Today, Evgeny and I went to the main Santa House for all the children to come and present letters to Santa, get free presents (boxes of candy) and play around with some themepark type games. Grisha got some cotton candy and was shoving his little face into the cotton which was hilarious. We then went to Santa’s house, and believe it or not, he walked out the door, because he only shows up once a day, and his shift was done. So we all stood there as he walked out of his own house, while we stood inside his house looking at his bed and work station. It reminds me of the time back in 1997 during my first visit while we were all riding a tram, and the driver just stopped the tram, and left to go outside for a smoke, while we all sat there waiting to continue riding.
After the park, we headed back home to prepare for the evening’s long dinner. Masha spent all day cooking and prepared a magnificent meal for us to enjoy for our New Year’s event. Masha’s sister joined us as well for the event. New Year’s in Russia is much more like Christmas for us, where you spend it with family. Apparently many of Katya’s friends all went back to their homes to spend it with their families.
From the apartment we could see fireworks throughout the city. We spent the entire night drinking, laughing, eating, more eating, then went outside for some fireworks. We then all went to bed in a full house–this 3 room apartment housed all 6 of us!