Friday, January 1, 2016
Jan. 1st, 2016 09:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bearshortyWe are back home after spending New Years at my parents. We are all unpacked and Tanya is finally sleeping (I think she's getting like five teeth at once, poor baby) and I'm sitting here, listening to all my new music, and writing out the new book list for the year. I always like the hope of the new year, so much potential for good things.
We drove to my parents yesterday morning. We just went for two days but there was so much packing. I spent most of the day doing my cross stitch, Skyping family in Minsk, and Bear and I had a chance to watch some of "Inside Out" while my Dad took Tanya for a walk. Before we knew it, it was evening and time to get dressed up and take our New Years photos. My uncle used to photograph our family on New Year's Eve ever since I remember, with the old traditional cameras and this tradition stuck. I have pictures of me and my family on every New Years Eve. My Mom takes them now with her fancy digital camera. There were only five of us: my parents, Bear, me and Tanya but that's how we like it. It's a family holiday. Taking a good picture with a toddler is a bit like herding cats but we did manage. At some point to wanted my pretty white necklace, so I gave it to her.
My Mom spent the last several days cooking for a fancy holiday dinner (New Year is our main holiday celebration). We had the traditional Russian salads like Olivier and herring under beets, and also beets with plums. There was also the tastiest cabbage and egg pie, and caviar and smoked salmon on white bread. On top of that, my Mom made chicken, roasted potatoes and salad and made spongy cake. So much yumminess. We were pretty stuffed.
After I put Tanya to bed, which took a while because she was overexcited, we hung out downstairs on the second floor waiting for midnight. We had to be pretty quiet so as not to wake her up. She slept fine until 1am though. The four of us had desert - cake and chocolate and biscotti and tea. Then we looked at some photos and I mostly cross stitched some more. Midnight came before we knew it. My parents bought this sparkling white grape juice made in Spain from Trader Joe's so we could pretend it was champagne and it tasted great actually (my parents don't really drink and neither does Bear so getting actual champagne just for me is not really worth it) . A few minutes to midnight, we started watching the ball drop in Times Square and had our fake champagne at midnight and kisses and a little dancing.
I went to bed by 1am but all the noise of people heading to bed probably woke Tanya up, and it took her a long time to actually fall asleep again. I probably got fours hours of sleep at most.
New Year's morning is always fun because presents. Only the kids really get them and according to my parents Bear and I still qualify, not just Tanya. She had lots of fun opening hers, although she doesn't really understand the concept of presents yet. My parents got her a baby piano and a toy lion. I got her blocks and books.
I got a CD for Bear (I gave most of his gifts to him on Christmas) and my parents gave him 3 zombie books, a jacket and some underwear that he needed.
I got some good stuff.
New Year loot: My Dad gave me Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs and Neil Gaiman's Sandman: Overture . Bear also got me Sandman: Overture, which is a bit funny since he assumed when he didn't see it on my Amazon wishlist that I just didn't put it there, while my Dad already snatched it - he will just have to return it, and a Sam Smith CD. My Mom got me MAC's eye pencil, a dark purple cashmere sweater, a white warm winter sweater and some pretty Victoria Secret underwear. Medusa sent me three books as presents, which I opened this morning: The Missing Piece by Shel Silverstein, The Lily and the Lion by Maurice Druon, and The Last Days of the Romanovs by Helen Rappaport. On December 26th, Bear's brother also gave me a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble. All good stuff.
After all the presents, I had my traditional breakfast of Olivier salad (started when I was 6 and my cousin and I would wake up and open presents while adult were still sleeping). Then my parents took Tanya to the playground and Bear and I finished watching "Inside Out"
"Inside Out" was very, very good. It's one of my favorite Pixar movies for sure. I cried at many points (pretty much the whole scene of Joy and Bing Bong in the forgotten lands) and laughed at many more. But it was certainly made to pull your emotions. Showing scenes of little baby Riley didn't help since I just think of Tanya now. I thought it was a great story too and had a great complexity too. The way they showed various parts of the brain was very clever too. So good fun.
As we were driving home, we were listening to the classical station as we usually do and I was really struck by the piece of music that was playing. I pulled out my phone and looked up the name of the piece on the station's website and I bought it when I got home. It was "Serenade Melancholique in B flat, Op 26" by Tchaikovsky. Just gorgeous. It the last month and over all the holidays I now got four new albums to listen to plus this piece. It will be very nice. Adele's "25", "Hamilton" sountrack, Coldplay's "A Head Full of Dreams" and Sam Smith's "In the Lonely Hour" and this Tchaikovsky piece will now be played a lot. I've already listened to Hamilton many, many times.
I also made the book list for 2016 , with a big list of everything I want to read. Usually, I read about half and the other half comes from recommendations and serendipity. We'll see how it goes. I'm also going to keep better track of movies and TV I watch.
We drove to my parents yesterday morning. We just went for two days but there was so much packing. I spent most of the day doing my cross stitch, Skyping family in Minsk, and Bear and I had a chance to watch some of "Inside Out" while my Dad took Tanya for a walk. Before we knew it, it was evening and time to get dressed up and take our New Years photos. My uncle used to photograph our family on New Year's Eve ever since I remember, with the old traditional cameras and this tradition stuck. I have pictures of me and my family on every New Years Eve. My Mom takes them now with her fancy digital camera. There were only five of us: my parents, Bear, me and Tanya but that's how we like it. It's a family holiday. Taking a good picture with a toddler is a bit like herding cats but we did manage. At some point to wanted my pretty white necklace, so I gave it to her.
My Mom spent the last several days cooking for a fancy holiday dinner (New Year is our main holiday celebration). We had the traditional Russian salads like Olivier and herring under beets, and also beets with plums. There was also the tastiest cabbage and egg pie, and caviar and smoked salmon on white bread. On top of that, my Mom made chicken, roasted potatoes and salad and made spongy cake. So much yumminess. We were pretty stuffed.
After I put Tanya to bed, which took a while because she was overexcited, we hung out downstairs on the second floor waiting for midnight. We had to be pretty quiet so as not to wake her up. She slept fine until 1am though. The four of us had desert - cake and chocolate and biscotti and tea. Then we looked at some photos and I mostly cross stitched some more. Midnight came before we knew it. My parents bought this sparkling white grape juice made in Spain from Trader Joe's so we could pretend it was champagne and it tasted great actually (my parents don't really drink and neither does Bear so getting actual champagne just for me is not really worth it) . A few minutes to midnight, we started watching the ball drop in Times Square and had our fake champagne at midnight and kisses and a little dancing.
I went to bed by 1am but all the noise of people heading to bed probably woke Tanya up, and it took her a long time to actually fall asleep again. I probably got fours hours of sleep at most.
New Year's morning is always fun because presents. Only the kids really get them and according to my parents Bear and I still qualify, not just Tanya. She had lots of fun opening hers, although she doesn't really understand the concept of presents yet. My parents got her a baby piano and a toy lion. I got her blocks and books.
I got a CD for Bear (I gave most of his gifts to him on Christmas) and my parents gave him 3 zombie books, a jacket and some underwear that he needed.
I got some good stuff.
New Year loot: My Dad gave me Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs and Neil Gaiman's Sandman: Overture . Bear also got me Sandman: Overture, which is a bit funny since he assumed when he didn't see it on my Amazon wishlist that I just didn't put it there, while my Dad already snatched it - he will just have to return it, and a Sam Smith CD. My Mom got me MAC's eye pencil, a dark purple cashmere sweater, a white warm winter sweater and some pretty Victoria Secret underwear. Medusa sent me three books as presents, which I opened this morning: The Missing Piece by Shel Silverstein, The Lily and the Lion by Maurice Druon, and The Last Days of the Romanovs by Helen Rappaport. On December 26th, Bear's brother also gave me a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble. All good stuff.
After all the presents, I had my traditional breakfast of Olivier salad (started when I was 6 and my cousin and I would wake up and open presents while adult were still sleeping). Then my parents took Tanya to the playground and Bear and I finished watching "Inside Out"
"Inside Out" was very, very good. It's one of my favorite Pixar movies for sure. I cried at many points (pretty much the whole scene of Joy and Bing Bong in the forgotten lands) and laughed at many more. But it was certainly made to pull your emotions. Showing scenes of little baby Riley didn't help since I just think of Tanya now. I thought it was a great story too and had a great complexity too. The way they showed various parts of the brain was very clever too. So good fun.
As we were driving home, we were listening to the classical station as we usually do and I was really struck by the piece of music that was playing. I pulled out my phone and looked up the name of the piece on the station's website and I bought it when I got home. It was "Serenade Melancholique in B flat, Op 26" by Tchaikovsky. Just gorgeous. It the last month and over all the holidays I now got four new albums to listen to plus this piece. It will be very nice. Adele's "25", "Hamilton" sountrack, Coldplay's "A Head Full of Dreams" and Sam Smith's "In the Lonely Hour" and this Tchaikovsky piece will now be played a lot. I've already listened to Hamilton many, many times.
I also made the book list for 2016 , with a big list of everything I want to read. Usually, I read about half and the other half comes from recommendations and serendipity. We'll see how it goes. I'm also going to keep better track of movies and TV I watch.
