Christmas is coming? again, so soon?

It seems like yesterday I was looking out a February window overlooking the north side of my house thinking it would soon be spring. It seems like late last night it was the end of the school term and I was thinking,Nastia only has one more year of school and we have to keep her focused on going to college. Then this morning it seemed school had just started and Elena had made her famous pronouncement about trying harder at school. In less then a day most of a year has gone by it seems. I'm going to be sixty in January, Nastia is going to be nineteen in a few days and this summer, which will most likely feel like tomorrow, Elena will turn eighteen,time is more then flying by.
     The Girls both have jobs and it really messes with dinner. Most nights one or both get out past eight at night. We still try to eat as a family, it's just not a full family at the table all the time.
     The Girls are savers it turns out to my deep pleasure. Both have saved small fortunes, for them, in a short amount of time. Both are aimed toward taking driving lessons to get a break on insurance and to get their license a little quicker then I can teach them. It's OK, teaching driving can be a scary profession.
     With both having job, they are both some what on their own buying Christmas presents. In the past I either gave them some money or just let them pick from gifts I bought Teri. Emotionally their are still younger then their age as they strive to make the giant leaps it takes to become responsible adults in this hash world. One has already learned,I hope, one of the tough life lessons of being an adult.
     I still feel they are very naive and I can still seem them going over to a van to seethe puppies in it. I hope it is just my fears of being a father and I am seeing them through tinted glass and they done really act as young as I think they do.
     Their behavior is a total 180' from when they got here. They still curse like truck drivers, but they can behave well in polite society if need be. I won't delude myself into thinking they would rather drink tea at a social, then climb trees and let all that excess energy out. They will always be a little Russian wild on the inside no matter how old they get.
    My favorite memories of this time and forgive me if I embellish the stories, cause I'm not going back to reread them, are the two times I made up stories about Christmas. The first one was Christmas eve night, I was downstairs. Teri and the girls were upstairs. I thought it was getting late so I rush upstairs all excited and tell them I just heard Santa's sleigh bells and they better get to bed before his passes our house.They both run to their beds after a quick good night.
     The second one I told them happened in the Nyack house. I was in the recliner I got from my mom after my Dad died or it was a rocker, I don't really remember ( Go look up the story, I think it would be told around December 2010). I'm under a blanket, the fireplace has gone to ashes and I have fallen asleep. I hear some fabric rubbing against itself. I half open a sleepy eye and see Santa. He quietly puts his white gloved hand to his lips for me to be quiet. I close my eye as he goes back to leaving Christmas presents. I told this story in response to the question have I ever seen Santa or something to that effect.
     Christmas is only twenty-five days away now.






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