COLUMBIA, S.C. — This could be a rough holiday season for the Mazur family.
It’s the first Christmas this Ukrainian family of five has spent in America after they fled Russian bombs and the war back home to seek a safer life in suburban Chapin. The family — dad Alex, mom Olga and kids Ilia, Kate and Vicki — will miss out on some of their usual Ukrainian holiday traditions. But after a traumatic year for the Mazurs and the rest of their country, they are spending this season counting their blessings.
“We get invited to a lot of places,” Olga told The State earlier this month, although at the time the Mazurs had no firm plans for where they would celebrate their first Christmas in the U.S. “We’re open to celebrating anywhere.”
