Happy New Year!!!

You know that you've got babies on your mind, when you start typing 'Happy' New Year with the N instead of H :)

Just wanted to wish everyone a very happy and joyful time tonight with their friends, families, loved ones, close ones. Hope that you have a really wonderful night celebrating and meet 2010 in (with) top spirits!

Here in Novosibirsk it is just below -30 degrees, and we're expecting around -36 for midnight. We've been with my parents for the last week and a half, all of which I spent in bed with a cold (very unfortunate)... but the amount of care and love I've been getting from everyone around, has really made me feel incredibly special and loved. I feel much better today and hope to greet the coming year without a blocked nose! Jack has been thriving on the cold weather and been outside almost every day since last Saturday (having spend the first 5 days of our trip also sick with a cold).

Last night all of us were decorating the christmas tree, which was very very cool. It was a surprise that Mum had a lot of our old family tree decorations, and our very old Ded Moroz and Snegurochka... Ded Moroz is definitely older than me and Snegurochka is probably about the same age. The tree turned out to have a very tall neck, so we're calling it giraffe :)

* * * Happy New Year!!! * * *

First snow

Well technically it has snowed a little here and there for a while... but today is the first day when it is really properly snowing. Banjo is fascinated by it - he keeps sitting on the windowsills and looking outside with awe and amazement. I guess it is the first snow he's seen in his young life :)

Give me power!

According to today's Kommersant, Medvedev is trying to put a law through the Federation Council which will enable him to solely make decisions on activities of the Russian army overseas, without consulting the council first (which is the current law, and is apparently inconvenient, because he has to go to them for every "small" matter). Effectively this will allow him to wage war with anyone, whenever he pleases. And guess what?! The Council is all for it! Federation Council speaker Sergei Mironov said that such a law is vital, because "...in case of threats against our citizens, Russia should have the right and opportunity to defend them." The Kremlin is justifying this law with "the need to quickly solve problems, such as that associated with the seizure of ships by pirates." Need I say more? Dark days are coming - that's my prophesy...