Orysia Dawydiak

Our next Christmas celebration is around the corner – this year we’ll celebrate Sviat Vecher on January 9th.  We’ll be feasting on the usual Ukrainian Christmas eve fare – beginning with kutya, then borsch with sour cream, rye bread, sour dills, pickled herring, perohi, holubtsi, poppyseed cake, medivnyk (honey cake), fruit cake and more.  And yes, horilka (various types), will be included for our toasts.

This year we decided to decorate our scruffy ficus ‘tree’ in the solarium and leave the fir trees standing in the hedgerows.  Here it is in its festive glory, almost more ornaments than leaves.  Note the white skylight above the tree – that is snow covering our solarium.  In a day or two, as the temperature rises, that snow will slide off and give us a clear view of the sky….for a while.  It’s peekaboo all winter long in our maritime climate.