Just Like Christmas...in the 80s

Well we've been told that the winters in Belarus are brutal...freezing temperatures and lots of snow and they actually do walk to school in it. It sounds miserable and I'm pretty sure that on most days, it is. So I could feel pretty sympathetic when Venya's mother told the translator that he needed some snow clothes and I've been on a mission to find some. The trouble is it's summertime and when you live in a beach town, they don't sell snow clothes in the summer or at any point in time for that matter.

But I have my creative way of solving problems and I was pretty excited yesterday when I remembered that Bobby had a old bag of snow clothes up in our attic. While I was still in my pajamas, I put on the head lamp and dashed up the stairs in search of the bag! I knew if I could find it, Venya and his mother would be more than appreciative.

Bobby didn't discourage me, but he also didn't offer to help which I at first thought was a little lazy on his part. I didn't let it worry me too much. I was on a mission and thought I could handle it until I saw that the infamous red "ski bag" was too far out of my reach at which point, I called for Bobby and up the stairs with some heavy footsteps he came.

Bobby put on the headlamp and reluctantly (but silently) climbed over the other boxes and cobwebs until he got to the bag. He pulled it out into the bonus room floor and let out a deep breath. I simply smiled and said "thank you." I would take it from here. I would carry it down stairs and present all of the the "goodies" to Venya with a "Ta-da!" I was just forgetting one very important thing...this bag (and all that was in it) was cool...in the 80s.

I unzipped it and quickly spotted the ski goggles. Perfect! Venya's been asking for these specifically...these will be great! I opened the rather large box containing...um, the rather large goggles...and handed them to Bobby so that he could model them for Venya. As he put them on, the living room broke out in uncontrollable laughter! They were the biggest, bulkiest goggles you've ever seen and there was no way that Venya would be wearing them. How would he hold his head up?

Well, the jokes continued as we each grabbed something out of the bag and tried it on. It really did feel like Christmas as Bobby reached down and pulled out an old wool sweater that I'm not sure was even cool in the 80s. Venya, as sweet as he is, politely shook his head with a little "no" every time we tried to hand him something. He did enjoy trying on the ski boots, but those went back in the attic along with most of the rest of the stuff. One day...like maybe on Halloween...we might actually pull it out again and oh yeah, I apologized to Bobby for thinking he was lazy. :)