Happy birthday, Medyk!

Even though he runs around and plays like a little puppy, this monster is 10 years old today! Our Medyk is one of the sweetest, most people-loving puppies around, and quickly makes friends with all his visitors (especially with Andrew). The picture above is from this May, when Medyk was sporting his "summer coat," but he's usually a bit more scruffy...

Happy birthday to Medyk! We wish we could be snuggling with you today, but hope you get all the christmooses, water bottles, and soccer balls you could ever hope for!!

Play time at MAM.

It's the first Thursday in December, so that meant that we went to visit the Milwaukee Art Museum again today! We went for the first time last month and loved it, and since it's free (every first Thursday!), we went back to wander around some more tonight. Isn't the above installation lovely? It's supposed to represent the Cliffs of Dover. I think it's gorgeous. 

We went to see the Rembrandt exhibit, which was alright; they only had one Rembrandt. We then ran upstairs to go back to the Disney animators exhibit. 

This remains one of the coolest exhibits I've been to. And, to make it even better, I was able to make this: 

I think I can safely say that if this legal thing doesn't work out, I'll rely on my animation skills as my source of livelihood. Oscar worthy? Probably (DEFINITELY) not, but it was so much fun to do! 

After we came back from the museum, we made dinner and baked sugar cookies - stay tuned for the recipe, because they are seriously the some of the best and easiest cookies to make!

And now, some Parks and Recreation, Christmas lights, wine, and blankets. Sounds just about perfect. 

Christmasgram #2.

So different from our last apartment's entryway - this one's actually decorated (and taken care of) for Christmas!

Happy Thursday!

Christmasgram #1.

Like many twenty-somethings, I often use my iPhone to snap pictures of random objects that grab my attention and post them to Facebook or Instagram. This is especially common around Christmastime, as I'm easily entertained by ornaments, snowflakes, cute red coffee cups at Starbucks, etc. I find myself doing this a lot lately, wanting to document our first Christmas in Shorewood. It occurred to me today, though, that some of my dearest readers (read, our parents) may not be seeing some of these pictures...so, easy solution: they'll be coming to you every once in a while from our Kukhnya! 

Enjoy! 

For the kitchen: Christmas decorations.

Decorating for Christmas is so much fun, and I just love when there's a touch of holiday sparkle in each room of the house. What better place for Christmas decorations than the kitchen, a room that's full of warmth and cozy places to gather with family and friends (for some reason, Ukrainians always seem to congregate in the kitchen)? 

Pinterest is not lacking in ideas on how to bring Christmas into the kitchen, ranging from setting up a gigantic decorated Christmas tree in the middle of the room to hanging snowflakes made by the youngest members of the house from the windows. Some of my personal favorites are below. These touches are a bit more subtle and would still allow one to actually use their kitchen...all just Christmasy enough to make the room look and feel special for the holidays.

Photos (1), (2) via apartmenttherapy.com; (3), (4), (5), (6), (7) via Pinterest. 

MN Mondays: Christmas at home.

During Christmastime when we were little, we were sent to bed with the promise of a surprise that would be ready the next morning. After fighting the excitement and eventually falling asleep, we'd wake up, tip toe down the hallway to the living room, and find a beautiful lit up and decorated Christmas tree waiting for us! We were told that little elves came to our house when we were sleeping and worked through the night to decorate our tree.

This tradition continued for years, until we were old enough to want to help decorate (and learned the elves' true identity). Different traditions have evolved over time, for example, we would always put on The Muppet Christmas Carol as we hung ornaments and lights. When we were home over Thanksgiving last week, we of course put it on...it's become such a favorite Christmas movie that my sister and I are "those people" that quote and sing along with it as it plays.

We also knew we wanted to decorate the tree. Because it's up from Thanksgiving weekend through Orthodox Christmas, it's technically not a "real" one, but I think it's perfect. Almost every ornament has a story, including those that my mom made years ago with intricate beads and sequins, and the ones that all three of us chose as our own every year. This is one of my favorite traditions - each Christmas, my mom let us pick out whatever ornament we wanted, and now, we see our favorite activities and everything we were loving at the time preserved in ornament form. Yes, this means that Simba from the Lion King, several pairs of ice skates, and different breeds of puppies all hang on our tree, but this makes it so personal and filled with stories. I love it so much more than the color coordinated designer trees that lack any bit of personality. 

It's taken years to fill up the tree, but now it's absolutely beautiful. This is definitely a tradition that I'll want to carry on someday! 

How do you decorate your tree? And when do you put it up? I always wonder if it's technically "too soon" to decorate for Christmas the weekend of Thanksgiving because it takes away from that holiday. But as soon as I see everything all set up, any doubt goes away, and the house looks beautifully Christmasy until the middle of January. 

Have a wonderful Monday, friends! 

Saturday Post No. 1

Happy December!

I can't believe we're already into the holiday season - it's strange to think I don't have finals to study for or a major paper to edit, but my internal clock still runs on semesters because of Andrew's schedule. We also can't believe his first semester of PhD classes is almost done - when did that happen? 

So everything's been busy lately - work, classes, life...and our lovely Kukhnya has been feeling a little lonely (not our actual kukhnya - there's plenty of good food that's come out of there!). I've absolutely loved having this place to keep in touch with our family and friends; I also love that I can look to my posts to see how we've spent almost four months here in Milwaukee. Time flies, but I certainly don't want to lose track of it! That's why I'm writing on a Saturday - I'm going to make sure to check in on here more often. Just bear with us, family, friends, and readers, as we figure out how to best navigate our schedules - I promise we're still here! 

Today we had a lovely visit from one of my good friends, Kathryn - it was just wonderful to be able to catch up with her in person! Now, we have our beautiful yalynka, our Christmas tree, all lit up (isn't it beautiful?!? I just love it!), and are flipping between various college football games. Even though it's 60 degrees and raining outside, everything feels Christmasy. Life is good. 

I hope your weekend is off to a fantastic start!