Happy Birthday and Bon Voyage Ilya!: Happy Birthday and Bon Voyage Ilya!

Dorogoy Ilusha!

Happy Birthday!!

Welcome to your 20's! Can you believe there are no more teenagers in our family?

Of course you know that I always wish you all the best - zdorovya i schastya v lichnoy zhizni. I also want to wish you a great new decade - your 20's are so much fun (I can only vaguely remember mine, for various reasons...) - and what a wonderful way to start it, by going to Japan. Who knew that lying on your CV could get you this far?? It's great to see that the spirit of 'liagushka-puteshestvennitsa" lives on in our family - it must be in our blood. Travelling is an amazing way to discover the world, and more importantly, to discover yourself. You will no doubt experience so many different things, some great, some not so good - all these experiences will contribute to who you are as a person. Don't be disappointed that when you come back, things will not have changed much back home, although you feel like a different person.

Have a wonderful time and enjoy and savour every minute of it! Keep in touch and take lots of photos - I'm looking forward to all your stories. We'll miss you at family gatherings, so come back soon!

Lots of love xxx Natasha

Happy Birthday Ilya, Bon Voyage and plenty of soft Japanese snow powder!!!

This is not my first attempt to write something to my son Ilya - every year in November this opportunity comes. It usually eventuates in a large birthday card with a lot of mumbling about the importance of the past year and even bigger importance of the year to come. Normally these cards can later be found in a car boot, in a garage or on my desk.
This year everything is different - no more cards, no more mumbling, no more car boot!
There are two reasons for this - Ilya turns 20 - leaving teen's age and is going travelling for few months.

What is the best way to give him a card which he can carry everywhere he goes, which can be as big as needed, where everyone can write something for him to take to his new journey?

Of course - it's a blog! It's our collective birthday card to you from your parents and friends, sister, cousins, their boyfriends and husbands, relatives, classmates and bosses - from everyone who wishes to say

Happy Birthday Ilya, Bon Voyage and plenty of soft Japanese snow powder!!!

Thank you all - it's over!

Dear Ilya's friends!

While in my invitations to create this birthday blog-card I addressed to you as parents, sisters, cousins, boyfriends and friends, at the end of the day (literally it's a midnight November 30, which means - yes Ilya is 20!), we all are his friends! And this is why the idea of creating this postcard blog was supported by all of you! Thank you!

However, this is not the only reason why I'm writing this now. As of midnight November 30 this blog is closed for posting.

Why? It's simple - it's a birthday card! You wouldn't write on a birthday card after you handed it over, would you? Or hand it over next day after the party?

The same rules apply to the blog birthday card. The show is over!

But... there is always "but". Blog is blog even if it's a birthday card.

You still have few options.

Option 1 - comments. Of course you can make comments on anyone's posting including your own.

Option 2 - contact the blogmaster (myself) and we'll see what can be done.

Thank you all once again

Sincerely and truly yours

Alex - the blogmaster and Ilya's dad.

Happy Birthday and Bon Voyage Ilya!

Twenty years photocaptured