November 20, 2016
Last month, my mom asked my eldest daughter Masha what she wanted for her 11th birthday.
Masha's knee-jerk response was, "another set of Lego."
I said, "Seriously? You already have 30 sets. Will adding one more really be the gift you'd thoroughly enjoy and remember? Why don't you spend 24 hours and think about what you really want?"
She accepted the challenge.
Next day, she came up to me and said, "Dad, I know what I want."
I asked, "Sure, what is it?"
She responded, "I want to go to Moscow by myself to spend some time with my grandma!"
(Incidentally, she has two grandmas and a grandpa, and she collectively calls them all "grandma", in singular.)
When I looked at her in disbelief, she said, "Seriously, it's the only thing I REALLY want..."
I said, "Sure, we're going to figure something out."
And we did!
She flew all by herself to spend two-and-a-half weeks in Moscow and she's having a time of her life there.
She asked me to share this with you:
"Moscow is really cool. Literally, it's like minus 3 outside right now. I got snow in my mouth three times last week! It's just amazing to come home after having been outside for 3 hours in the cold and come in and talk on skype with my mom and go through my new presents! My favorite thing is spending time with all my grandmas because that's really why I came here.
Next time, I think I'm going to try and fly business class. They have chairs that fold into beds. I want that!"
Masha's coming back in a few days. I can't wait to meet and greet her at the airport!