Even though I stayed with locals, it’s impossible to draw any conclusions and/or form any opinion about the country after a three-day stay. Still, there are a couple of things I wanted to mention.
Armenia is a relatively poor country, still, the level of mutual trust is surprising and runs counter to my idea that you need a society of splendor to achieve it. One can say that the priest was comfortable leaving his belongings in a wide-open temple just because there was nobody around who could take advantage of the situation. But in the building where my friends live, the front door has no lock and no buzzer. Moreover, they only lock their apartment at night or when everyone is out, just like I do.
Another thing that I noticed was the way people talk to stranges. It was not our regular over-cheerful/annoying American talkativeness, but very calm and respectful willingness to support a conversation, whether it’s a smalltalk, or a meaningful discussion. No pressure to buy anything at the souvenir shop. Only the cab drivers at the airport, looking for clients, were annoying, but cab drivers are always and everywhere cab drivers. By contrast, during the actual rides, cab drivers were remarkably silent.
Calm, peace, and respect – these words defined my stay in Armenia.
It started to snow on Saturday evening, and it kept snowing. And kept snowing. And it snowed all night until about 8 AM.
My hosts started to worry about whether I would be able to get to the airport in the evening, if the mountain pass wouldn’t be cleared of snow. And even before that, we planned to go to the Haghartsin Monastery, and we were unsure how the roads were going to be. By noon, however, it looked like the snow stopped, and the roads were drivable. My hosts ordered a cab, and had a unique experience of a ride on mountain serpentine roads with at least six inches of snow!
Finally, the cab driver said that he’s not goign to get us any further, and we walked a little bit up to the Haghartsin Monastery, where we had experienced the most beautiful winter fairy tale one can imagine.
I haven’t flown Lufthansa since 2020, and back then, I didn’t have a platinum status with Finnair, so I was not spoiled with lounge access and priority boarding. Several days earlier, I decided to upgrade my second inward flight to business class, because with six hours between flights, I couldn’t imagine surviving without the lounge. On the morning of Dec 24, I received an email from LH stating that the flight was full and asking passengers to check in their carry-on baggage free of charge. I didn’t want to check my cookies, so I decided the best way was to upgrade to economy premium. This gave me boarding group 3 instead of 6.
An hour before the departure, I was called to the podium along with many other passengers … and upgraded to business class🤷🏻♀️
The best thing about it was that I got almost six hours of sleeping horizontally, and was pretty much a normal person in the morning. The second best thing was that they served us a special LH spiced cocktail at departure.
And chocolates on Christmas morning, and one more small chocolate box right before arrival:
And our aircraft most definitely caught the eye of Santa Claus!
I worried a little bit about security in Frankfurt, because I knew that Germans are very particular with following the rules, and was not sure what would the say about sweet potato pie and a large tin of cookies in the carry-on, but to my surprise, German security had no issues with anything, and the only things that concerned the ORD security were two bags of protein powder.
I had a lot of time to spare in Frankfurt, which I spent in two lounges (the staff of the first one said they were closing at five, but it was quieter than the other one). I took their advice, and it actually worked well. Both lounges were indeed quiet and holiday-themed.
Something that really puzzled me in the business class blounge athroom – out of all places in the world, that’s where I would least expect it!
And something that pleasantly surprised me – a Christmas mini-dinner on the late-night flight to Yerevan. I can’t even remember the last time I had a goose! This one was very well made and had dumplings and cabbage on the side.
When we arrived in Yerevan, it was 4:15 AM local time, and I still had a 1.5-hour car ride to my final destination, but overall, the travel experience was the best possible for such a long trip!
So that I won’t leave a trail of stories-not-told, a quick recap of Monday and Tuesday.
On Monday morning, we went for breakfast to the Common Cup “to compare the breakfast sandwiches,” and the vote was that “both were good, but different.”
A coffee-cup decorated tree in the Common Cup
Shortly after, we left for Christkindl Market, planning to get there by its opening. The plan didn’t exactly work, since we had a couple of photo stops on the way (and a couple of fights), so we actually arrived at 11:20.
There was no wait, but the market was pretty crowded; besides, all three of us wanted food from three separate lines 😂, and it was really difficult to navigate. We got everything everyone wanted, and then we stood in a really long line for the best hot chocolate (Belgian, with a chocolate wrench on top).
Then, we went to the Sweet Castle store. As usual, there was a line to enter, but the girls were willing to stay in it. I told them they could get two small or one big thing each, and they ended up with gummy bears and hard candy (I hinted that there might be a lot of chocolate in the presents). By the time we got out of the Sweet Castle, the crowd had subsided a little bit. There were still a lot of people, but as Nadis put it, fewer intimidating, so we happily continued our journey exploring the market, and stayed in another line to get into the Christmas Ornaments store.
Next stop was a manicure appointment. We started walking toward the DePaul campus (where the nail salon is located), but there was a bookstore on our way, and we couldn’t pass it without going in and starting to read off the shelves :).
… and then since we were by Harold Washington Library, one can guess what happened next :).
On Tuesday morning, we were waiting for Anna and John to come and have a pre-Christmas celebration together. They ordered the food from Honeybear cafe, and picked it up on the way. Once again, Igor escorted my mom to my place, and we had brunch, and exchanged presents.
Igor and my mom left, the girls packed, and all five of us went to the Merry Merry Chicago Concert. For Nadia, it was for either the third or fourth time, and she was looking forward to it. Kira was restless, and at the end, she said it was boring, and she didn’t like it. I think it was indeed too long of a concert for her, because before that, she only attended half-hour children’s concerts.
I went how and started to get my life in order. Actually, this time, the girls did a very decent job of keeping things in order, so it was not like I had a lot to clean up. However, I also had to pack for a short trip, catch up with work and other responsibilities, visit my mom, and finally talk to Boris for longer than ten minutes at a time. This took pretty much all the time starting with after the concert till 6 PM on the Christmas Eve, when I left the house with my luggage.
Sunday was our Art Institute Christmas Day: as anyone should, we went to see Napolitan Creche and Miniature Rooms, and then headed to the Ryan Center to do the projects.
The theme of the projects was a newly opened Bruce Goff exhibit. We missed it on our way to the Ryan Center, but went to see it after lunch, and then returned to the Ryan Center one more time to make more art.
We all liked the Bruce Goff exhibit. I previously mentioned that I was disappointed with the Symbolism exhibit, and Nadia said she didn’t like it either. She said that the Bruce Goff “Material world” was also “Strange realities,” but the funny ones. I agree.
We finally left the Art Institute close to 3 PM, returned home, and then spent the evening decorating cookies. Last Christmas, Nadia did a great job with cookies, and I told her I could use your help, but this year, it was on a whole new level, and Kira helped as well. They decorated all of the remaining cookies and said they could do more 🙂
I was super impressed with this rocking horse – that’s one of the most difficult shapes to decorate.
Now, I am definitely employing their skills next year!
Igor picked up my mom, and they both came to have dinner with us, to socialize with the girls, and watch them decorating cookies.
My mom was really impressed with the work the girls did “on their own will,” and said that she understood how much work I had to do with the girls staying with me, and that she “sympathized with me.” When I told her that I do not see anything to be “sympathized” about and that I only do the things I enjoy doing, she got very upset and went on one of her regular rants about “my generation not being able to understand hers”, but I honestly have no idea how this all got connected in her mind!
Last year, I took Nadia to her first Nutcracker, and she was mesmerized with the performance, and was looking forward to this year’s one. This time, we also took Kira; I had somedoubts, especially because the way we got the seats, the girls were in the first row, and I was in the second row right behind them, ready to jump and put Kira on my laps. It was not necessary; although both girls fidgeted in their seats, theyloved the show. A very special Chicago Nutcracker was brilliant as always; I hope they will never change it 😊.
The introductory images with the pictures of the old newspaper articles about immigrant workers were as relevant as they could be!
Th usual pile of presents in the foyer
The official 2025 trailer:
The girls fidgeted the most during the Snowflake dance and during the final dance of the Sculptress, and indeed, if there are any “classic” parts in the Joffrey Nutcracker, these ones are. However, when I later asked them which parts they liked most, both of them mentioned these two. Kira said she wants to be one of these little Snowflakes :).
I especially liked this year’s Sculptress, her final dance was out of this world!
More of Joffrey Ballet Instagram (and you know I can talk about them for hours, so i ‘d rather stop now!)
I love making breakfast, and most people who stay with me love my quiche and breakfast casserole. But when it comes to Nadia and Kira, the only two parts of breakfast they love unconditionally are fruits and chocolate. For the longest time, Nadia loved my savory toasts (grenki), but the problem of Kira not eating anything except for fruits reamined. She would get hungry an hour after breakfast, just when we would be on the way to activities.
Last couple of times when the girls stayed with me, we went to Common Cup for breakfast (we also went to Charmers, but they didn’t like anything there except for the swings :). I thought that since they bioh love breakfast sandwiches, we should try to make them at home. I used to have a breakfast sandwich maker, but I didn’t take it from Palatine to Rogers Park in an attempt to reduce the clutter.
I browsed several models online, and the most simple (and cheap) one seemed to work the best.
The girst decided to make sandwiched just with eggs, with no extra ingedients. That was an easy recipe: beat an egg in the sandwich maker, microwave for one minute:
Warm up a brioche bun for 30 sec
Assemble and enojoy!
First time they tried it, both of them ate two sandwiches for breakfast, and one more for dinner (in addition to actual dinner:)). On the third day, they decided to go to the Common Cup “to compare,” and later made one more at home 🙂
Hettie's Reflections 