End of a long break

I guess it's about time that I returned to posting the sketches of my life here in Ukraine.

Happy Grandparents

This spring I will have been here for almost ten years and I still am amazed about how little I have seen and know about Ukraine. But more on that later as I will begin this year with the news that our daughter Christina gave birth to a baby boy last October 30th.  My brother, Dan in Edmonton, Canada is quite proud as our grandson was given the same name as my him. Danilko was born a month premature but is quickly catching up and is looking to outgrow (at 3 centimeters a month)  his mother in the first year.

Veronika and baby brother Danilko

Veronika started real school this fall. She is in a class with 18 other students and has already found a boyfriend although he doesn't know it yet. In her first year she is learning English, reading and writing as well as math. A lot for first graders but I guess kids are smarter than we were.

She is continuing with her dance lessons and is proud to show off her medals she has won so far.

Last year she entered three competitions and won four medals, two gold, a silver and a bronze. Next month she is once again going to Kyiv with great expectations. And since dido doesn't have anything to do all day he has been appointed head chauffeur and pick up guy from both school and the dance lessons.

This past summer we had more unusual weather with a heat wave in June, drought in July and rain in August. The autumn weather was quite warm with the warmth staying until the middle of November. Around the 10th of December we had our first dump of snow and by the end of the week there was close to 50 cms

Dec.12th  2012

(45 inches) of snow on the ground.  But by the time the New Years arrived, due to the rains and warm temps there was almost no snow left.  Since then we have had a couple of snowfalls and we once again have about 15-20 cms of snow on the ground.

This winter the temperature had given us a lot of warm days but for some reason on the days when holidays fell the temp dropped, then when the holiday was over the temp rose again. In general throughout Dec. and Jan. we have had only one night where the temp fell to -21 C. and maybe 10 or 12 days were it was below 

-15 C. overnight so we can't complain about a cold winter. The forecast for Feb.is for daytime temps to stay around 0 C. and night time temps no colder that  -8 C. and then spring will once again come for her annual visit.

Dec.29th  2012