Elena chimes in “God bless us everyone!” Everyone smiles, for it is Christmas and it is snowing outside (somewhere) and this is the night we have all waited for over the years.
OK, I’m fibbing here a little bit. Elena didn’t say God bless us everyone, but she so fits the part of Tiny Tim so well that I had to put that in.
Oh, you don’t believe that part about our humble home either? Well Momma did say “it is late”. Ok it wasn’t sweetly either.
OK, Ok, you want the truth, well here it is.
I had waited to make cookies because my job had been keeping me busy and I didn’t have the time until Christmas Eve to make the cookies. Teri had asked for the Niemen Marcus cookies to be made, they are delicious, but take a lot of time to make. You have to grind oatmeal into a fine powder and mix a bunch of different ingredients and it takes time and there wasn’t that kind of time, but I wanted to do it.
Sorry Teri. Teri yells this information at me and I get angry and walk off to watch TV. She was right and I really hate it when she is.
After a while she goes upstairs and I hear her talking with the kid. It starts to get late and I feel the girls should be going to bed. I get struck with this great idea and I bounce it around in my head for a few seconds. I’m still not in a very good mood and I question if I can pull it off feeling like this. I figure what the hell, and go for it.
I run up the stairs and Nastia is in the bathroom and I rush to the window and ask her if she just saw Santa Claus go by. I was outside and I saw him go by. She gets all excited and Looks out the window. At this point I know it is going to work. I run over to the bedroom window and ask Elena if she had seen Santa out this window. She says no. I tell them both that they better get to bed so Santa will come. They rush down stairs and get Santa a glass of milk and I say maybe he might like chocolate milk and they excitedly add some chocolate syrup to the milk. They put the milk out next to a cookie plate and then hurriedly add some left over Halloween candy to the plate and run up stairs kiss Teri good night and then me and are in bed in just over seven minutes and are a sleep within ten. If any of you know how Elena sleeps you will know that that is the big miracle of the night. Most nights she tosses and turns for an endless period of time before she finally settles down and sleeps. The next morning you will usually find her almost upside down in her bed with the covers off her and mostly on the floor.
The second miracle happened after Teri and I stayed up until three in the morning. The reason we sat up that long wasn’t that we were putting together presents, we just were sitting up talking and drinking some 43 and time just passed. Any way the second miracle was the girls slept in until nine in the morning. I managed to get down stairs first and the girls, Nastia came down and gave out a big “wow!” Elena eventually followed and gave out the same big “wow”. Teri came own and we had a very special Christmas morning. It took the girls about 45 minutes to unwrap all of the presents they got. They were given some really nice gifts for everyone and there were more to come when they went over to Eric and Lynn’s house and Karl and Madeline’s house later in the day. The only thing wrong with all of this is they have received more in a twelve hour period then they have ever gotten in all of their life before this. I know there is some making up for lost time here, but some really nice gifts have gotten put aside and been forgotten by the girls and it is not due to lack of enjoyment, but being overwhelmed by all of this sudden abundance. Next year, well let’s just wait until next year to say anything.
The late twelve months have been the highs and the lows for this family. Teri and Nancy have lost their mother and Joe has had cancer surgery and we were not sure if he would make it. Now he looks real good and I hope he feels the same. And we lost Mosha after fourteen years. She had become such a part of our lives that even after all these months it is still hard to imagine our lives without her.
We have make the trip to Russia and come back with a life time of memories and two wonderful girls who have done everything possible to fit into their new lives and to do it with as little fuss as possible. They are both loving and warm and friendly children and we are proud to say they are our children.
We are very hopeful for the New Year. That the girls will continue to grow and adapt to their new life with the same enjoyment and wonder they have shown in the first three months they have been here.
As I said in December of 08 going into 09. It’s going to be better.
