I've been looking for a reason

Finally, I got one today, and it's pretty topical/timely on account of the Christmas season. As some of you might know, post-Soviet Russians actually don't really do Christmas. It used to be a thing but then the Communists made religion illegal so the holiday was moved a few days up and pegged to the turn of the new year instead of the birth of Christ. So basically we have the tree, the Santa Claus (he is called Grandfather Frost but he wears the same coat), the presents, the tradition of family gathering etc, except we do it all on a different night.

This year my sister is coming from Boston and she is bringing her husband Kostik (short for Konstantin) and her son Tima (long for Tim). That is not that important except that earlier today, she and I were discussing the details of the visit on AIM and I was treated to a hilarious joke.

The joke is that Tima wrote a letter to Santa and asked for coal. For his toy trains. This is the first post to my new blog!