Baking her first batch of Christmas cookies at the neighbors' house. This was the day after Thanksgiving and our friends/neighbors invited a bunch of people over to decorate the tree and bake cookies.
They played Charlie BrownZen had only been home 2 weeks so we kept her very close and brought her home early while Ali stayed to decorate cookies (and her face apparently).
Home 5 weeks!
This is another holiday party - the day before Christmas Eve. This was their first time ever opening a Christmas present! Zen didn't really understand the concept at first. I used to design children's special occasion dresses and thankfully saved a few when I sold the business.
All of our neighbors had presents for the girls. They are the only kids on the block, so everyone doted on them - adorable.
We could only decorate the top 1/3 of our Christmas tree since Zen pulled down all the ornaments within her reach 
I wish I had taken close-up pictures of the ornaments we bought for them in Russia. We also got engraved ornaments to commemorate their first Christmases as babies before we met them (a rocking horse for Ali and a silver baby cup for Zen).
One of the traditions we'd like to start is making ornaments every year. The girls did hand print ornaments this year and they came out beautiful!
We went to see fake snow (and Santa was 'sold out'). The girls loved it. Didn't they see plenty of the real stuff in Russia?!
There are more holiday pictures here of decorating the tree, baking gingerbread men, wrapping presents, building a gingerbread house and holiday boat parades.
On Christmas Eve morning, I made an orange coffee cake (Paula Deen recipe). It was pretty good and easy, so I would consider making this again, but I'm really looking for something GREAT to make every year as an annual tradition, so let me know if you have a good recipe.
On Christmas Eve we baked a huge batch (7 tins) of cinnamon rolls to give away as gifts to our friends and neighbors. This picture was taken just as they were about to go into the oven. We used the Pioneer Woman's recipe. Unfortunately we messed it up, but I am definitely planning to do this again next year since I know where we went wrong.
We had 5 friends over for a Christmas Eve ham dinner and the girls got to open more presents. This is one of the first years we have spent without our parents and/or siblings and they were missed very much, but we decided not to travel for the sake of our girls' stability. Well, that and we've traveled to Russia 4 times this year and were happy to relax at home.
Apparently Santa doesn't care for cookies and milk - he prefers Boddington's and chocolate cake. I don't get the whole Santa thing, but my husband thinks it's fun. Ali asked me several times "where is Santa's sleigh?" and I told her "Some people believe it's in the North Pole", so that's what I'm going to continue with...some (small) people do believe in it and the girls can decide for themselves if they want to believe in it or not.
We couldn't believe how many presents were sent to our girls! Ali tried on every outfit as she opened it. They both played with every toy one at a time. I think they were a little overwhelmed and had an early nap.
Hopefully we'll laugh about this picture someday. Christmas Lunch/Dinner was ready while the girls were napping - how did I get the timing so wrong? We didn't want them to miss it and we didn't want to wait until they woke up (and eat a cold dinner). So we woke them up (hence the messy hair and tears). Otherwise, the dinner was excellent!
One of the bonuses in being married to a Brit is an extra holiday! Not only do we celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but we also celebrate Boxing Day (December 26th). We had some English friends to the house for drinks and munchies such as pork pies, prawns, English toffee, Christmas pudding and other English junk food delicacies. Our girls we happy to finally be around another child. Everyone had a blast – sorry no pictures.
After a 1 day breather, the festivities continued! We had some out-of-town friends stay with us: 4 kids, 4 adults and 2 dogs in a 2 bedroom apartment for 4 days - such fun!
We got to celebrate our little friend's 4th birthday with her at an amusement park. I was a bit concerned all of this would be too much for Zen (who had only been here 6 weeks) but she was golden. Ali had a few overwhelmed moments with tears, but she did great overall. No regrets.
We spent the New Year celebration with 4 Brits + wives and 6 kids. Sublime. My mother in law sent party dresses for the girls from England.
Ali and friends spent the evening jumping over the couch, climbing trees and other rough and tumble fun in her party dress.
We brought in the New Year under the stars with good friends, then we all tucked the little ones into bed and got in the hot tub for a celebratory glass of champagne.
Sounds like you had a great Christmas together!
Great pictures. You have a beautiful family. What a blessing. Kelly
Sounds like you had a blast!!! These pictures are adorable! And, what would the holidays be if there were not a few tears? It’s all so overwhelming. Oh, Ruslan loves to look at the picture of Ali. I love hearing him name all the kids : )
Isn’t that the best?! Ali used to name all the caregivers as well as the kids but she’s starting to forget all the names now
I wrote them all down if you want them.
Fun, Fun, FUN!
Wanted to say two more things : )
1. I think it would be great if you would consider designing party dresses again.
2. Our Christmas morning brunch menu is
*steel cut irish oatmeal, served with berries, whip cream and maple syrup
*no msg pork sausages
*baked banana stuffed french toast (I don’t have a recipe-butter the baking pan, slice challah bread, sautee bananas w/ a small amount of brown sugar/cinnamon, spread on top of single layer of challah bread, top w/ another layer of challah bread, pour egg/milk (cream) mixture and bake. Top with Gingerbread Praline Sauce:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons molasses
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lime juice
1/3 cup chopped pecans
In a saucepan melt the butter over medium heat. Add in brown sugar and molasses and heat until sugar is dissolved. Whisk in the cream slowly. Stir in fresh ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Continue cooking over medium heat, stirring frequently, 8-10 minutes until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and lime juice. Mix in pecans. Serve warm over french toast.
PS love your new family traditions!
Oh, YUM! I will definitely be giving that banana stuffed french toast recipe a try. Thanks a million for sharing it!
What a wonderful time!! I love it that you still have some dresses from your business that you had saved. That was probably very cool to see the girls wearing them. I was laughing with the picture of your Christmas lunch/dinner with the grumpy babies, you are so amazing to get all that food done with your new babies. That coffee cake looked delicious too!
Enjoy seeing all pictures – they are all great pictures! thank you.