Festival of Trees

You might think it's strange to have a post about Festival of Trees while we're here in Russia. Ever since Niki was a patient at Primary Children's Medical Center when she was four, we've participated in at least one of their various fundraising activities every year. However, since we can't do much of anything for PCMC while we're here, our kids said they'd do a tree this year. It turned out отличный (aht-leech-nee), as we say in Russia.

A big thanks to Becca for spearheading it. She got everyone involved, including those who live out of state. Even cousin Em wanted to be a part of it. And thanks, Becca, for getting us the pictures so quickly. It made us feel like we were a part of it. Unfortunately, there were a few problems and we couldn't get all her pictures on the blog. Just know that the finished tree was glorious!

They called it Winter Woodland. Enjoy these pictures of the tree in process.

Em and Niki checking out the snowballs, and Michael (getting ready to cut Niki's hair?)

Seeing Michael on a ladder surprised us. We thought he was tall enough to reach anything. Flatfooted.

Niki, adding some white berries

Quality takes a lot of work and a long time to pull together. Em, Becca and Michael during their dinner break. Five Guys, mmmm.

Jeff was behind the camera for most of the pictures. I guess he did this shot to prove he was there. He was also in charge of putting the tree together, and he's got plenty of scratches to prove it, too.

Niki and Em attaching the snowy tree skirt

Admiring their work and making last minute adjustments

In addition to all the time they spent putting it together at the Festival, they also spent hours and hours in preparatory work (and of course lots of paper work and hoops to jump through). They started December 26--last year. This is the wonderful result of 11 months of planning and preparing.

The tree sold for about 3 times as much as they spent on it. Jeff said that with all their time, he figures that works out to about $1/hour. But knowing that they've helped a child get care they couldn't afford makes it all worth it, right?

This was the most wonderful Christmas present you could have given to us in Russia! Thank you!!!

This week's Russianism:
Dave found a Christmas tree for us. It's two feet tall from star to base. At first we thought it was nice they'd have a tree in red, white and blue for us. Then we realized those are the colors of the Russian flag as well. We weren't planning to have a tree, but Dave found this for a great price. We love this season. Merry Christmas!

And as far as last week's blog and "Can you spot the Russians?" contest, so far Kelly's ahead. He got one right. Can you beat him?