New Year's Eve and Orthodox Christmas

New Year's Eve started with a large snow storm. We don't get a lot of snow in Poti, so this was the first and hopefully last of the year. It snowed for four days so we were able to make a snowman and have a few snowball fights. I celebrated New Year's Eve this my family in Poti. We played card games and watched movies until about 10 minutes to midnight. At this point the fireworks started and it was like the world was on fire. Out of respect for families on our street in morning our street didn't not shot off our own fireworks, but everywhere else in the city did. It was like cannon fire everywhere. For 10 full minutes all you could see in the sky was burning lights everywhere. The fireworks slowed down when midnight hit and everyone went inside for supras. We each had a spoonful of honey and everyone else in the family toasted with homemade white wine.
The rest of the week was very calm. Most people stayed at home because of the snow storm. One fun activity I went to was a Christmas play for children at the local theater. They did the jungle book. The little children dressed as wolves was the best part. They also had a Santa and I think an angle of Christmas. I'm not 100% who everyone was.

This is a photo of Poti on New Year's Eve. You can see all the fireworks and some snow. 

 January 6th is Orthodox Christmas Eve. When it gets dark on Christmas Eve children start coming around singing. When they come to your house you give them some money and candy. We had a few show up at our house through out the night. As I was going to bed at 1:30 am I could hear more coming. At 12:00 (midnight) we opened the front windows to let God into the house and lite some candles in the window. One of my families favorite Christmas dishes involves the boiling of a pigs head and feet to make something similar to a pork jello. My favorite was the khachapuri with eggs in it.
I have started a youtube channel with videos about my life. Here is the video I made about New Years ect.

December

December has come and gone. Because this blog is mostly just me telling stories about me cooking, that's where we will start for the month of December. The three things I cooked this month all have a story from home connected to them.The first was cinnamon rolls. Like a lot of cinnamon rolls. More cinnamon rolls then is healthy. At one point I think I turned into a cinnamon roll from eating so many. I learned how to make them from my Mom. She makes them every year for Christmas morning. Most of my skills in the kitchen come from watching my mom cook as I grew up and learning from her. My next item I made was apple sauce. I learned to make homemade apple sauce from my Dad. Renae, my Dad, and I would pick up all the apples from the trees in the back yard, cut them and peal them as we watched all cowboy movies, and then cook them on the stove. My host mom go me the apples and I made my host sisters help me get them ready to cook. When they were done cooking I added a little sugar and some cinnamon. It tasted a lot like Christmas. The apple sauce was for a dinner I made for my host family in honor of Hanukkah. So clearly I also had to make latkes. I have made many latkes over the last 9 years, but these ones turned out the best. I think it was because I took the time to get all the water out of the potatoes. Who knows. My first time making latkes was freshman year in our little apartment #125. Over the years it has turned into watching fiddler on the roof and eating latkes as we sing every song.  

For the week of Christmas I went on a trip with some friends from the Peace Corps. We went to Vienna and Budapest. I have put up a lot of photos of our trip on facebook, but here are some that didn't make it into the album. It was a fun trip, full of adventure and tourism. For those of you who know me, you know those are my two fav things. Highlights included tacos in Vienna, seeing the imperial treasury, playing the Europe version of ticket to ride on a train in Europe, Christmas markets, amazing old churches, and an ok ice bar.

Here are some photos of me. I am not saying that a site mate and I did a photo shot for our Christmas cards, but I'm not saying we didn't. These are a few of the good ones of me that you can't find anywhere else. I would tell you my favorite, but lets be honest they're all great...ok the bottom right side is my favorite. 

Add a snow storm on the 31st and that was my December. I'll do another post in a few days telling you all about my New Year's Eve, so look forward to that. As for now I'll just say I hope you had a very merry Christmas and that your New Year is all you need it to be. Happy Holidays.