Category: everyday life

The Beginning Of 2026

On December 31, I was working. Even though I worked from home, it was a pretty intense workday. I was hoping to start early and finish early, and make a nice meal to bring to my mom to celebrate the New Year with her, but “early” didn’t happen.

Most times, Igor is around for this early celebration, and then he brings my mom to my place, but since he went to celebrate with Anna’s family (which is definitely more fun), I figured I can’t/don’t want to make a trip to my mom’s house twice, and decided to make it simple and bring all the food to her place.

I prepared myself to sit and nod to everything she would say, which is the only way to keep things calm these days, and that’s exactly how it went. The events and facts she does and does not remember anymore are pretty random. Somehow, many people believe that when older people forget things, they forget the most recent events and remember their past really well. I don’t know what to tell you about others, but that’s definitely not the case with my mom. If there is anything she remembers, it’s repetitive things that she does every day. As for the past, even when she thinks she remembers some events, in reality, she does not remember them clearly, and I can see a difference between how she described them ten years ago and now.

It’s really sad to see, and I can imagine who scared she should be feeling that the world around her is becoming an unknown and dangerous place.

I didn’t plan to go to the Chicago River for the fireworks; not because Igor was not here; I am perfectly fine to go anywhere on my own. It was relatively cold, and also, I had too many things I needed to do before next Monday. On my way back from Armenia, I was making plans for the upcoming week (till January 5), and I was debating with myself whether I should do some fun activities, like going to the Navy Pier, or whether I should focus on catching up with life. By the end of the day December 31, the answer was clear!

I went to bed before midnight, and missed all the Happy New Year texts 🙂

On January first, it was even colder that on December 31, and also cloudy, which made it a perfect weather to be inside and focus on different aspects of community work. Also, I went to my mom one more time, to change her bedding and take her laundry to wash, and since I also took her shower curtain to wash, I returned one more time to put it back :).

The highlights of the day were several conversations with people with whom i do not talk often, and finally catching up on emails with friends, so I guess, the day was not entirely hopeless, and also, I finished some of my ong-overdue-tasks. Still, I hope that January 1 didn’t define the rest of 2026 :).

Find My

Everyone knows I love the Find My app! In fact, I do not know how I would survive without it! Recently, I’ve added several more AirTags, and I feel quite protected.

When I was in Armenia, I told my hosts about this app and demonstrated how I have everything displayed there and how I can check the status of the items I left at home. When it was time for me to leave for the airport, they asked me whether I had checked my room for forgotten stuff. I told them I did, and that everything except for my phone and passport is not important.

I got into a cab, and about ten minutes after the ride started, I saw a message from the Find My app: the AirPods left behind! Yep, a white case on a white windowsill…I reached the driver: How far along are we?

It was great that, because of the severe weather conditions, my host insisted I leave an hour earlier than needed! I messaged them, they found the AirPods case and brought it down.

I guess, thank you, Apple?

Political News

So, Trump said officially that he is going to “leave Chicago” (and the other three Democratic cities) “for now,” although he is threatening to “come back if…”

I want to put it in writing in my journal today, when we have no way to know how it will play out later. That being said, I might be wrong, but today I want to say: we resist and we can achieve something. Long live Federalism! 😀

Some Pictures From Dilijan

Continue reading “Some Pictures From Dilijan” →

Monday,Tuesday, And Off I Go

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: Art Institute And Cookies

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!

Chicago Christmas Tree 2025

Breakfast Sandwiches

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 🙂

Christmas Break

So, I have Nadia and Kira here with me for the first part of Christmas break, which means I do not have time for anything else :), so I will make a post tomorrow, when everyone leaves.

So far, we have done Santa Train, Christmas crafts, the Joffrey Nutcracker, the Art Institute, and cookie decorating. Next on our list is Christkindle Market and a holiday manicure :). And then early Christmas presents giving and the Merry Merry Chicago concert on Tuesday.

Skating

The skating season this year is going to be very short, due to the rink closing in early February, and my two trips in between, and I am using any opportunity to go skating, including skating with a big crowd 🙂