It will be a Texas Christmas

A couple of weeks ago we told Alyosha that we are going to Texas for Christmas. He is very excited about that, but I have to share the very first question and the resulting thought process he had after realizing that we are going to be away from home on Christmas morn. The obvious question is how will Santa Claus know where we are. That is easy, just write a letter, right? But, think about it, if we don’t write a letter and Santa leaves our Christmas wished presents at our home in Portland, then he sees some extra kids in Texas, he will have to leave presents there too—as long as there are cookies and milk set out— we will all get double presents! So, Alyosha asked if we could make cookies before we leave for Texas and put them in the window.

Although, he informed me today that he has way too many toys and he does not want any for Christmas. He only wants real science equipment-like a tele-microscope to look at fossils and he wants a dinosaur claw and/or tooth (real). Alyosha made sure that we know that LUKA wants a racecar with a track and extra train tracks. But, no toys for Alyosha. In fact he wants to go ask the homeless people who have built a camp a couple of blocks away if they have any kids so he can give his extra toys to them. (We ride our bikes by the camp every day-no kids though)

Other than just scheming for Christmas presents we have been busy little bees. Luka and Niki and I did the fall Polish the Pearl, picking up what little trash there was laying around our Tanner Springs and Jamison Parks. Roma and Alyosha were at Emanuel donating blood-we get the good citizen of the day award for that Saturday. (Alyosha doesn’t donate blood, by the way. He just goes with Roman once a month as support.)

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We also attended the Portland Art Museum’s free Family day that showcased the China Design Now exhibition. There was Chinese dance, music, food, art-making, and cultural activities. The kids really did have a good time, despite the looks on their face in the picture!

Luka and Claudia enjoying a walk on a beautiful Saturday morning. This was how we chose to wear the kids out before going to the Symphony in the evening. It worked for Luka, but Alyosha is too old for resting and naps now.

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Here we are walking to the Portland Youth Philharmonic. Yes, we walked all the way to the Schnitzer (basically across downtown) pushing the kids in strollers. Classy! I love living downtown! The kids earned the tickets from the library during summer reading—No parking, no problem! But, speaking of Luka’s nap earlier-he fell asleep during the performance. The sleeping part would have been ok, but he snores. Not just a cute baby snore; Luka snores a full blown hipposnore. Alyosha always tries to fall asleep first so he isn’t bothered by our little hippo. When Roma stepped out with Luka so we didn’t disturb the adagio, Alyosha said that it was ok because it was boring anyway. “Not the whole thing, just the music part” We thought about our time leading up to the symphony: reading this summer and talking the kids into taking symphony tickets rather than another water squirt gun as a prize; waking early for a full breakfast so we could hike just enough to wear them out for a good nap; cleaning up and dressing up for a fancy night out; walk across the whole town (in heels); patience waiting for the thing to start; snoring during the performance; the kids waiting in lines during intermission to try out each instrument (Alyosha has perfect ‘mouth pucker’ for the French horn and Luka rocks on the harp); 10 pm pizza because everyone is starving; bed at 11 only to still wake up at 7am the next day….is this cultural experience worth it? 110 percent.

We had a pre-visit from Cheryl. She is coming to have Thanksgiving with us next week, fun! She doesn’t give small kisses—only really, really big ones.

P.S. on this post….Roma has an interview! Yeah! I don’t believe in bad luck sharing this before it happens. In fact I believe in good luck because now all of you will pray and think positive things for Roma and if he is meant to get this job he will and if not, we will wait for the right one to come along! (Don’t bother him with questions though-it is an interview for a job he will like and that is enough for you nosey people. We will share more at the right time- patience is a virtue :-))

Berlin Wall

Twenty years ago my German Grandma was down by the Berlin Wall chipping away a piece for us to remember something that was disappearing. In 2000, Roman and I were in Berlin running across the erased border, fresh in our relationship we weren’t even considering much the ease with which we could explore that amazing city. We were constantly reminded of the new world we lived in though. First, except for the truth that no matter the impossibilities, soul mates are always destine to meet, our relationship would have been logically impossible just 10 years before we met.

Roman and I also spent that summer in Cottbus. Cottbus is a city about 2 hours by train south of Berlin in what was Eastern Germany. We spent an amazing summer there helping out a community youth center for kids. Its basic premise was to provide a place for youth to have freedom to create and meet that was their own—not on the street. We worked in the camp helping build rabbit pins and anything else they needed while we explored the city. My German family has roots from Cottbus—they helped build and acted in the Staatstheater in the very early 1900’s.

An amazing thing from that international camp was that every participant went through some major revolution or war in their country-except me. We had Russian, Chechen, Slovak, Czech and Kurdish participants. In the picture below we are standing around the statue of Karl Marx and Fredrik Engles. That camp would have been surly impossible even to imagine 10 years earlier. Even the impossible can happen. It really is an interesting world.

There is a lot I still need to think about if you ask me what I think about the collapse of the Soviet Union. The impact it has had on my family is huge but at the same time distant for me. I only experience it through the piece of wall I can hold in my hand or the stories from Roman. But, I know it was major. It happened 20 years ago yesterday. Wow.

Fifth Disease

From somewhere, Luka picked up fifth disease...or the slapped cheek disease. It is mostly harmless but highly contagious so here we go with the rounds of illness again! His little cheeks or bright red. I thought that he was just wiping his snots on his cheek and they were getting chapped, but no! Well, at least he doesn't feel too bad--but he is getting annoyed with skin rashes! He said "spots, spots, spots like chicken pox!"

Here comes the bride and there runs the groom! Run, Run Alyosha! I heard the girl say that she was going to have the most perfect princess wedding that is so beautiful, EVER. And she is going to marry Tom, if Alyosha isn't Tom then she will just change his name to Tom--there you go. I think it is time we start training Alyosha which girls are acceptable and which ones are to be avoided!

Niki isn't worried about fifth disease, he is under the immune protection of Mama's Milk. It's funny that these little infants are so vulnerable yet they have such a veil of protection.

It's a good thing that Niki has some special protection, because with two brothers that love him as much as Alyosha and Luka do--there is no way to prevent germ sharing!

Rocket Ship Rocket Ship

Alyosha is asking for new stories every night and all the time. We both like to make them up on the spot, so I thought I would start writing some of them down for good ole' memories sake.

Alyosha asked for a story about a rocket ship--so here is how it went:

Five years ago Mama and Papa were dancing around outside in the streets. It was a beautiful sunny day and no one was driving their car because it was so pretty outside.

Suddenly, we saw a rocket ship flying in the sky! It had a red rocket top, blue wings and a yellow body. It was going so fast up in the sky and Mama said that she wanted to take a ride. Papa pulled out his cell phone and called the rocket ship and asked it to land and take us up high in the sky. The pilot on the plane said that we should run as fast as we can to the airport and it will land down and pick us up.

So, we ran as fast as we could and climbed up the blue winged rocket ship with the red top and yellow body. Then we all counted down to take off...10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 lift off!!! (Alyosha then asked me if he was there too...I said no, not yet but wait)

Mama and Papa were flying around in the rocket ship and we looked out of the window. We flew over the ocean and the mountains and the beautiful desert.

Then we saw this gorgeous place with forests and rivers and clean air and water and we decided that we would jump out of the rocket ship with our parachutes and live there. So we took a big jump and floated down to the ground with our parachutes.

While we were floating in the clean, fresh air, Mama told Papa that she wanted to have a little baby boy. And Papa said that was a good idea and he wanted to have a little boy too, named Aleksei Eugene.

So then baby Alyosha grew in Mama's tummy. And that rocket ride was so great and flying through the air in the parachute was great. But having baby Alyosha was the best thing of all.