Today we closed the UEC. The staff works Thursday and Friday but we have shut the library down for this year. It's always an odd feeling that the year is ending. We delight in how many we have served. I came into the library and saw several people scouring the religion section (we call it the 200s since we use the Dewey system). I just find great joy in seeing that our dream became reality and that western financial resources are doing something genuinely good for both believers and non-believers. We are trying to close out the financial year as well. It's not been the best one for the UEC, at least the last few months. Costs have risen, the good ole US dollar just isn't worth what it used to be worth, and we have had numerous unexpected expenses. We are still trying to figure out how badly our projections missed actual expenses.
Tonight we had a church leadership meeting. Wasn't as productive as I had hoped but I think we made some progress. We did learn, though, that one of the students we have been working with has decided to be baptized this Sunday!! We are so excited about her decision.
And I am in the midst of planning a Christmas meal for 19. So far I have Wassail, a spinach dip, some sort of potato casserole, pumpkin pies, banana pudding, and I am thinking roast chickens with raisin and walnut stuffing. I search the internet for recipes but too many have ingredients we can't get here. Or it's just not worth the effort. I have two people searching the city for cinnamon sticks. Any suggestions for the rest of the menu? At this party, people are making financial donations to help cover the costs. Sort of weird how that worked out but I am glad that we aren't footing the bill for the whole thing. I guess the guest list would be shortened substantially.
We have a lot of snow and it's crazy cold. Crazy. The heat at the UEC doesn't work well and yesterday the hot water heater broke. So the water out of the tap can turn your hands blue pretty quickly.
The Ukrainian parliament just passed the national budget by one vote. Today, one guy who "voted" yes for the budget claims he wasn't in Kyiv when the vote was taken. He is suing to change the vote on the budget. It's not uncommon for deputies to vote for other deputies. I never quite understood how that worked but now we are starting to see that it really isn't the best idea.
Today, the sun noticeably started going down at 2:ooPM. It was the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.
Tonight we had a church leadership meeting. Wasn't as productive as I had hoped but I think we made some progress. We did learn, though, that one of the students we have been working with has decided to be baptized this Sunday!! We are so excited about her decision.
And I am in the midst of planning a Christmas meal for 19. So far I have Wassail, a spinach dip, some sort of potato casserole, pumpkin pies, banana pudding, and I am thinking roast chickens with raisin and walnut stuffing. I search the internet for recipes but too many have ingredients we can't get here. Or it's just not worth the effort. I have two people searching the city for cinnamon sticks. Any suggestions for the rest of the menu? At this party, people are making financial donations to help cover the costs. Sort of weird how that worked out but I am glad that we aren't footing the bill for the whole thing. I guess the guest list would be shortened substantially.
We have a lot of snow and it's crazy cold. Crazy. The heat at the UEC doesn't work well and yesterday the hot water heater broke. So the water out of the tap can turn your hands blue pretty quickly.
The Ukrainian parliament just passed the national budget by one vote. Today, one guy who "voted" yes for the budget claims he wasn't in Kyiv when the vote was taken. He is suing to change the vote on the budget. It's not uncommon for deputies to vote for other deputies. I never quite understood how that worked but now we are starting to see that it really isn't the best idea.
Today, the sun noticeably started going down at 2:ooPM. It was the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.
posted by Kyivmission at 1:33 AM
2 Comments:
I would do another vegetable or two. I thought hard of what you could do that would not require searching all of Kyiv and still would be unusual enough to be on the holiday table. How about roasted beet and orange salad? It's not hard to make, and looks and tastes marvelous. And I always love using seasonal ingredients. Let me know if you'd like to look at the recepie. Another fun twist would be to make green beens (that would be pretty good from frozen) from this year's presidential menu. Washington Post just ran an article on the First Lady of the Kitchen -- the White House chef with some recepies. This recepie was pretty standard --with onions and bacon. Have fun planning your dinner -- I probably should consentrate on planning mine!
Sorry but I read this too late. I still may go with the green beans since I can pick that up on my impending trip to the supermarket. At $8 a pound, I will probably skip the bacon. The menu has further evolved but I am so frayed at this moment I don't really recall what I am cooking.
Hope your meal goes well!!!
Merry Christmas!
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