С Новым годом! Happy New Year!

As the old year ends and a new one begins, how shall we sum up the year past for all of us? There has been sorrow and there has been joy. Loved ones have been lost and loved ones gained. There have been tears and laughter, bad times and good, sickness and health.

The outlook for next year is more of the same. Life isn't fair. Life isn't not fair. Life is...life.

May you have enough. Enough love, enough health and enough happiness. May the love of God enfold you and His Peace fill your hearts throughout 2009.

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, 'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.'
And he replied, 'Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!'
Minnie Louise Harkins 1875-1957. Quoted by HRM George VI, 1939 Christmas address to the nation.

С Новым годом! Happy New Year!

Winter in Marianivka

We have much more snow now than the past two winters combined. Temperatures are holding at -5C. Zhovte Vody has bladed and sanded all the main streets and are starting to work on some of the secondary streets much to my surprise and pleasure. The highway to P'yatikhatki was also bladed and sanded.

Of course this is nothing compared to the snowstorms in Eastern and Western Canada. I have enjoyed the pictures people have posted on the net. No mention of the Prairies of course. Must be they just expect cold and snow there so it is not news? -40 plus wind chill is hardly newsworthy in Saskatchewan, I guess. Even when it lasts three weeks...or six weeks.

Bobik and Volk are enjoying the snow. I let them out of their yard and they run and play like they were still puppies instead of a year old. Today they were playing tag again. Volk runs and Bobik tries to catch his tail and flip him. Then they come home all covered in snow and expect to be hugged and petted. We moved an old mattress out into their house for them to sleep on and they like that. Along with lots of left over holiday food.

Remembering the Farm: Christmas in the (not so distant) past

When we were very young kids, I remember our tree had little for fancy decoration, a few glow in the dark stars and snowflakes, some metal icicles, tinsel (saved year after year) and then popcorn strings and such we made for the occasion. No lights, even after we got electricity. Us kids saved and pooled our pennies to buy Mom and Dad ornaments for the tree as their Christmas gift from us. We slowly built up a box of decorations and were so happy when we could buy lights for them. The first string has maybe 12 or 15 and cost several dollars. Real money 50 years ago.

Mom and Dad got each of us kids a gift. We got a gift from a cousin on each side. There were 10 of us on Mom’s side and 8 (later 9) on Dad’s side. Names were “drawn” or more correctly organized in a round-robin fashion so we gave to and received from each cousin in turn. The adults were organized in similar fashion. Grandparents were included in the “draw”. Price limits were initially $2 later raised to $5.

Money was tight when we were very young. Allowance was 10¢ per week of which 1¢ went for tithe to the church. When we got older, for helping with chores we got the dollar equivalent of half a market pig (about $30), which was our Christmas spending money.

Christmas was usually spent at home. We each opened one gift Christmas Eve and the rest sometime Christmas Day. We had livestock and chores came first. Once they were looked after, Christmas could begin. Boxing Day (Dec 26th) Mom’s side of the family got together at Grandma and Grandpa Johnson’s or at one of the three sisters’. I always looked forward to those visits.

Sometimes we had Christmas with Dad’s side. I recall once when Grandma and Grandpa Hingston were still living in Landis, in a two-room house with a heated veranda, we had Christmas supper there. We cousins were relegated to the veranda and entertained ourselves singing Christmas Carols at the top of our lungs. Hingston Family Christmas seemed more rare to me than Johnson family get-togethers, though thoroughly enjoyed (DC, I need some help here. Add info on Hingston Family Christmas, please).

When Ella and I were first married, we went to the farm for Christmas. Dad and I ground feed for the cattle Christmas morning (Dad was NOT organized) so we never got in until late for dinner and gift opening, etc. Then on Boxing Day, we bought a bunch of chickens from the neighbour and spent the day plucking and cleaning. For some reason I was never quite forgiven for that Christmas. On the bright side, every Christmas since was better.

We buy a Dust Sucker

The Russian word for vacuum cleaner is пылесос (pillisauce) which translates literally as "dust sucker". We have needed one for some time and so today we joined throngs of holiday shoppers in Zhovte Vody, found our way to the new Comfy home electronics store and made the plunge. An Electrolux with all the bells and whistles including a power head. I doubt it will last three generations like the old ones we have passed on to our kids but it wasn't the price of a small car either. $300 CAD.

Tanya's first vacuum. I set it up, told her what all the different pieces were for and away she went. I never saw a woman so excited to vacuum before in my life. I'm sure it will wear off. I love that she vacuums like me - if there is furniture in the way, go around it. That will change too. I'll be training Katya, next time she comes over to clean for us.

I know how to vacuum, I just choose not to. I used to call (Maid) Marian and if any one in Regina needs a superb housecleaning service, email me and I'll send you her contact information.

Worst Passport Photo Ever

One of these three men is seeking asylum in a foreign country.

He is:

1. An axe murderer
2. A deadbeat dad
3. An alimony escapee
4. A demented consultant

You would:

1. Grant him asylum
2. Put him in an asylum
3. Have him deported
4. Have him shot

Family Devotions

When the children were young we would every evening have family devotions, reading from the bible, thanking God for his blessings and remembering those in need. As the children learned to read, we would each read a verse in turn. When they grew older it became more and more difficult to organize a simple half hour of time. There were friends, after-school activities such as sports and of course "must see TV". Finally we gave it up and I always regretted it but it wasn't worth the fight.

At Christmas, though we continued to read the Christmas story from Luke and Matthew before we opened the gifts, so we would remember whose birthday we were honouring. It is a wonderful story of love and hope for the world.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Merry Christmas to all and "God bless us, every one".

FX and the City

Some of you may have noticed that the world's economy is going to hell in a handbasket caused by a bursting of what was the American consumer-driven bubble, fueled by bad mortgages handed off to banks all over the world. The exchange rates of many countries including Ukraine have gone into free fall against other currencies, in particular the USD. IMF made an emergency loan of some $16 billion to Ukraine to help shore up its currency and it seems to be working.

I used to transfer money from my Canadian account to Tanya's USD account from which she would withdraw Hrivna. We had our money in limbo when the feces first hit the fan in September and we weren't sure our bank was even going to give it to us. So now I pull Hrivna directly from my account, using my debit card. Something that was only a dream here a few years ago.

It allows me to track the actual exchange rate when ever I pull out cash from the Bankomat. This is what it looked like over the past few days. The 19th would have been the day to convert all to Hrivna but of course, who knew.

Last summer the exchange rate was about 4.23 UAH per CAD.

The Russian rouble remained fairly stable against the dollar, it appears. They had huge reserves and still have gas and oil to export though the drop in the price of crude must affect them eventually. The exchange rate has been about 5 RUR per UAH but while Tanya was in Siberia it was 3 RUR per UAH.