Saturday, December 3, 2005
The house is almost completely decorated. We have to put a few more things on the tree, find the crèche and angels, and put the garland around the banister, but then we’re done. We should finish tomorrow. Not all the ornaments survived the move, but most did. The tree looks beautiful.
We went to Discover Mills mall this morning. My friend Cissy and her children were there, and cousin Malinda. Jessica and Alesia went off on their own, and Mother and I walked around with Cissy. We got some Christmas shopping done. They have a lot of good stores there, many of them outlet-type stores. We had lunch, then came home.
I went over to my cousin Tim’s house, for his wife Maxi’s annual holiday open house and jewelry sale. I got Alesia some earrings. Maxi uses all natural stones; these were little freshwater pearls with some sort of blue stone also; don’t remember the name of it.
When I got back, we worked on the tree.
Mother found a ring in Alesia’s pants she was washing – it’s a ring belonging to Alesia’s friends Maria, who had left it over here a few weeks ago. Alesia told Mother she had returned it to Maria. Mother was really angry because she caught Alesia in a lie. This is the second lie in as many days. We need to talk about the lying. I know all kids lie, but Alesia just denies anything we confront her with, or like tonight just acts like it’s no big deal – “Oh, I forgot” is her standard phrase.
I have told her several times before I will not tolerate a liar. I dread talking to her again but it has to be done. She just doesn’t seem to understand how serious it is. In Russia, lies and bribes are so commonplace, that nobody places a premium on honesty – Americans are unique in our insistence on it. Other nationalities are different, especially Russians.
In Russia during communist times lying became commonplace because everyone had to lie to get along. There were no residential phone books because nobody wanted anyone else to know where they lived. They still don’t have phone books; lord knows why.
Tomorrow I wanted to plant bulbs, even though it's late, but the thought of doing it in the cold and rain is very unappealing...
Recent Comments