In addition to all the good food I bought for myself, Roma, Tatyana, and Steve gave me two jars of premium caviar and a bottle of Standard Platinum vodka (the best in the world).

These are things I usually buy for myself for the holidays as special goodies.  It was perfect gift-giving ;)

This year, though, I decided to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Rob and Candace, and the Boys.  Their family is like a movie.  Rob has two boys, Gabe and Dylan, and Candace has two boys, Cole and Logan.  They're each about a year apart in age, and seem to get along extremely well.  Really nice family, they are, and this was an extra special holiday treat.  As much as I like being by myself, there's something essential about kids and Christmas.

I went to visit Mom for a week in Florida just before Christmas kicked in.  Every trip there is cool, but this one was extra-cool!

Both Mom and I are the types that only buy gifts when there is a need for them.  I mean, we never buy simply for the sake of buying.  Time together and some good food is usually all we need.

This year, though, I went all-out and got her a PSP, a DS Lite, and a 160 Gig iPod.  She has missed playing games since Dad died, but she didn't want to have a big console hooked to the TV.

The iPod was the ultimate, though!  I got one for myself, too.  We both have volumes and volumes of music.  We both have wanted one of these little storage devices for a while, but were reluctant because of the technophobia.

Sunday was her birthday, so we took her out for a nice dinner.  I think she is 29 years old today, but I can't remember exactly.

She doesn't speak a word of English, so it is very cool to go to class this month (she is here for 6 weeks).  I bought her a T-shirt that reads "Texas Chick" and a nice turquoise and silver necklace/earring set, all made here in Texas.  She should have something to take home so they all know back there that we Texans are nice people just like them.  Plus, it is Russian tradition to give gifts!

His name was Vladimir Alexeivich Montmeny.  Obviously, he had some Russian influence, as well as some French.  We suspect his family escaped the Motherland just before or after the Revolution.  History shows many Russians came to Quebec, Canada (French section) during that period, hence the last name.

Vladimir and Mom

From what I know, this rule is never broken, and this suggests that both parents were Russian.  Maybe the last name was changed to help blend into their new homeland?  Plus, if they left near the time of the Revolution, he may even have born in Russia himself.

Vlad would later change his first name to "Thomas", btw, adding weight to the name-changing-in-order-to-adapt theory.

So maybe I have Russian genes, which would explain this insatiable and ever-growing love for that place and people.  Maybe I don't, but a DNA test is promised to tell me where my gene pool has been in its travels.

If anyone knows anything about chromosomal crossover during meiosis (sex cell formation), ...please, please let me know!  I've looked everywhere for many years, and all I can find is that it occurs "randomly".

Chromosomal crossover is when some of the chromotids (genes) from one side switch with the chromotids from the other side when the sex cells (eggs and sperm) are being made. 

That is, I got half of my genes from my mother, and half from my father.  However, when my mother's genes split to form an egg, that egg did not get either (exclusively) her mother's or her father's.  There was a little square dance during the splitting that sent some of her mother's genes over to the 'father' side, and vice versa.  The egg that made half of me was a combination of her mother and father.

So this nonsense when people say "I'm 1/16th Chinese" or whatever, is far from the truth.  The person could be 1/2 Chinese, or none at all, or somewhere in between.  It's not a simple binary split from 1/2 to 1/4 to 1/8 on up the family tree of contributors.

Since this exchange is the crux of genetic recombination variety (evolution), I would think there would be detailed information on the subject.  There isn't ;(

All I can find is "independent assortment" (read: "we don't know").  There are 23 chromosomes in the human gamete, so there are 8,388,608 possible combinations of crossover.  There must be some rules, or tendencies, though.  Does it happen a lot (many genes are mixed from mother's and father's side to form each gamete), or only a little, or is it really completely random, or are there ties to specific gene pools, environmental influences, seasons, etc?

This is my dilemma, knowing how much of my grandfather, on my mother's side, that I got.

All that is to say I was happy to pay the small cost of getting a DNA test this month ;)  I should get the results in January.  I wait with eager anticipation!  I'll be happy with wherever the results point to, but it sure would explain much if they indicate a Russian influence.

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