{"id":1916,"date":"2012-12-27T11:23:40","date_gmt":"2012-12-27T09:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/?p=1916"},"modified":"2012-12-27T12:00:29","modified_gmt":"2012-12-27T10:00:29","slug":"so-how-was-your-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/so-how-was-your-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"So How was Your Christmas?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christmas is over, at least in the West. The day after Christmas shouldn’t be a downer. It should be just as joyful as the day before Christmas! The Messiah has come, he is here, our God is with us, Emmanuel!<\/p>\n

One thing we really like about living in Ukraine is that everyone here celebrates Christmas on January 7th. That means we get Christmas twice and December 25th is just the start of a 2 week-long celebration of the birth of Jesus!<\/p>\n

\"I

I got a nice scarf and a mug!<\/p><\/div>\n

So how was your Christmas? I received a few nice gifts from family and friends. It seems that gift certificates on Amazon are especially popular this year. I’m grateful for that because I like to read and e-books<\/a><\/span>\"\" make it so much easier for me to buy and read books here in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\"It

The view from our apartment<\/p><\/div>\n

We had a white Christmas,\u00a0sort of. It was cold and snowy right up until Christmas day. \u00a0On Christmas day it finally warmed up to above freezing and by the end of the day most of the snow had melted. \u00a0It was still nice to see the white stuff on Christmas morning.<\/p>\n

\"Some

Some “Bear Claws” my sister made for Christmas brunch<\/p><\/div>\n

My sister (Rachel) and her family came down from Kiev to celebrate with us. She continues the tradition my mom started by baking “Bear Claws” for Christmas brunch. I ate way too many in addition to all the other sweets!<\/p>\n

\"We

We even got a few gifts from family in the US<\/p><\/div>\n

The kids got some cute gifts from family. Gifts like these are even more precious when they come from across the ocean!<\/p>\n

\"My

My sister Rachel and her husband Mike with the kids<\/p><\/div>\n

It was great to spend time with Gustafsons. \u00a0I know that many missionaries don’t have the luxury of having family in the same country. \u00a0Rachel and her family live about 6 hours north of us in Kiev. \u00a0We also have Christina’s parents who live about a 5 minute walk from our place!<\/p>\n

\"We

We enjoyed celebrating\u00a0Jonathon’s\u00a0first Christmas with him<\/p><\/div>\n

After Christmas dinner we got together with our fellow ABWE missionaries here in Odessa for dessert and a gift exchange. We also sang some carols and I read my new Christmas poem.<\/a><\/span>\u00a0 In all it was a good day. We remembered the birth of our Savior and celebrated the coming of the Messiah with family and friends.<\/p>\n

P.S.<\/p>\n

I also want to convey my thanks to everyone who downloaded my e-book “Church, Tradition and Scripture”<\/a><\/span> over Christmas weekend. \u00a0There were nearly 1,000 downloads!<\/p>\n

P.S.S.<\/p>\n

We didn’t manage to take a family picture with all the Christmas celebrations going on. \u00a0I’ll try to get one out after New Years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christmas is over, at least in the West. The day after Christmas shouldn’t be a downer. It should be just as joyful as the day before Christmas!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-1916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","tag-christmas"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/DSC01796.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3izZc-uU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2023,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/why-we-celebrate-christmas-on-january-7th\/","url_meta":{"origin":1916,"position":0},"title":"Why We Celebrate Christmas on January 7th","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"January 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm still surprised by how many people don't know that December 25th is not Christmas in Ukraine! When I tell them that we celebrate on January 7th the usual response I get is, \"Oh,\u00a0so two weeks later?!\" Then I say, \"No, we celebrate 50 weeks earlier than the West!\" That's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family"","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/DSC02165.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/DSC02165.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/DSC02165.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6116,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/merry-christmas-from-the-sukos-in-ukraine\/","url_meta":{"origin":1916,"position":1},"title":"Merry Christmas from the Sukos in Ukraine","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"December 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Christina and I want to wish you and your family a merry Christmas this year. May today be a true celebration of the birth of the Savior who came to live and die and save the lost. The truth of Christmas is why we are here in Ukraine! Thank you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ministry"","block_context":{"text":"Ministry","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/ministry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-25-at-11.50.47-PM.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-25-at-11.50.47-PM.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-25-at-11.50.47-PM.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-25-at-11.50.47-PM.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-25-at-11.50.47-PM.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7316,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/christmas-hope-for-orphans-in-ukraine\/","url_meta":{"origin":1916,"position":2},"title":"Christmas Hope for Orphans in Ukraine","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"December 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"What image pops into your mind when you think about Christmas morning? Of course it should be Jesus, and probably second to that is some sort of family gathering. Loved ones, smiling faces, hugs, and maybe even tears of delight with the opening of that perfect gift! Unfortunately all these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ministry"","block_context":{"text":"Ministry","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/ministry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/0-02-05-009.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/0-02-05-009.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/0-02-05-009.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":256,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/merry-christmas-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":1916,"position":3},"title":"Merry Christmas!","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"December 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"May you and your family have a blessed Christmas celebration as we remember the birth of our Savior together. Merry Christmas! Caleb, Christina, Naomi, Mishael, Noelle, Anastasia","rel":"","context":"In "Family"","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/images\/christmasgreeting08.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":125,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/merry-christmas\/","url_meta":{"origin":1916,"position":4},"title":"Merry Christmas!","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"December 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Family"","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Christmas Greeting 06-735454","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/69.89.31.195\/~sukofami\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Christmas-Greeting-06-735454.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":552,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/merry-christmas-4\/","url_meta":{"origin":1916,"position":5},"title":"Merry Christmas!","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"December 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"May Christ be at the center of your celebration this year. Christmas blessings from the Suko family. PS Sorry about the snowflakes, I know it looks a little corny but just couldn't resist.","rel":"","context":"In "Family"","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}