Last Week of the Year 2011

Hi all!

Happy New Year to all. To make things short my one wish is for God's blessing in each of your lives! 

This past week revolved around New Years planning with of course a lot of hanging out and little sleep.

Monday we went in to church to make pilmani (Tuesday also).

A little "memorable moment" was that on Monday we were going to sing a song with the girls "Oh Come Emmanuel." Basically, we went up there without chords because everyone thought someone else had them type of thing. Poor Tanya, had to talk to the audience while I "searched" for them. My mom said when I walked off stage and turned to the choir room she was rather confused thinking I left to use the bathroom. Later we found the chords in Roman's folder. Just a silly moment to remember.

Tuesday night we had our cell group meeting with another group. It went well, but we still had few members show up. 

Wednesday choir was cancelled and we continued to decorate the gym, cook, and bake. During the day I was at home making pilmani for our family. You'd think I'm a pro by now.

Thursday church all day as well. We sat around until midnight or so and Inna invited us over. So this is a mini guest post from Alex my cousin who said he would help start me off on this post:

"Hey friends so tonight after helping out wit new years preparations Inna Poplavskiy was a very good host adn invited us to her house for some tea and snacks...it was a great night wit lots of laughs (except one unfortunate incident) Please feel free to comment and share your experiences on this evening :)"

He attached a picture of the food but I can't get it on here. Yes, Alex discovered by blog and I had to listen to my blog being read out loud.

Every night we went out to Friendly's, or to Denny's to eat. 

Some cute New Years decor

Our wonderful host Miss. Inna at their house Thursday night!

I had such good times with Tanya this New Years. She is just so real,  and simply beautiful. We go for period of times where we don't really talk one on one but this week I had so much fun being silly with her at Friendly's and listening to her goals and plans. She is just such a wonderful person! I don't know how else to put it.  

Love the menus. 

Desserts. We make soo much trybochki. Thanks to Igor for helping to fill them. I myself developed some muscle filling and rolling the dough out.

Irina's house Friday night.

Attempting a New Years picture. After all of this, we were all so tired. I kept having these delayed reactions from lack of sleep! Later Tanya and I had even more fun drying the dishes. With her, she can make anything fun.

 Finally, all these days Natalya mostly drove me around (like it was her job). I can't believe I don't have a picture with her. I always have such a good time with her. It seems we are on the same page and seem to agree on many issues. She is such a good friend and with her I don't have to "keep my guard" as in act a certain way. Again, just a wonderful person that is a blessing in my life.

Sunday night we had another night full of fun and games. I felt bad for my aunt who was sitting alone as her husband was in charge of the sound system so I sat with her. Later Diana and I cleaned the kitchen with a lot of others' help. We left church at 2:30. Time flew by without us noticing.

I can't seem to sleep these days so I'm still rather tired, but feel happy I guess that this New Year's celebration went well. The process of getting ready for New Years was indeed a fun one. It is so wonderful, as Tanya said, to be a part of a church community where so much can be accomplished together.

Blessings,

Lesya