It was a while ago when Igor introduced me to the Indiana Dunes, and since then we are trying to visit it at least once each summer. These trips are very special to both of us, which is why Igor bought this Christmas ornament for me. He bought it in summer 2018, managing to hide it from me on our way back to Chicago, delivering it safely to his home, and then five months later – to Anna’s home where we all celebrated Christmas.
This ornament made in from Indiana to Illinois, from Ilinois to Wisconsin, from Wisconsin back to Illinois – and then I dropped it on the floor in my house, and it broke! Can you imagine how I felt? I suppose you can!
I told Igor we will fix it, I promise. So in summer 2019, when we were at the Indiana Dunes, we went to the same store and asked them whether they still have these ornaments, and they did! I purchased one because it was the thought that was important, and made sure to deliver it home safely, and now it takes it’s happy place o the tree!
This week, presents started to arrive, and thus the second best part of Christmas has started! One of my most favorite moments is always the arrival of the parcel from New Zealand. Because… well, because it is New Zealand!!!
My friend made this neckless for me, with a coffee cup charm. And she and the girls baked some cookies:
Knowing that I was born in January 1963, you might think that my first Christmas was on December 25, 1963. But in fact, my first Christmas happened only in 1996, keep reading to find out why – this is going to be the longest post you ever read in my journal.
Before the October revolution of 1917, Orthodox Christianity was an official religion of the Russian Empire. The Julian Calendar which is two weeks behind the Gregorian Calendar, was used both in Church and in civic life.
After the revolution, the Church was separated from the state. Several months later, by a decree of the Revolutionary government, the country was switched to the Gregorian calendar. Christmas was denounced, along with all religious holidays, and Christmas trees were forbidden. That situation lasted until early 1930 were when the government decided to allow some of the fun to come back. Granted, there should not be any mention of Jesus. All the festivities were reassigned to the New Year celebrations. There was no more Christmas tree; it became a New Year Tree. The Bethlehem star on top became the Red Star. The Grandfather Frost remained more or less the same:).
Last Tuesday, we had a cookie decorating night in the Open Door Shelter. I brought in some cookies which we left undecorated on Sunday (when we ran out of decorating ideas), and also some dough to cut and bake.
That was the third time I organized the cookie decorating in ODS, and it was the best time ever. The youth got so engaged – the staff decided not to pull them out for other activities. Everybody did phenomenally. Some kids were saying they are not good with arts, but I replied with my usual “this is not a test.” At some point, the staff joined us in the kitchen, and I asked – would you like to cut the cookies? And they did and also decorated some.
I am inserting several pictures with their work in progress and the finished cookies. I was amazed both by their creativity and delivery:) I told them they are invited to my house next Christmas to help me decorate 🙂
I still have several minor Christmas to-dos: a couple of people will stop by my house for cookies pickup, I still need to wrap two presents which will be delivered after Christmas, and I still didn’t pack for my holiday adventure. Nevertheless – today is a quiet evening, and I feel very satisfied with what I’ve done this season.
All the things I’ve done are the ones I love to do, things which are an integrala part of my Christmas, and which I do not want to do in a hurry or just for the sake of them being checked. There are two charities which I am doing every year for the holidays: the Secret Santa for Chicago public schools and “Adopt a family” at the Palatine township.
Secret Santa I am participating is probably much like any other Secret Santa project in the US; it’s just that I know people and have seen all their activities expanding. I am doing it for nine or ten years. For the first several years, they also asked us to write the kids the letters from Santa. From myself and Anna, it was the most enjoyable part, but I guess not all of the donors were up to that, so later we were only asked to buy the gifts.
There are always some interesting letters. Once a boy asked for the real dinosaurs, and we bought him a dinosaurs book and a toy dinosaur, and write a letter from Santa asking to practice the dinosaur care first. I remember how I cried when a girl from the family shelter asked for “a bag to carry my stuff around.” I remember the thank you letters, where the kids would write that they had “the best Christmas ever.”
For this program, the donors are limited by $35-$40 per child; all presents are opened in the classrooms, and the program coordinators are trying to avoid comparison. It becomes a challenging task, especially when the kids also ask for clothing, but I learned to be creative and to shop for good prices.
This yeat, one of the letters read: I want this and that, and actually, I want a real puppy, but I know Santa you can’t get it for me, so a toy puppy on the leash will do!
I like that this program starts very early in the season, and you can shop avoiding the crowd. But this year, this same fact presented an extra challenge for me: I had to shop for the presents before the conference and the training. But in the end, I was able to put some thoughts into it, and package everything nicely, and deliver to the only gift collecting points in the Loop.
As for “Adopt a Family,” I did it the first time in 2000 when I felt that so many people helped me, that I need to give back. It turned out it was too early. Having to buy presents for one more family in addition to mine, spending $75 for each family member was over my budget. I returned to this program several years later, and my kids took the most active part in our gift giving. Maybe, next Christmas I will share some of our old stories, but now I just wanted to say that this program is equally important to me. It allows me to give back to my community, which helped me a lot when I first came to Palatine.
This year, as always, I discussed all the gifts with Anna, and they arrived on time and were ready for delivery. For several years now, the program asks for the gift cards for adults in the family, “to purchase food and necessities,” and I always feel sad that I am not allowed to add anything personal for adults. I would love to add it 🙂
This is an official name of this recipe from Betty Crocker, and the recipe is indeed mind-blowing in terms of how much chocolate you need! Each time when I am preparing to make a double, I am surprised yet another time :).
Since we live in Grandfather Google times and can always ask him, I will spare you from yet another copy of the same recipe. Instead, I will post a couple of pictures my friend Lena made in process of the cookies creation.
I did very little blogging in the past week because my life took over my virtual reality, and I am trying to catch up now! The most significant part of my Christmas is baking, and I had a Big Baking Weekend! My friend Lena from Ann Arbor came to visit me, and we spent the weekend like in old times. We did it for so many years before Lena moved away from Palatine, we know each other’s recipes, Lena knows where the things are in my kitchen and how to organize an assembly line.
Here are some more pictures in addition to the last week’s photos.
From left to right: sugar cookies, tea cakes, white chocolate- macadamia, thumbprints. Second row: chocolate chips, double chocolate,kolacki Gingerbread and sugar cookiesI can’t make gingerbread cookies, so if Lena is not here, I have none. But this year she is here!Continue reading “My Christmas Baking Days”→
One more attempt:). For some reason this post didn’t get published three times! I think, I’ve messed up with scheduling somehow. Still, since I will be posting more about my cookies, let me first make sure that my first Cookie Day got published, a week later.
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I thought that I’ve at least updated my friends about my life, but I was wrong:). In a couple of words: Friday afternoon I took a half day off work and took my Mom to the concert, then to see the Marshal Fields windows decorated for Christmas, and then to Christkindle Market.
We had it on Friday, December 13. And nobody was afraid of it :). The only bad thing for me was that I was so tired, I didn’t even sty till the official end time.
We had it in Apogee rooftop bar. Granted. the food and drinks in zBar will always taste better for me, true or not :), but the views are unbeatable!
Must – see. This has happened in America. I think it proves first, that no nation, no country is pure and innocent, and it also proves that a country can stop at the edge and not “fall over a cliff”.
Be sure to visit a documentary website https://anightatthegarden.com/ for Q&A
That’s Madison Square Garden, to be specific. This is a short video produced and directed by Marshall Curry documenting a 1939 pro-Nazi demonstration held in New York’s Madison Square Garden. It was attended by some 20,000 New Yorkers (what? you say they were all from New Jersey?) and, yes, by a few 1930s vintage “antifas”.
We’re a divided nation these days, but that, by itself, is nothing new.
For more information about the film and the history, check the video’s web site.
Hettie's Reflections 