the bell and rang it. According to Polar Express, only true believers can hear the bell ring.

I love Christmas eve, when we can set out all the kids presents and be ready for their excited little faces. We baked some cookies for Santa and left some carrots out. Thank goodness for Randy who always takes one for the team and eats the cookies.

I forgot to order stocking stuffers (one of the moments when I miss Target dollar bins the most) and filled them with candy and chocolate from the local chocolate store. What a big success, maybe I will do this every year.

The magic of belief (thank you Aunt Sandra!)

Adam’s face when he opens presents is the best! Here is unwrapping a watch. He wanted a watch like daddy’s watch, which thankfully on Amazon can be replicated inexpensively.

I have the kids unwrap presents one at a time so they can be excited for each other. Here is Miral opening her Elmo alphabet from Lauren and Beckham (oh and Aunt Das and Uncle Nooj who get little credit these days)

Maria got the boys awesome beyblades and a super cute backpack for Miral.

The boys got some cool new legos from Santa.

And then for the win, Randy had the great idea to re-gift his PlayStation that he had in Pakistan to the boys with some fun new kids games. I was hesitant but it ended up being a great idea. The boys loved it and they play it only on the weekend for a little bit.

It was a great day, we had a yummy breakfast still in our pajamas, played with all our new toys. We got dressed up for a yummy lamb dinner and decorated some Christmas cookies.

We set the table and ate in the fancy dining room with some candles to make it extra special.

It was a great comfy family day that we loved. I will leave you with some wintry Kyiv photos. Such a beautiful city, even in the winter months.

Christmas Prep

This year we were all excited to be together for Christmas and to celebrate in a wintry city. First up on Christmas celebrations was Miral’s Christmas concert. She was so excited for this. She was a snowflake and had to wear white, luckily her Christmas dress from the year before still fit!

She knew all the Christmas songs and had been singing them around the house for weeks.

Then as often happens when my little ones are two when the big performance came she had stage fright.

She perked up when Santa gave her her present, although in typical two year old Ali fashion she refused to get close to him and her teacher had to bring her the present.

But I have to say, a cuter snowflake I have never ever seen and she really is the cutest thing when she sings her snowflake song.

I even got to sneak in a solo Christmastime weekend away to Budapest to see my friend Emma, who served with my in Manila. It was so nice to spend a weekend with her in the beautiful countryside.

When I got home it was one of my favorite times of year, Christmas Tree decorating day! Our car hadn’t arrived yet and it was too hard to get a read one so we used our fake tree this year.

We put up our calendar to count down to Christmas,

Put on our Christmas sweaters,

And our Christmas pajamas,

and headed to the Christmas markets near our house. Where there was something for everyone.

We hosted a dinner for our friends.

Got dressed up in our Christmas finest.

Spent time with our friends and got ready for comfy holiday at home.

Amazing eight!

I never could have imagined eight years ago I would have an 8 year old as amazing as Adam.

Let’s start off with a trip down memory lane.

Now onto lists, because the only thing I love more than a photo throwback are lists. I love a million things about Adam, but for his 8th birthday I’ll share some of my favorite 8.

1. He is at a sweet age where he is starting to become aware of societal norms and pressures from his friends but still has the capacity to retain his child inhibitions. I know this is something that will end soon and I appreciate every say that it lasts. He still sleeps with his stuffed animals, he still loves to cuddle us, he still lays in bed with us while we read picture books (even though he is reading Captain Underpants most days), he likes clothes for the colors and designs and not for what they are worth.

2. He LOVES to read. He reads every second of every day. We have to pry books out of his hands when it’s time for dinner.

3. He is a loyal friend and loves spending time with his friends. Much like his mom, he hates to end a party and wants to stay with his friends forever. I think college dorm life will suit him.

4. He is super duper neat. This is of course something I really get. He wants his room to be neat and set up just as he wants, he has specific clothes he wants to wear and won’t wear them if they are dirty. He recently got new white sneakers for school and was so upset when they got dirty. Thankfully we were able to clean them.

5. He is so quick witted, that at 8 it is impossible for me to win an argument. As frustrating as this is, I also understand it means his brain is working overtime in there. He is destined to be a litigator, although he has his heart set on paleontology.

6. He loves food and will try anything, and I mean anything. He even tried crickets at a Chinese restaurant! He loves edamame and crispy kale, steak, fish, curry. The only things he actively dislikes are tomatoes, except in sauce form, because ironically after 5 years of only eating plain pasta he finally realized plain pasta is not good.

7. He loves to talk and share and be together with his family. He is comfy at home and wants to be in the room where we are, come with us when we go out and stay close. If we let him he would sleep in our bed every night. I know this will change as he gets older so I am going to enjoy it while I can.

8. Adam is a kind soul. He loves his siblings and is kind to everyone he meets. He treats people kindly and is empathetic, often thinking about how his actions will make others feel.

First thing we did when we woke up was make special pancakes!

We had work and school but were able to open a few presents in the morning. Soccer shirts from the Jordans and soccer goalie gloves from Malcolm and Miral. Both were a big hit!

That night we went to dinner. In the Ali home the birthday boy or girl gets to pick the restaurant for dinner. Adam chose something fancy with steak and grownups. So we found the nicest steak restaurant in Kyiv, dressed up and headed over.

Adam even tried some caviar (he really does try everything) and he liked it! When in Ukraine…

That weekend we had a party at one of the malls in Kyiv that has aa awesome amusement park. We had only been here a few weeks but a lot of Adam’s classmates and Embassy friends came. Can you guess from his presents what his theme was…..SOCCER of course! He’s been playing it every day at school and it was the perfect party for him. Luckily Miral was around to help with the setup…or maybe just trying to abscond with all the party favors.

She also managed to eat the A and D off of the ADAM on his cake…but we just fed her the other letters and he never knew it was missing (shhh)

Apparently it is tradition in Ukraine to stuff your face into your cake on your birthday. So when in Ukraine!

Needless to say some of us were a bit shocked!

After the party we headed home to open presents. One more thing to note about my amazing 8 year old, every single presents he opens gets the biggest smile. It is pretty wonderful to see. He really appreciates all of his presents. A trait I hope he keeps for the long haul.

One last interesting cultural difference. Almost all the presents were in a bag with no card. So I had no way of knowing who gave what presents, which meant no thank you cards. I felt a bit weird not having Adam help me write thank yous, but when in Ukraine.

And after a long birthday post, for those of you still with me, I will share one last picture for your viewing pleasure. Here is what Miral wanted to wear to the party until I convinced her to wear a dress.

Thanksgiving and Jeopardy

For Thanksgiving this year we really wanted to have dinner at our new home. Of course our 7 tons of stuff had just arrived (ok only two tons but felt like 7) three days before. But I was determined. I spent the entire three days organizing and unpacking and people, let me tell you- I was built for the foreign service. Packing and unpacking are my specialty! This was the most challenging moving feat I have accomplished, but I am pretty proud of myself.

But before I show you what the final product looked like for our Thanksgiving, the morning first. The interesting part about Thanksgiving overseas is the boys have school. We are off work though. So it worked out perfectly that Adam had an assembly that morning and he was hosting the Jeopardy! He was so excited about it and it was pretty perfect that both Randy and I were able to go. It was my first time at their school (and in the end with Covid, ended up being one of two times the whole year!) and it was such a cute school. Its smaller than the school in Manila but just the right size for our second grader and kindergartner.

I love that Adam was able to stand up in front of the entire elementary school and parents and launch right into what they were learning and discovering.

Complete with a jeopardy game!

After the assembly we got to go to Adam’s class and see what they are working on. Adam showed us his bean….

That grew into this!

Then it was back home to this one to get the turkey ready for our 20 guests. Good thing she was there to help!

I made this pie and it only cost me the tips of three of my fingers….

I forgot to take any photos once the boys got home from school and all our friends came, but it was a great dinner and so nice to celebrate Thanksgiving with our new friends. I’m going to go ahead and share all the pictures of our house. Some of these are from later, but I know you are all dying to see these so here you go. The apartment is split into two floors. There is a big living room and kitchen area. This is basically where we all are at all times, unless I am trying to hide from the kids 🙂 We watch tv here, eat most of our meals at the table in the kitchen, hang out on the porch and the kids insist on dragging their toys from the playroom out here. It’s comfy, super light and has an amazing view! This is the view from the back end.

We even have a cute glassed in balcony that we use a decent amount.

We also have a built in fish tank that is right in front of the front door. It is the first thing you see when you walk in. I wasn’t sure at first about this, but the kids love the fish and they have grown on me (maybe because they need no care, besides paying Maxim the super sweet fish whisperer to clean the tank twice a month).

The other side of this room across from the balcony we have this cool wall, which I never thought I would fill, but I did 🙂 I change it around every few days and can’t decide when it will be done, maybe never?

Behind the ever changing bookcase is the dining room. We are nowhere near this fancy and this room say empty for a while, but when the schools shut in March it came in super handy and became our classroom. Now that the boys are mostly back at school (this lets you know that I am 10 months behind on posts) it has morphed again into our puzzle room, more on that in ten months when I am finally caught up.

Off to the side is the guest room, which has become known as grandma’s room. She was our only guest before Covid and the boys still consider this her room.

Across from the guest room is the playroom. I had grand dreams of the kids playing in this room and well it just doesn’t happen. They just drag all their toys out to the living room. I know there are just too many toys in there and continually try to give some away, but so far the dragging method is still preferred.

Upstairs there are five bedrooms. Adam gets a room to himself, although he asked recently if his room was a store room because it’s the smallest room and has no en suite bathroom….um no Adam, but I see foreign service living has set the bar high.

Adam is forced to share a bathroom with Malcolm and Miral who share a room next door. I love both of these rooms, they are fun and bright.

Here is Miral’s side-

And here is Malcolms.

Across the hall is the office. I initially thought this office would never get used. Well joke is on me I guess because we have been working from home at least half of the last six months and this office is where Randy lives 9-6 when he is home. So I am glad I made it comfy!

Then there is our bedroom, that is super comfy and sunny. This is the way the room is at 5 am in the summer before anyone wakes up.

And then it turns into this.

And this

and on good days this.

In between the bedrooms there is a cute area at the top of the stairs that has all the kids book that I love.

Even the green kitchen has grown on me in this super cute, comfy apartment.

I know you have all had enough of this rambling Thanksgiving post, I can’t end without mentioning a visit from Adam’s first friend and my first post baby friend, Carrie and Simone. They flew from Dubai the day after Thanksgiving and it was so nice to see them! We hung out with their other first baby friend, Eli whose parents are also posted in Ukraine (small, small world).

These two didn’t know it, but they were also on their way to becoming best friends!

We went to the Ukrainian circus and it was amazing!

Here is Adam asking for money to buy a toy…I said no, but his BFF Eli lent him money.

Pretty amazing to start out our lives here in Ukraine in an amazing apartment, surrounded by old friends and making new ones!

Kyiv and 7 tons of stuff

Our first few weeks around Kyiv we got used to our house, got haircuts, explored some cool new places, had a visitor stay with us, and most importantly got our shipment of stuff. Nothing like having 7000 pounds of stuff dumped in your house in one day!

First up was haircuts

Then some city exploring

Playdates with old friends

Buying a new journal for school

Scenes that greet me when I get home from work

Exploring speak easy with visiting friends

Nutcracker ballet with my peanut

Chilly walks in beautiful Kyiv

Then our stuff came….three days before Thanksgiving where we were hosting 20 people 7000 pounds of stuff arrived 🙂 we were all happy to be reunited with our toys big and small.

First day of school for the last time

A few weeks after we arrived it was time for this little one to start school. We found a Montessori that was just a few blocks away so she and Maria could walk there when we were at work. Even when it was cold in the Ukrainian winter it was close enough that they could get there easily. If anyone was ever ready for school it was this little one. She has been watching her brothers leave for school and was so excited to get her own backpack. She picked out the tiger herself.

I think I was more emotional than she was. I remember Adam’s first day of school….oh the tears and tears and tears. And I remember Malcolm’s day of schools….oh the tears and tears. A few throwbacks to when the boys started. I somehow didn’t capture Adam’s tears, which is interesting since he cried the most and for the longest.

First, because I love to reminisce, let’s look back at the boys first day of school. First little Malcolm who was so scared and stuck like glue to Ms Connie the whole first year (in the white on the left_

Look at that face! I shockingly don’t have any teary photos of this one, shocking because he cried the whole first two months of school. Thankfully they both love it now.

OMG baby Malcolm here! Look at those cheeks and Adam’s little legs and hair.

And here is my last little baby heading off to school and I was ready for tears from both of us. Well, it turned out only one of us cried and it was me. She was so ready to go to school. Randy and I both walked her over and she was so excited to have a backpack on.

The view on the walk to school is fantastic!

I can’t believe this is the last time I will have a little one starting school. I hope they all always love school this much!

Moving in

Our first few weeks in Kyiv were a lot of firsts, like every time we move. We have an amazing apartment here, big and comfy and in the center of Kyiv. Our first weekend here we put our sweaters on and explored our neighborhood.

Of course we had to check out the supermarket, which was amazing! It has everything.

We arrived just a few days before Halloween so thankfully we remembered to bring our costumes with us! Here we have one Skye, one red power ranger and one soldier.

We were reunited with Eli, who was one of Adam’s first friends in DC and his mom and dad were on of our first friends in DC. Me and Kathryn were pregnant at the same time and these two were born two months apart. His dad works with Randy and they were SO helpful helping us get settled in.

We went trick or treating, which was a good idea in theory but as we were traipsing along the streets with other kids I was sure I was going to lose one of my three kids, which led us to this photo opp and the best photo I could take keeping track of everyone.

For the first time in a very long time Randy and I went to a Halloween party and even dressed up, well Randy dressed up and i wore the wig the owner of the gorilla costume threw in the bag for me to borrow.

Adam also was reunited with his friend Elliot, these two were in the same class in Virgina and now are traipsing around markets in Kyiv! What a small (foreign service) world it is.

Randy got to show me all the fun restaurants he scoped out for us to try.

The boys took photos for their diplomatic ids, how cute are these!

And then these two started school! Here they are at their misty bus stop. Malcolm’s kindergartner teacher is Miss Jackson and Adam’s 2nd grade teacher is Miss Nikki. They both loved the school right away and felt at home really quickly. The school is small and very well run so I’m sure that helped.

Miral got to explore her new home. Her favorite spot like all my kids at 2 is the bidet. She loves playing in the ‘little toilet’ as she calls it.

She also was excited to read in her and Malcolm’s new room by the window.

We got outside and went for some long walks. We are in the center of town and there are beautiful buildings and churches all around.

And parks! So many parks all around!

First impressions of Kyiv, it’s a beautiful city and we are all very excited to get to know it more.

Slovenija ali doprsni kip (Slovenia or bust)

Before we knew it, it was time to leave Dc and head to Ukraine. We had decided to meet Randy for vacation on the way over. We were to meet Randy in Munich and all drive over to Slovenia together. But first the flight over. As these three get older, each flight alone with all three is a little less daunting…but they still daunt. This one however was only 9 hours direct to Munich, which after years of long travels around the world to the Philippines on multiple planes seemed downright short.

(Also- thank you Grandma and Uncle Ari for taking us to airport and driving our car all the way up to New York until we could sort out the shipping.)

Of course lots of screens help!

Me and the two little ones say next to the window and this big boy sat across the aisle from me. A super tall man sat next to him and as Adam started nodding off and his head falling on this gentleman I was worried he would he upset but couldn’t move without waking up Miral. In the end he just put a pillow behind Adam’s head and when we all woke up later on introduced me to his son sitting next to him, who at 20 was his oldest of six. Moments like that on a plane never fail to warm my heart.

Even an ‘only’ nine hour overnight flight with three kids leaves you looking like this….

We were all pretty happy to land and be reunited with Randy. We got into the car and headed to Slovenia. Luckily Randy and our nanny Maria who had arrived the day before had had a full night sleep at a hotel in Munich the night before so the rest of us were able to take a snooze. When we arrived at Lake Bled it was immediately clear that all the travels were worth it.

Our next stop was the capital- Ljubjana which took me the entire drive to learn to say. Such a cool town with cute little restaurants and a beautiful canal to wander about.

Oh and there were rocks and dirt, just want my children love the most anywhere.

Our last stop was a quasi little camp/tree house place that the kids loved. It was right by vineyards which the adults loved.

I even got to sneak in a few runs on these amazing misty roads

We had a quick stop in Munich, before we headed off to our new home.

A short few hours later we landed in Kyiv!

Apple Picking Goodbyes

Before we left for Slovenia, after my test, after my week long security training in southern Virginia and our last week of school we decided to go apple picking with Grandma and Uncle Ari who helped take care of the kids when I was away for my week of training. It was a nice final activity to end our year in DC, after five years in Manila some of the things I missed most were seasons, weather changes, especially fall, sweater weather, apple picking, going to a farm and picking a pumpkin. It was a great way to spend one of our last days in DC. It was amazing being so close to our family this year, such a special opportunity. They were so good about coming to visit us so much and we will miss them all. We can’t wait to show them around Kyiv!

I included this picture because it is so indicative of Miral. She was angry that she wasn’t allowed to push the heavy wheelbarrow with 3 kilos of apples and three heavy pumpkins up hill and this was the face she made as she refused to move for a few minutes in protest. Thankfully she moves on quickly and was back to her smiley self but boy oh boy, when she is not happy watch out world 🙂

Can you guess who’s pumpkin is whose?

Countdown to Kyiv

One last month in DC, full of family, friends, studying, packing, runs. It was such a crazy time, I was feeling so overwhelmed about passing Ukrainian so we could all be together in Kyiv I loved looking back at these pictures at all the moments we had in that last month in the US.

Morning cuddles in mommy’s bed