We again had 2 Christmases this year! We celebrated our first Christmas on December 24th with our American friends in Lviv, with a fun dinner party, white elephant gifts and games of UNO. The majority of Ukraine follows the Orthodox tradition and celebrates Christmas on January 6-7.
We travelled to visit Nika’s family in Uzhgorod for the Ukrainian Christmas and spent several days with Nika’s parents, aunt and uncle, grandmother and cousin (see the video pics). While in Uzhgorod we made our traditional trip to the Russian sauna and Rob as usual dipped into ice cold water barrel (also documented in the pictures below.)
We had a fun New Year’s celebration in Lviv with our friends. After a dinner party we went to downtown Lviv and enjoyed fireworks, music and sparklers.
Some other updates are that Nika and her coworkers opened a student counseling center at the Ukrainian Catholic University. There are pictures in the video slide of Nika in the therapy room and her new office, adjacent to the therapy room. There is a one-way mirror separating the two rooms and Nika watches her students through it.
We have had a very mild winter in Lviv, it has hardly snowed and stays above freezing. This has been great for us, as it makes walking outside much easier.
