Christmas in Kazakhstan

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL!!!


It’s Christmas night here in Almaty, Aidan just went down for the night (we hope!), we’ve sat down to watch a few DVD’s (Gilmore Girls, for those of you who want to know) and I have a minute to catch up on the posts!! We hope all of you are having a wonderful Christmas and we miss you all!!

We’ve had a terrific and amazing (and, yes, we’ll admit, at times challenging) first few days as new parents with Aidan. He is a beautiful, sweet, energetic, and full of life. He’s also teething and getting used to his new surroundings, so he’s been a little fussy and frustrated, no doubt also due in part to our loving inexperience. All in all, he is doing really well with his new life and we’re completely crazy about him.

Yesterday, Christmas Eve, Aidan again woke up happy (after a 3 a.m. bottle) and was happy to play on a comforter on the floor with his toys. We gave him a bath in a little red plastic tub in the shower stall (there’s no bathtub), and he liked it! I see swimming lessons in his near future. Anyway, we dressed him in a little red fleece outfit with a train on the front and decided to take a walk to the mall, the Ramstore. We called our travel partners and we all thought we’d meet for lunch at the food court. Before lunch, we stopped at the grocery and bought more formula (3 days, and one can already gone!) and bottled water and paper towels. Then we met up with Kris and Dan and Ann (and Shaylen and Clara) at the food court, near an indoor skating rink. We ate pizza and fruit salad while we watched little girls practice their figure 8’s. Aidan liked watching the little kids at the food court. We also took a few pictures by the BIG Christmas tree outside of the mall. Then we walked back to the apartment, and tried to put Aidan down for a nap. He would have none of it. We know that he’s still getting used to everything, and it’s likely causing him (among other things – i.e., teething, etc.) to not want to sleep, but then he gets very cranky and then it becomes impossible to put him down. We struggled with him all afternoon but he refused to take a nap, so we eventually gave up and let him play with his toys, but he obviously was very fussy. At 6:00, we met our friends out for Christmas Eve dinner at a restaurant called the Guinness Pub (yes, a friendly irish pub-like place), and I had chicken curry (yes, not irish) and Scott had chicken wings. We had a big cozy booth for all of us, and it was fun, but Aidan was not happy. He was tired and having a rough time with his teeth so we called it a little early night at 8:00 and went home and put him right to bed for the night.

Scott and I stayed up and wrapped the few little presents that we had brought from home for Aidan and put them under our little tree. It was a lot of fun- our first Christmas playing Santa, and it was great! We were exhausted so we wished each other a Merry Christmas and went to bed at 10:00.

Luckily, we all slept until 7:00 a.m.! Aidan woke up much happier, all smiles and ready for his very first Christmas!! We fed him a bottle, gave him a bath, and put him in his cute striped sleeper. Then, we turned on the Christmas music, lit our Home for the Holidays candle, showed him the tree and all the little presents! He seemed to know right away that the presents were for him, because he started reaching for them right away. We had fun opening the rattles, the stuffed animals, and the books. He liked all his presents, and christened everything but giving them a good chew! Pretty soon he was surrounded by paper and gifts, just like a little elf. He was happy to play with his presents and crawl after mom and dad as we were all getting ready for the day. Our friend, Ann, had located a Catholic church – the only one in Almaty - and we decided to carpool to the noon mass. Aidan looked so cute in his striped Santa hat and his red polartec snowsuit. We were a few minutes late because our driver underestimated how long it would take to get there – it was on the outskirts of the city, and it was a bumpy 25 minute ride, but we made it. We snuck in the back and took a back pew. Aidan was entertained for about 20 minutes, and then we gave him a bottle, let him play with Lobby, and tried to keep him from getting fussy. Eventually we took turns taking him to the back of church, and we think he liked the view better from there because he was in a better mood then.

After church, we went back to the apartment and tried again to put Aidan down for a nap, but he didn’t want to go so we didn’t force it. We had a nice afternoon though. He was a happy crawling boy, motoring all around the apartment and looking at everything. He’s so cute when he crawls, because his arms are really stiff and he slaps the floor hard with each hand, very deliberately. He smiles the whole time like he’s very proud of himself! He did end up falling asleep for about an hour, and Scott and I watched the Polar Express, which I thought was a very cute Christmas movie for a lazy Christmas afternoon. The apartment smelled like our Christmas candle and it was warm and cozy in here and if we blinked our eyes, it seemed like home.

For dinner we met our friends at the German restaurant. The atmosphere was terrific – the inside was designed as if you were walking in a little German village, complete with Christmas decorations. We had given Aidan a little baby Tylenol before dinner, and that helped a lot – he was happy to sit on our laps and bang on the table. We laughed a lot and ate good food (I had chicken and mushrooms and Scott had chicken shashlyk – Kazakh style shish kabab). We again are so glad for our lovely travel partners. They have made this trip, especially during the holiday, so so nice.

We really had a nice little holiday here in Kazakhstan, and feel so lucky to have Aidan, the best Christmas present ever.

We wish all of you the merriest of Christmases. Thanks to all of you for your warm Christmas wishes, and we send them back to you threefold.

With love,
The Dannenfelsers