Meet My Grandson

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My stepdaughter Mara wanted her son to get a bit older before any photos showed up on the Internet but she knows how eager I have been to put in at least one photo for my friends to see, He has a traditional Latvian name Mikelis but if you like you could call him Mikey like in the movie "Look Who's Talking." He was born in 2019 so he is growing up fast now. He has mastered both crawling and walking and is full of life and zest. He is a boy who is growing up with Latvian traditions. Latvians celebrate both birthday and names days. The Latvian calendar has the names of people on every date of the year and when your name shows up you can celebrate. Mikelis is a traditional Latvian name so his names day is also a Latvian holiday Mikeldiena. This day celebrates not only the names day but also is a day to celebrate the fall harvest. There are many different kinds of events on this day and people can buy fresh produce from the recent harvest from farmers. The day also occurs on the autumn solstice when both the day and the night are just as long. His grandfather my dear Martin had his names day on November 10 which is also a traditional Latvian holiday. It celebrates the period of awaiting the winter. The day honours St. Matin and counts as the day between autumn solstice which began with Mikeldiena and the winter solstice, His dad is Janis or John and his names day falls on Jani which along with the previous evening Ligo is a traditional Latvian celebration of MidSummers. And finally his mom Mara has Maras Diena which celebrates the awakening of spring on March 25th. Not only does Mikelis have all this tradition going for him, his dad plays the guitar and sings. Their band plays at events and celebrations. They play popular Latvian songs. So since my grandson is a handsome boy who knows he might become fluent in English, learn to play the guitar from his dad, take up songwriting and become the new generation's Elvis, Unfortunately, right now times are tough for the family and I could have really come in handy being Mary Poppins for my grandson. Unless on a windy day I could fly there with my umbrella this is not going to happen now. I left Latvia while she was still waiting for the blessed event,