First Thanksgiving

Last week was the week of Thanksgiving. We studied all week about the first 13 colonies and the first Thanksgiving. We even checked out movies from the library about it. By the time Thursday rolled around we were confident that Marina understood what the holiday was all about. She was a bit nervous about going to a big dinner with a lot of people there, but she seemed to really enjoy herself. In fact when we left and got into the car, she announced "I like Thanksgiving!" After we left, we took the girls through the Christmas lights display in Eureka. http://www.eurekajellystone.com/santa/info/ The little girls enjoyed it and Marina said, "not so much". Oh well, we tried. I want to take them all over to Bellville IL to see the lights at Our Lady of Snows??? . . . I can't remember, but I have heard they have a really nice display with a petting zoo, nativity scene, gift shop and a place to get hot cocoa or hot spiced cider. Sounds like fun to me. http://www.snows.org/Events.aspx?path=root/english/Events/events

It is frustrating to me to take Marina places that I think should be really enjoyable, only to find out she doesn't appreciate it. Most places we say we are going, she doesn't want to go, but more than not, she ends up enjoying it. The times she doesn't though, is kind of a let down. I want her to experience so many things that we enjoy doing, and she doesn't always have the same appreciation that we do. I guess I think she should enjoy everything, because I don't think she got to go and do very much when she was in the orphanage, and when she doesn't like something, I think . . . it has to be better than doing nothing!!! Maybe she enjoys doing less and being at home?? Oh well. Maybe she'll appreciate things when she is older.

So, now we are back to the regular schedule of doing school each day in the morning until early afternoon and it is going fairly well. There are days where she whines and pouts because she doesn't want to do her work, but for the most part, she gets her work done quickly. The only area that is a bit of a struggle right now is math, and that is because of the language barrier. Word problems are hard to to if you don't understand exactly what they are asking. So, for now we are drilling multiplication and division and learning about measurements.

Marina has quite the Christmas list going - almost as long and Jordan's!! I told her the biggest gift she got this year was to come to the states and have a family of her own. She looked at me like I was crazy!! I think she even replied with a "what?!" Hannah on the other hand has not asked for anything! In fact she tells the other girls "your not going to get everything you want". Good ol' Hannah - always the realist!! Gotta love that in her!

We set up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving and then a couple days later, we took Marina to the store to pick out her own stocking. She wanted one that was pink with Cinderella on it, but I asked her if she thought she would like that when she was 16 or 18 years old, and she changed her mind. I tried to tell her that we keep our stocking and don't buy new ones every couple years. She finally picked out a cute one with a snowman holding a sign that reads, Let It Snow. Speaking of snow, we asked her how deep the snow gets in Ukraine and she motioned that it gets neck high. We told her we only get a little snow here, but when I used to live Iowa, we got a LOT of snow . . . she said, "lets go!" I told her it would take 8 - 10 hours in the car to get there . . . she said, "that's okay". I said, not today :)