Sviata Vecheria--2012

By now, you all probably know the drill—every year we celebrate Ukrainian Christmas big time! On January 6th we have a Christmas Eve dinner—called Sviata Vecheria. We cook a ton of food…

Invite some close friends (by special invitation only! You have to really earn your privilege to join the Watsons for Ukrainian Christmas-haha).

This year we had just two families and not very many kids. The kids still got to sit at the table in the living room though with our old tablecloths underneath to protect the carpet-haha.

Here is our little Ukrainian with one of her best friends.

Every year, after I make up my crazy menu of twelve dishes, I decide what dishes I could ask my friends to bring. So this year, I asked one of my friends to make kanapki (sorry don’t have a separate picture of them but you can see them on the first picture to the left). Kanapki is sort of like canapés—bread and spread of some sort with a piece of meat, vegetable or something. They were very yummy, although a bit Americanized-haha.

My other friend made Lemon Cake called Ganna (like the name derived from Anna, not the country). It was delicious too!  She said she had to use A TON of eggs.

And of course, I had to make my favorite Napoleon. I know it doesn’t look nearly as good as it tastes, but I love it!

We also had an extra honorary guest from Ukraine this year—my mom. So she helped tremendously by making Borsch (that’s a new thing at our Sviata Vecheria since I don’t really know how to make it), Holubtsi (cabbage rolls) and Venigred (beet and bean salad).

This is our annual tradition too—to wear our Ukrainian outfits and take pictures.

Here is the whole gang. Boys are growing out of their embroidered shirts! (ummm…except Robert is staying the same in height and width). We might have to get something new for them next year.

Let me tell you, it’s quite a special feeling to celebrate my Ukrainian holiday with my American friends in Japan. Kids absolutely love all the festivities we do—just need to learn some more Ukrainian carols, besides Carol of the Bells.

You can read more about our celebrations from previous years by clicking on the links: Ukrainian Christmas 2011 and Ukrainian Christmas 2010.

It will be interesting to see where we’ll be celebrating next Ukrainian Christmas. Maybe in Ukraine?