A Russian New Year

A while back I promised to explain the Russian New Year, so since I finally got the pictures off my camera I'd like to do it today.

The Russian New Year is a little like the American Christmas, without any religious aspects attached. There a Santa Claus, or Grandpa Frost as we call him in Russian and an equivalent of a Christmas tree, without Christmas attached - we have a special word for it too. And of course he brings lots and lots of presents! It's a huge family holiday for Russians and we all get together and eat and eat and then eat some more! Throughout the meal there is lots and lots of toasting and everyone picks their drink of choice to toast with... but nobody really gets drunk... that's always been a mystery to me with all the hard liquor that's consumed! A picture is worth a thousand words so here is the dining table at my aunt's before we sat down.


My aunt outdoes herself every year and this year a lot of other members of my family contributed too. The food is to die for, I dream about it all year long in anticipation! Here is my contribution, honeydew melon and prosciutto hoers d'ouvres:


Here is one of my favorite dishes - red fish row on white buttered bread, yum yum!


Then, when we're completely stuffed, we have dessert and tea (coffee for some, but tea is king in a Russian house). After all that it's usually time to toast to say goodbye to the old year and open up champagne to welcome the new year once the clock strikes 12. Traditionally only then we're allowed to open the presents. But with a lot of little ones arriving every year, the present time has gotten earlier and earlier... much to the dismay of my father!

The last couple of years there were so many gifts that 1/4 of my aunt's living room was filled half way to the ceiling. It was so crazy! So this year we decided to do gifts just for the last generation of kids and do a white elephant exchange for the adults. I think I have a video of my cousin telling us the rules somewhere, but afterward and during I was completely confused. You see, my family is way too smart and competitive for simple rules, so there was 3 and 4 way deals, exchanges and alliances that I completely lost track of! I just know that the bottle of Vox, Grey Goose and Hennesey made their way around the room many many times as well as the funny framed picture of my cousin being kissed by a gorilla with the 50 bucks in cash in the frame!

The dramatic highlight of the gift exchange was my 3 year old son. It was about 1am in the morning and he was still awake, just barely. I had pulled a nice down pillow from the white elephant exchange. Of course I did not want to admit that it was nice in case someone wanted to steal it. So I said it was a crappy pillow, that nobody would want it.

Jasper wondered in and lay down on the pillow just as his uncle asked to see the said "crappy" pillow. So to be funny, I mockingly asked him if he would really take a pillow from a child. It was said in jest, but Jasper took it completely seriously and there was never such a display of crying and alligator tears dabbled with cries of "Uncle John wants to take my pillow away!" Uncle John quickly retreated and we all couldn't stop laughing for the longest time, just enough for my aunt to quickly assure him that she would beat anyone that would try to take the pillow away. To make the story short, nobody touched Jasper's pillow for the rest of the game - so he went home with his hard earned prize, on which he is currently taking his nap!