CHRISTMAS EVE/CHRISTMAS DAY

DAY 8 -
It' Christmas Eve, so today was a day to finish Christmas shopping and make preparations for tomorrow. For those who won't eat Christmas pudding, I made my sticky date cheesecake with caramel sauce for an alternative.  It will be interesting to see how it tastes as food items aren't quite the same in Russia ie. cream cheese, biscuits for base, sugar, butter. The sauce I will make on the day which uses brown sugar, again being a little different.  Mark also made his borsch soup (Russian beetroot soup) for a Christmas Day entrée, it smells delish.

All ready for Christmas.

Anth and Mark took care of purchasing (a lot of) fireworks, of course you can buy them here (from the shopping mall). Hmmm, most of these will be kept for New Year's Eve but maybe a couple will be used for Christmas, only if it snows. All of the snow has melted in the last few days because of warmer temperatures (it reached 7 degrees) and rain. So it doesn't look like a white Christmas as such, but the forecast predicts snow for Boxing Day. 

My experience of shopping here on Christmas Eve in Russia was probably the most relaxed ever, we headed for the shopping mall at about 3pm.  It was very quiet as Russia celebrate their Christmas on January 7 so it was really nice to get the last minute things in a cruisy and relaxed environment then sitting and having a mocha while Ana shopped in one of the clothing stores. Have I mentioned the security guards that man nearly every shop? And also the entrance doors? I do feel safe here as there are security guards everywhere.

DAY 9 - CHRISTMAS DAY
After having a little bit of a sleep in, I looked out the window hoping that the weather forecast would be wrong and that there would be snow. However, it wasn't to be a white Christmas.  We started off the morning by excited kids & adults opening presents followed by champagne & croissants for a late breakfast - yum.

It was a very relaxed morning and looking at the weather forecast again, it predicted snow at 10pm tonight. So Mark and Anth were talking excitedly again over letting off some fireworks if it did snow.

Christmas Day entrée

We started off our Christmas dinner with an entrée - Mark's borsch soup which was very tasty. After dishes were cleared away and cleaned we sat again to eat Sarah's roast chickens and vegetables - she really does the best roast chicken. Feeling quite full, we sat down and watched "Love Actually" - it has become tradition of Sarah's to watch this movie every Christmas. We had dessert once it finished, the cheesecake I made was very nice, less rich and sweet than at home.

Neighbours Sheri, Russ and their three kids came in for Christmas celebrations.  It was decided to let off the fireworks although snow had not started falling. So there we were standing in -6 degrees watching fireworks. Once finished (and the happy gate guard had come to tell us he had received complaints) we went back inside to thaw out. Not long after, snow began to fall. So at about 10.45pm we had a white Christmas after all. Celebrations went into early Boxing Day morning playing a game similar to Pictionary but on Sarah & Anth's glass pantry doors which you can write on.  A lot of fun and laughs were had (and some sore heads, namely Anth).

Christmas Day snow.

Happy it snowed!