Ukrainian Christmas Traditions (i.e. LOTS OF FOOD)

Merry Christmas!

I haven't been reading lately because - present wrapping, cookie making, food preparation, house cleaning, table setting... So if you want book discussions - come back in a few days.

But I thought you might be interested to hear about my strange Ukrainian Christmas traditions. Warning: this post is mostly about FOOD because Ukies love FOOD and we will give you FOOD at any opportunity. So be prepared.

As Ukrainian Americans, we have definitely adapted some of our customs. Technically, the Christmas Eve feast begins when the first star appears in the night sky. Ours begins at lunchtime, because for dinner we go over to my dad's sister's house for more American festivities. 

(This would be a good time to point out that though both my parents are Ukrainian, my dad's side is larger and means that there are more non-Ukrainians in-laws.)

This is our table setting with special Ukrainian plates. (They were actually made in Kent, England, but hey. Whatever.) The little bowl and saucer right on the border between the two tables is for the dusha, or the souls of all the departed family members. We put a little bit of each food into it.

The first dish is this magical grain/honey/poppyseed/walnut sweet soup-like porridge thing called kutya. It's extraordinarily delicious. It goes in those little inner bowls. There's a Ukie tradition to flick a bit of it up onto the ceiling and see how many bits stick. We don't do this, for logical reasons.

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Next is borscht, beet soup. It tastes better than it sounds, and goes in the outer bowls. Sour cream completes the garnish. You can't eat it sloppily, because then your gorgeous white lace tablecloth will be splattered with red. And beet is like blood - it never comes out.

(Side note: if you want a good fake blood stain - use beet juice.)

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Ukrainians also like cabbage a lot, and mushrooms. And so we have:

~~Holubtsi, buckwheat pillows wrapped in cabbage leaves, with tomato sauce and ketchup* on top.

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*Though not traditional, ketchup has been adopted by Ukrainian Americans as quite a useful condiment. For me, borscht and holubtsi don't taste quite right without ketchup. 

~~Pierogies or Varenykiy, dumplings. You pick the filling: cabbage and mushroom? Potato and mushroom? Potato and cheese? Meat and cheese? Meat and mushroom? What about a desert flavor - cherries? If we cannot find you a varenik flavor you like, then Ukrainian cooking is a lie.

(But you won't find the meat filling on Christmas Eve - nope, for this feast, it's all vegetarian as a reverence to the animals there at Christ's birth.)

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~~Kapusta! Or, pickled cabbage. With mushrooms. Sometimes we put kovbasa (sausage) in it, but not on vegetarian Christmas Eve, of course.

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There's also tsvitliy, horseradish and beet mush. Wait, that doesn't sound very appetizing. BUT IT IS.

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And we can't forget babka, the delicious poofy bread in the middle of the table that holds the candle. We eat it afterwards. (You can see it in the middle of the table in the first picture.) (No, not the gingerbread house.)

I haven't named all of them, but technically there are twelve dishes for the twelve apostles. 

Other than food and eating and traditions-related-to-food, what do Ukrainians do on Christmas Eve?

We sing carols. A lot. The Ukrainian culture is very musical.

We open presents under the tree. But that's just a universal thing, right?

We are extra blessed when we sneeze. I don't know why, but sneezing on Christmas Eve means you'll have a lucky New Year. 

We...

I'm running out of traditions that have nothing to do with food. We like food. And I haven't even gotten to the deserts. 

Hey! you ask. But this is all Christmas Eve! What happens on actual Christmas?

Um. Ukrainians don't do much on the 25th, it all happens on the 24th. We went to church this morning. And now we're hanging around the house doing whatever and eating leftovers. My sister is actually doing homework. (Crazy, I know. WHAT EVEN.) We have been known to take out Thai food on Christmas.

I'm going to go off now to take advantage of the free time and read Once and Future King,  or maybe even work on some novels (FINALLY). I hope all your Christmases were wonderful, if you celebrate, and happy happy holidays!

We'll be back to our scheduled bookish program tomorrow. :-)

~Sophia

Tell me about your Christmas/Holiday traditions! What are some odd things you do that your neighbors do not? 

Top Ten Tuesday: Christmas Wish List

As always, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish!
(Covers link to Goodreads.)

Today's topic is: Top Ten Books I wouldn't mind Santa bringing this year.

People wondering what last minute gifts to get me for Christmas - take note. :-)
1-5 are books I've read and want to own copies of, and 6-10 are books I haven't read yet.

1. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.
I desperately want a nice box set. There are so many gorgeous ones out there!
   

2. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein.
So I can reread it and torture myself again and again and again.


3. The Grisha books by Leigh Bardugo.
Hardcover, of course. No paperback for these beautiful babies.


4. The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater.


5. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.


6. Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien.
This is a collection of letters that he wrote to his children under the name of Father Christmas. THEY ARE WORKS OF ART.


7. Texts from Jane Eyre by Mallory Ortberg 
Clever clever clever. I love it.


8. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
I've heard such excellence about this series.


9. The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey


10. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
I have never read any Rainbow Rowell. I must fix this deficiency.


What would you like Santa to bring you?

~Sophia

The Bible Project: Week ?? (We jump back in)

Christmas break seemed like a good time to jump once more into my Bible Project. Since a lot more people have found my corner of the internet since I last posted about this, I thought I'd do an explanatory post for my new friends.

The Bible Project came out of three things:

1. A New Year's resolution to read the Bible cover to cover

2. The fact that the Bible was on my Classics Club list.

3. An interest in exploring the Bible as a work of religious literature (i.e. literary analysis and not theological analysis). 

And so, I began. Originally, the goal was to post every week and so finish the Bible in a year. It went pretty well until college interrupted, and the whole endeavor ground to a halt in mid August.

I'm only about two thirds of the way through, so finishing the final third of the Bible in two weeks is definitely not going to happen. I've reconstructed my schedule a bit, to finish only the Old Testament this year, and complete the entire project in March 2015. If you click the button above, you can see my schedule.

Today is the day on my schedule where I'm supposed to talk about the books Jeremiah, Lamentations, Baruch, Ezekiel, and Daniel, so I'll write a bit.

These books are some of the Prophetic books, which make up the end of the Old Testament. I AM SO BORED OF THE PROPHETIC BOOKS. I talked about this way back in August in my last post on Isaiah - there's no story. It's just prophesies. I can't wait for the New Testament where we actually get some story and plot.

An interesting thing, though, is that particularly in Jeremiah, God is starting to talk about a New Israel, or a New Covenant, and there is a foreshadowing of change. So far, God has been giving people rules, speaking directly through the prophets, and directly punishing those who disobey. But after this "reformation," it won't be that way anymore. Children won't be punished for their father's faults, and the law of the Lord will be intrinsic more than extrinsic. Its not just a bunch of rules. It's more spiritual now too. 

"[The New Covenant] will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers... I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people." (Jeremiah 31:32-33)

This, of course, as we know, is building the foundation towards the New Testament, Jesus, and Christianity. 

Hey! Are you interested in joining me, and exploring the Bible from a literary perspective? Hop in and read the New Testament with me in 2015!

~Sophia

Beautiful Books #3: The Venice Novel Yet Again

And here we go with the third and final round of Beautiful Books. Next month - we're back to characters. Even though I'm taking a break from my Venice novel (Masked Souls is what it's called for now), I thought I'd still use it for the questions this month, just for consistency's sake. So here we go!

1. On a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best) how well do you think this book turned out?

Considering I didn't finish it... I'd say it was a solid 5. The pre-NaNo stuff did more for me than the actual NaNo writing. Which is weird.

2. Have you ever rewritten or editing one of your books before? If so, what do you do to prepare yourself? If not, what’s your plan?

I have never edited a book of mine. I've edited short stories, but not novels. And this darling Venice novel is not going to be edited anytime soon. I've got to finish it first. :-)

But here's my general plan:

~Print it out. (Waste of paper? Yes. But I think it'll help.)

~Read through and scribble in the margins. 

~Go through the word doc and change what I scribbled.

~Possibly rewrite the entire thing from scratch and start over.

I don't even know. Writing is madness. Why did we choose this weird writer's life, people?

3. What’s your final wordcount? Do you plan to lengthen or trim your book?

Ha, it's not done yet. All these questions assume it's done, of course. Nope.

Right now, I have one (also unfinished) version that's around 35k, and then this NaNo's version that is a little over 15k. So. I'm aiming for 60k in the end, though.

4. What’s are you most proud of? Plot, characters, or pacing?

Characters. Particularly da Vale, my antagonist.

But by the end of this process, I'm hoping I'm proud of my plot, too. 'Cause that baby's gonna need some work.

5. What’s your favourite bit of prose or line from this novel?

Actually, it's right in the beginning, from the Prologue. I love baby Zaneta. I think I had this excerpt in my last Beautiful Books post, but here it is again, anyway:

"Come dance with me, cuore mio," exclaimed Bartolomeo, clasping Besina in his arms and twirling her around his workshop. Zaneta, enchanted, leapt around, arms twirling, in the sort of graceless yet perfect dance that only children are capable of. Besina, with a mother's mind, gasped out, "Don't break anything!" but Bartolomeo only cried, "Dance with me!" and care was tossed to the wind. 

Laughing, twirling, and gasping for breath, the trio made their way out into the fresh and cold air of the Venetian autumn. "Don't catch cold," Besina said, still smiling, and draped her shawl over her daughter's tiny shoulders.  

"The canal drowned the moon!" Zaneta shrieked, awestruck, gazing at the reflection in the water before them. The little canal lapped onward, unknowing of its great misdeed.  

"The the moon isn't drowned," Bartolomeo laughed. "Look, the canal is only its mirror. It wants to see how fine it looks on such a clear night." He knelt down to Zaneta's eye level and pointed towards the shining moon in the sky. "Don't you think it looks fine?" 

"It's a fine moon," Zaneta agreed, soberly. "Moon! You're looking quite wonderful tonight!" 

She knelt down on the cobblestone and peered into the canal before her. "Ohh," she sighed, "I'm looking quite wonderful too."

6. What aspect of your book needs the most work?

Plot. Totally and entirely.

7. What aspect of your book is your favourite?

DA VALE. Need you even ask? I love my dear, troubled villain.

8. How are your characters? Well-rounded, or do they still need to be fleshed-out?

I love my characters. They are spectacular (in my opinion). 

9. If you had to do it over again, what would you change about the whole process?

Not rush it. Make more notes. Not have school randomly take up my writing time.

(That last one is perhaps something I cannot change.)

10. Did anything happen in your book that completely surprised you? Have any scenes or characters turned out differently to what you planned? Good or bad?

Da Vale is a bit different than I expected him to be, but I like where he's going.

Also, there is going to be a possible murder now. There wasn't, in the original plan. Mwahahaha!

11. What was the theme and message? Do you think it came across? If not, is there anything you could do to bring it out more?

I... don't have a concrete theme yet. Perhaps something about not trying to control life? Getting your priorities straight? Not going out with masked strangers who won't tell you their name?

12. Do you like writing with a deadline (like NaNoWriMo) or do you prefer to write-as-it-comes?

Both. Sort of. I like deadlines, but not too harsh. I don't want writing to become an utter chore, which is why I quit NaNo this year.

13. Comparative title time! What published books, movies, or TV shows are like your book? (Ex: Inkheart meets X-Men, etc.)

The Night Circus meets The Count of Monte Cristo. Or something. This is hard.

14. How do you celebrate a finished novel?!

Not this one, but I HAVE finished a novel before. So I celebrate with chocolate ice cream. And a flail dance around the house. And cheering family members.

15. When people are done reading your book, what feeling do you want them to come away with?

A certain nostalgic feeling of magic, an introspective look at humanity and motivations, and a desperate desire to visit Venice.

Have you ever reached the editing point in your novel writing? How do YOU celebrate finishing a novel?

I'm off to work on some OTHER WIP's now - all completely different from my Venice novel, and all completely outside my usual writing comfort zone. One is paranormal, about an unusual team of ghost-hunters. One is contemporary romance, about fame and its effects on people and relationships. And one is me playing around with Arthurian characters in a modern college setting. I'm having a lot of fun with that one :-)

~Sophia

Top Ten Tuesday: 2014 Books!

Hosted by the Broke and the Bookish.

Wow, today's topic is quite difficult - Best Books I Read in 2014! To make it easier, I'm going to ignore rereads - so it's become best NEW-TO-ME books. Also, I've got a pile from the library to read in the next couple weeks, and that pile has some books that I think might apply to this list once I read them. (Ahem, Blue Lily, Lily Blue.) So this is technically best books from January 1 2014 to December 16 2014. 

 Let's tackle this. Warning - caps lock abounds. These are my favorites, after all. :-)

(Covers link to Goodreads, titles link to my posts.)

1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 

Wow I just read this last January? It feels longer than that. This book is magical and well written and everything good combined. *blows kisses to it*

2. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

PERFECTION. That is all. PURE PERFECTION.

I know I keep saying this, but - it shall be a classic someday. I KNOW IT. It makes me go all CAPS LOCK WHEN I WRITE ABOUT IT SEE? I CAN'T HELP IT.

3. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

I love anthropology and exploring cultures - especially their folktales and myths. This book combines two creatures from two different cultures' folktales, and sticks them in New York. The result is simply magical.

4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

IT MADE ME CRY IN PUBLIC AND I DIDN'T EVEN CARE.

5. The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

The next book, Blue Lily Lily Blue, is staring at me and I will read it soon. Very soon. Or I may just shrivel up in the corner. I need it for my health, you see.

6. Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

SLAVIC FANTASY! Suggestion to all authors - if you are interested in exploring a new genre, consider Slavic Fantasy. If you do, then you will have me as your adoring fan for the rest of your life. Just saying.

7. The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells

This book is short. But that doesn't mean it's simple. It is FILLED with commentary and depth and creepy animal-human-monsters.

8. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

What can I say? Hugo's villains are THE BEST.

9. Cress by Marissa Meyer

Fairy-tale retellings! Science fiction! Cyborgs! 

Also, I met Marissa Meyer in person. I WILL NEVER STOP BRAGGING ABOUT THIS.

10. The Once and Future King by T. H. White

Okay, I'm only halfway through this one. But I definitely like it, and I have a feeling it will only get better. A point in it's favor is - I expected a serious Arthurian tale, and instead I got goofy antics, a snarky owl, some weird anachronistic references, and an utterly HILARIOUS Merlin. When humor - well-written humor - gets jumped on me like that.... I'm very pleased. And so it gets it's spot on this list.

What were your favorite books from 2014? Link me your TTT in the comments!

'Bout This Blogger Tag

 

Cait is one of my favorite people out there in this book blogging neighborhood of the internet. And about a week ago, she switched her blog from Notebook Sisters to Paper Fury! *cheers and throws confetti*

To celebrate, she made this blogger tag. Are you a blogger? Do you like parties and (virtual) cake? Then click on the button above and do this tag! There's a linky AND giveaway! 

1. Why did you start blogging?
I started blogging on Friday, May 17th, 2013.

2. What’s the story behind your blog’s name?
I have a whole page just for that! But basically it's from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. 

3. How many designs have you been through since you started blogging? (Pictures! We demand pictures!)
So far, just two. I don't do change very well. My first design looked something like this:

This is, of course, not actually it, but my private blog where I mess around with design ideas before they show up here. You also can't tell, but it was messy and had a lot of buttons on both sidebars. 
And then of course:

4. Have you ever switched blog platforms? What made you move? If you haven’t ever changed…why?
I have not. But I am considering  a switch to Wordpress. Eventually. Remember - I don't change things up on a whim. Tell me - Wordpress? Blogger? I want pros and cons!

5. How long does it take you to write a post? What’s your postly process like?
Oh, it varies. Reviews take the longest, around 40-50 minutes. Discussion posts, since I've usually been rolling those over in my head, take around 30 minutes. Questionnaires, tags, Top Ten Tuesdays, etc - those take shorter, about 20 minutes, though it depends on the length of the tag. 

6. Have you ever been super nervous about a post? Why?! What was it?
I was nervous once about a review I had to write for a book I absolutely did not like. I tried to be diplomatic about it, and find the good points. But I just hate writing bad reviews! I actually had my mom look that review over to make sure it was postable. Ugh. 

7. Do you have a blogging schedule?
Well, Top Ten Tuesdays are weekly on... Tuesday.
When I did do The Bible Project (I'm reviving it soon), those came on Sundays.
Monday Memories go up on the second Monday of every month. 

Other than that? I try to squeeze in something every so often, when I'm not studying for exams or writing papers. Nope - no schedule.

8. Do you tell people In-Real-Life about your blog? Their reactions?
Actually, I do. It's so weird for me to have Virtual Friends and IRL Friends, and not let the worlds collide. I only recently discovered the beauty and wonder of Virtual Friends, so I'm not used to having a separate Virtual Life. So I'll say things like (when talking with my irl friends about books), "Oh yeah, I just wrote about that on my blog! Hugo's villains.... etc." (I actually had a long conversation about villains with one of my friends, and drew on a lot of what I wrote about in my post on Hugo's villains.)
I think, ultimately, the reason I tell people about my blog is that I actually know bookish people irl. And so it's hard NOT to talk about a book blog when you're talking with someone who is just as obsessed with literature as you are.

9. Top ten blogs you read/comment on the most! Go! Go!
Um. I've been a neglectful follower/commenter lately (blame school). But let's see what I can come up with. If you show up on this list - note, I probably haven't commented on your blog lately. But I will, very, very soon!

~Paper Fury (of course)
~Spiral Bound
~The Thousand Lives
~Classical Carousel
~Life of a Random
~My Sky of Paper and Ink (New Blog Alert! Go welcome the wonderful Bennet!)
~This Page Intentionally Left Blank
~You, Me, and a Cup of Tea
~Books, Tea, and Me
~Adrift on Vulcan

10. If you could change/improve things about your blog, what would they be?
Hmmmm. Well, I feel like I just redid it (really, it was way back in August), so it's feeling preety perfect to me, right now. Yeah.

Now you know EVERYTHING about my blog! (Sorta.) Go join the party at Paper Fury! And give me some blog recommendations in the comments - I want to follow more awesome blogs this winter break! 

~Sophia

Freedom has come!

That is how I feel, now that Christmas break is FINALLY HERE.

For the last week (two weeks? Three weeks? Month?) I've been neglectful of this blog and the blogging world in general. (Sowwy.)

But particularly over the last few days I've been going crazy with the madness of finals week. If you follow me on twitter, you may have seen me counting down the days. Also, I sort of went crazy and started talking to myself:

And writing Les Miz parodies:

But - it all ended on Thursday and now I'm free! (For another month.) So in celebration of that, today I went to get a ton of books from the library! Here's my pile:

The Once and Future King (by T.H. White) is for my Arthurian Literature Challenge, and that's the one I'm reading first.

Next, of course, just HAS to be Blue Lily Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater,because THERE IT IS STARING AT ME. It is whispering "Come, read me, now!" I am utterly overjoyed that my library had it available. 

You see, my local library has been under construction for a while now, and will be until January-ish. A whole ton of books are in storage - available, but not without hassle. There are other libraries in the area (which is where I got TOaFK), but I just want my own library back! 

Thankfully, it still has some books available - just the newest ones though. I would like to point out something momentous. A while ago, I wrote about a library trip where it was notable how ALL the books I got were YA. Now, I've progressed from there. Almost all the books I got today were not only YA, but NEW YA. I was looking over the new YA shelf at my library and was rather excited when I realized how many titles I recognized. This is super cool. 

Of course, I'm not abandoning classics, but I adore that I am finally feeling comfortable in a new genre! Yippee!

What are some plans for this next month?

Reading ALL THE BOOKS. But that's just a given.

Catching up with blogs I've neglected to read.

Working on some WIP's I've neglected for the Venice NaNo project.

Christmas! (We have a tree and a wreath and lights. Next step is ornaments and decoration!)

Cleaning out my mother's bookshelf to make room for my own books. (Mwahahaha!)

Buying books to fill that bookshelf.

Possibly a vlog? We shall see. 

Have you read any of the books I just picked up? What did you think?

~Sophia