New Year's Traditions

We've been learning about New Year's celebrations in Russia this year. At the beginning of the night we were wondering where all the noise was that we had been warned would keep us up all night and morning. Thomas and I commented several times that we were enjoying the quietest evening we had ever had in our apartment! "Where's all the noise?" we wondered.

We watched Putin deliver his speech to the nation, which Thomas understood fairly well and from which I could understand some of the words. It seemed like a nice speech. Then we heard the clock of the Kremlin toll 12 times and waited for massive explosions, which finally came about an hour later. Thankfully Isaiah slept through all the fireworks and shouting near our apartment. We seem to have survived our first Russian New Year's fairly well.

But New Year's just wouldn't be complete without college bowl games. Thomas and I had been talking about trying to get someone to record games on DVD somehow and send them to us, but how would we keep everyone from telling us the results of all the games? What could we do? How could we satisfy our longings for American football? My wonderful husband found a way! We have been enjoying watching some bowl games on ESPN GamePlan! Somehow being able to watch college football has been a great morale booster. We do have to watch the games delayed most of the time, so please don't tell us results of any of the games; but we have had so much fun! Isaiah even watches the games a little bit.

I hope that you all have enjoyed your New Year's celebrations and maybe some football, too. May your teams do well--enjoy the festivities!