Holiday Baking
Author: Hettie D.
My name is Henrietta (Hettie) Dombrovskaya. I was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russian (actually, back then – Leningrad, USSR) in 1963, and immigrated to the United States in 1996.
I love Saint Petersburg, the city I was born and raised in, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Similarly (but differently) I love Chicago, and can’t imagine myself moving somewhere else in the observable future.
I have three children, Igor, Vlad and Anna, all adults living on their own, and one (so far) granddaughter Nadia. I also believe that my children are the best thing that happened in my life.
As for my professional life, I am working in the field of Information Technologies. When I was twenty, I’ve declared that the databases are the coolest thing invented and that I want to do them for the rest of my life. Thirty plus years later, I still believe it’s true, and still, believe that the databases are the best. These two statements together imply that I think a person can have it all, and indeed, I think so! Keep reading my journals to find out how I did it.
Matching Donations
My firm has a charitable contributions portal where you can pledge to one of the tens of thousands of charities directly from your paycheck, and in addition, you can also upload your donation receipts to be matched.
Last time I did it, it was only $500 match annually, which was very little, but at least something, so I uploaded a couple of the Night Ministry receipts, but I didn’t bother matching the monthly donations.
And I completely missed the moment when the matching amount for a year was tripled, and only saw it when the firm announced an additional $500 matching for two weeks of giving in November.
If you recall, for the past two weeks, I was under a lot of pressure at work and had absolutely no time to upload the receipts. Finally, last Friday, when HR reminded us about the last day of additional matching, I realized I did not want this money to be lost and needed to act fast.
Fortunately, my big project was on track, and I planned to leave early, so I spent the last hour and a half of my Friday workday uploading receipts. I was delighted to see that somebody had already submitted the Ukraine Trustchain to the list of approved charities, so our firm matches donations to them.
Most of my receipts are coming at the end of the year, so to speed things up, I chose from my one-time donations, which were already in my “taxes” list, but it was more than enough to use all of these 2K matching money, and I was so proud of myself that I didn’t let them go!
The Rest Of The Week
It used to be that around Thanksgiving I would announce on my social media that I am taking a month-long break from political and social issues and focusing on presents and cookies. This year, however, it was so much work, that all my Christmas activities would remain in the shade, and I am not even sure how I managed to get all charity presents, order the Christmas tree and schedule the holiday cookie baking.
Now, looking back at the first week of December, I am happy to report that it actually looked quite Christmasy.
I attended the first Christmas party of that season – the WiFi party – on Tuesday, and it was surprisingly fun, having that I barely participate in this group activities. I even added some LinkedIn connections!
Then it was Elf on Wednesday; and also, I went skating twice, once during the day and once after work, and saw this year’s Christmas tree.
I even stopped at the Christkindlmarket, although I want to go again at least twice!
And I already mailed all my international postcards, which is a record!
Elf at Auditorium
Somehow, I never saw the movie Elf (and the musical plot is slightly different), and it was the most pleasant surprise one could imagine. Now I wish they would bring this musical to Chicago every Christmas season! One small detail that brough me joy – when it is snowing in the end of the show, it’s not paper and glitter snow, but a real snow! I don;t know how they do it 🙂
Pictures from the website:
Continue reading “Elf at Auditorium”It’s Beginning To Look Like Christmas
Boris wouldn’t care much about Christmas decorations, but he knows it’s important for me, so he always helps me to decorate during this Thanksgiving weekend.
This year, I made some changes in my decorating routine, threw away some old and worn decorations, and just stopped trying to put everything on display. Boris checked all the lights. One of the light strings was not working, but it turned out that I bought two extras last year just in case:).
The presents are for the Secret Santa for Chicago Public Schools, which I have been doing for at least 16 years. This year, I had three letters, and I managed to fit most of the requests into budget.
Today, I dropped off the presents at a collection point, and in a week and a half, they will be distributed. Next in line are the Night Ministry presents; I already purchased pretty much everything, just need to pack.
Thankful
I think it was the first time ever that I started my giving thanks with thanks to the US political system, specifically for federalism. Only because of that, plus our still independent Judicial system, that the Illinois government can still protect their citizen and resist the most outrageous thins that come from federal government. I am immensely proud of our state, our governor and our judges, and thankful to them!
I am thankful that I have a job which is, though intense and plainly hard as no other job I had before, makes it possible for me to earn enough money to do good to many people and support the causes that are important to me.
I am thankful to Boris who emotionally supported me through this tuff year more that ever; I am thankful that we still keep the flame of our love for so many years and do not see it fading:).
Thankful that all my children are the amazing individuals they are.
Thankful for my home, my neighborhood, and my city. I am as much at home here as i ever been in my life.
Homeless in Chicago
Last night, when my neighbor and I were returning from a Christmas show in the Auditorium Theater, we passed a long row of cardboard boxes that homeless people used to protect themselves from brutal overnight temperature. Nobody was panhandling. They were just trying to survive till morning.
When we got on the L-train, the first thing I saw in the new was this WBEZ article. Full text below.
As cold weather hits Chicago, Trump’s new policies on homelessness criticized
Feds said they plan to shift $3.9 billion from long-term housing to housing that requires work and addiction treatment. More than 7,500 Illinoisans could lose their permanent housing.
By Michael PuenteDec 3, 2025, 8:48am CST
For people experiencing homelessness like Ivan Patterson, Monday night’s snow was another reminder to get out of the cold and into a shelter.
“It beats staying under a bridge. It’s too cold to do that,” 52-year-old Patterson said outside the Shelter Placement and Resource Center at 2241 S. Halsted in Pilsen.
The Memphis native said he’s been staying at the shelter for a week even though he holds a job at a nearby Jewel-Osco supermarket.
“I’m trying to get my apartment again, but it’s been tough. It’s too expensive,” Patterson said.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced plans to shift $3.9 billion in long-term housing funding to transitional housing requiring work and addiction treatment.
Just as temperatures drop and the city digs out from under record snowfall, housing advocates say that the new policies could put people at risk of losing long-term shelter.
“We believe that over 7,500 people in Illinois are at risk of losing their permanent housing,” Christine Haley, chief homeless officer for the Illinois Department of Human Services, said Tuesday.
“The Trump administration is moving away from housing first. We’ve seen that this was on the horizon … in a few different ways,” she said. “Through the president’s executive order to fight crime, it talked about moving away from housing first. It talked about utilizing grants as a way to implement this new piece of really criminalizing homelessness.”
On any given day in Chicago, more than 1,300 people are unsheltered, according to a snapshot taken earlier this year by the city.
In a statement, HUD said its new policies restore “accountability to homelessness programs and promote self-sufficiency among vulnerable Americans.”
But Haley said the lack of affordable housing is what is driving homelessness.
“That is the true cause of homelessness, our lack of affordable housing, lack of income to be able to afford market-rate rent,” she said.
Mark Ishaug, head of Chicago-based Thresholds, said the change in federal housing policies could force many to the streets, even during cold weather. He said that includes people of color, older adults and people with disabilities, including those with mental illness and substance abuse issues.
“We are already in a housing and homeless crisis in Chicago. If this policy were to go into effect, it would take us from crisis to catastrophe,” Ishaug said. “There are thousands of people living on the streets today. … So if we have a problem now, which we do, and a crisis now, we are moving to catastrophe.”
Jonah Storr, associate director of programs for La Casa Norte in Humboldt Park, said it’s been an especially difficult time finding shelter for young people who are homeless.
“We see teenagers or young people who have been kicked out of their homes, or maybe have gone through the foster system and have aged out at 18. People end up here through all sorts of reasons, including young people who are trying to make it on their own,” said Storr, whose agency assists people ages 16 to 24.
Julian Martinez was standing outside the shelter placement center Tuesday afternoon smoking a cigarette. He’s been homeless for three years.
“It’s definitely hard if you ain’t got nobody out here and helping with your family,” Martinez, 23, said.
The father of a 4-year-old daughter, Martinez said he holds down a job as a landscaper, but the $200 a week he makes isn’t enough to pay rent. He’d been staying at the center for nine days.
“I usually sleep outside,” he said.
Kenyatta Mays, 56, who uses a wheelchair, said many people think he’s panhandling when he’s sitting outside the shelter on a smoking break.
“I’m just here to get off the street. It’s too cold,” Mays said.
Black Comedy
I went to this show at Above the Law theater last Sunday (November 23), and forgot to post about it. They are still running this show until December 21, so if anybody interested, you still have a chance to see it.
Whenever I attend Above the Law shows, I try to take mom with me, because it’s very close to home, and the theater is tinym so she can always see well (especially because she is always the first to be seated by the staff).
They rarely publish their show synopsis, but this time, there was an email with the following description:
Struggling sculptor Brindsley Miller and his fiance, Carol, are having a party with the aim of impressing Carol’s bombastic father, Colonel Melkett, and millionaire Georg Bamberger. They hope the two men might purchase some of Brindsley’s sculptures. Without permission, they have borrowed the furniture of their fussy neighbor, Harold, to make their own flat more presentable. Just before the guests arrive, the main fuse blows, plunging the flat into darkness. What follows is a frantic romp with unexpected visitors, mistaken identities, and surprises lurking in every dark corner. Only we, the audience, can see the action that ensues in the dark. As you might expect, the results are chaotic, disastrous and downright hysterical.
If I won’t read this description it would be impossible to understand what’s happening on the stage, but to be honest, even with this description, it was confusing in the beginning.
The idea is that 90% of the show time things happen in a complete darkness, because the fuse is blown. Nobody would enjoy the show in a complete darkness, so the way the set it up was that at the time the lights were suppose to be on, they went off, and vise versa. So most time, there was light, but the actors acted as if they are in complete darkness. And at the time, somebody was turning on a flashlight, the lights were dimmed.
It was funny. Probably a little bit too grotesque:). Brilliant acting, as always.
A Snow Day In Chicago
Wednesday was windy like never; Thursday and Friday was super-cold, and on Saturday, it was snowing, setting the record of the most snowiest day in Chicago in November!
Boris and I ventured to the Loop, because I wanted to go to the Art Institute, and do some holiday shopping. It was still cold, it was still very windy, plus, it was snowing!
Boris and I took turns cleaning our stairs because it was completely unsafe to use them:
By 6 AM, the snow was mostly over, and the cleaning crew came and cleaned it from everywhere, and then the snow started melting. However, it looks like it’s not it, and there will be more cold and more snow during the upcoming week.
Amadeus At Steppenwolf
There were no interesting concerts this weekend, so I suggested to Boris to go see Amadeus at the Steppenwolf Theater. Boris was skeptical, because he does not like the idea of the original play, because it’s based on unjust accusations, but he said he will go. As for me, I haven’t been to the Steppenwolf for a while, and wanted to go.
During the first act, ot felt like a mock version of the movie, and during the intermission I asked Boris whether he wanter to go home. He said: no, the acting is great! Actually, I believe it was a new experience for him: I got the first row tickets, and because of how the Ensemble Theater is build, the acting was happening right in from of our eyes, so he could see most of it, was watching all the time with his eyes open 🙂
Then, during the second act, they started getting off the films score, and build something else, and that was much more interesting, so in the end, we both enjoyed it 🙂
Hettie's Reflections 