Entertaining Russian Guests

After my family returned from their Bahamas/Florida adventure, my time was divided into three parts:
      *Having the Russian contingent here without their son as translator.
      *Christmas in Illinois with everyone.
      *New Year's with everyone back at my house.
I'm not sure if I got suckered or if it was true, but my son-in-law told me for weeks that his parents wanted to spend time at my house without him so they could practice their English.  I agreed to do it.  (What was I thinking??) 

Denis said that his mother (Luda) just thought I should drop them off at a mall somewhere and pick them up 4 or 5 hours later.  Yeah, right!  Plainfield has a mall, but it is outdoors, and this is winter.  The next closest indoor mall is Lafayette Square which is so riddled with crime now that it is all but dead.  No one wants to go there.  The best option is the Greenwood Park Mall.  It is indoors with lots and lots of stores...but 30-45 minutes away.  I vowed and declared that there was NO WAY I was going to turn non-English-speaking people loose in an American mall.  Unfortunately, I don't have the physical capability of taking them and staying with them.  (They move a whole lot faster than I do!)

They all arrived at my house on a Monday.  Meg and Denis stayed overnight, then departed, minus the Russian contingent, the next day.  Luda (the mega-shopper) approached me about going shopping.  I explained (or tried to) that I could take them to Plainfield's Metropolis mall, but that it was outdoors.  That was okay with her.  I armed them with my cell phone, took them over, and dropped them off.  No biggie...I was close by.  In a couple of hours, Luda called to say they were ready to be picked up.  Judy and Phil Heffelman--my grandchildren's paternal grandparents--had us over for supper.  Their house was Christmasy and warm and inviting.  It was very pleasant.  We came home full, settled in, and went to bed.  End of Day One.

Wednesday, Luda was ready to go shopping somewhere else.  I went against everything I thought I should do and took them to the Greenwood Mall.  I had considered staying with them, but the mall only has wheelchairs for the handicapped...no scooters...so...we arranged a meeting time and place, with the information that they should call if they were ready sooner, but that it would take me at least 30 minutes to get to them.  I had stew beef cooking in the crockpot for stroganoff, and I desperately needed some down time.  (I admit that I succumbed to temptation for aloneness!)  They did call earlier than our appointed time.  I think there were too many stores, even for Luda!  We came home to a very popular stroganoff supper. 

Well...I guess I should say that I think it was a popular supper.  Luda ate the daylights out of it.  Sergey started out with a "snack" of the tuna salad that I had made, which he mostly devoured--THREE cans of tuna worth--then created a huge platter of stroganoff for "later".  The platter consisted of curly noodles on the bottom, very carefully placed, then broccoli on top of that, then probably a half-bag of shredded cheddar cheese over that...and then the stroganoff sauce on top, plus Parmesan cheese.  His concoction was at least as high as a single layer cake!!  All the while, he had been imbibing in beer, so wasn't in a big hurry to eat it.  Luda had the dishes done before he even finished making his creation...  I took a quick run to the store.  When I got back, Sergey had eaten most of his platter and was crashed in bed.  Luda and I stayed up, talking...with an English lesson or two in there.  When we went to bed, we were happy.  Day Two.

Thursday, Luda wanted to go back to Metropolis in Plainfield.  She had seen some boots or something that she decided to buy.  The weather was to change to cold and windy, so I was alert to the fact that they probably wouldn't last as long as they thought they would.  True enough.  We had a chicken stir fry supper.  They liked it.  That's good because I really didn't give them a choice!  She came home showing off her purchases.  Happy lady!  We were to head to the Chicago area the next day, so I was trying to gear up.  I think we all went to bed early.

The weather forecast for Friday had been for light snow and very strong winds.  I was a little concerned because of the plains north of Lafayette that sometimes get socked with lake effect snow.  Largely because of the wind, I made the executive decision not to head that way until Saturday when there would be sunshine and the snowplows would have a chance to clear the roads.  Sergey did some odd jobs around the house.  Basically, we just vegged and prepared to depart on Saturday.  No one seemed upset.  Meg actually seemed relieved that we wouldn't be there for another day! 

On Saturday, the sun was shining brightly.  Sergey got everything loaded in the car--Christmas presents, luggage, etc.  The roads were clear.  In fact, the only snow we saw was in the Indy area and in the Grayslake area.  Still, I'm not sorry that we waited a day.  There is always the possibility of a car breakdown.  I just didn't want to be caught out on the roads in that horrible wind.

Thus ended my unattended visit with the Russian guests.  I don't think anyone suffered...