Christmas Program

A teacher gift is used! Happy New Years---CNovom Godom!

Can you tell me which of these pictures show a teacher's gift being used?  The sparklers were gifted to Melissa and her 2nd and 3rd grade class mates--along with a fire cracker:)   It's one of those, you know you are in Russia, when....  Fire crackers are in grocery stores here around New Years and oh so popular!  It's very common to give sparklers and these pop fire crackers that spray out confetti--after they have a mini fire explosion when you pull the cord!  We hung out with friends from Ohio on New Years and we had such a nice time with them.  We had sloppy joes that were absolutely delicious!  They have two kids and our kids just love theirs!  Melissa is in the same class with them at school.  We thank God for the whole family being here in Russia with us.

Fun pics!

My friends Megan and Nelly!!














Megan, Matthew and Nelly

















The girls after we cut bangs or as they say in Brittish English--fringes!

Cookie Fun!

Cookie--time---this happened before Christmas---sorry about my slowness.  My friend Sue is such a home maker and great mom who is full of ideas---so---I have to get all my cute ideas from her!  She is so innovative and I like to follow her ideas...so this was one of them.  No, I don't usually make Christmas cookies---but I think I will add it to our traditions!  The kids had a blast!

Sledding

Sledding is such a past time over here.  Some kids have real sleds, some just use wooden boards and sometimes they break apart a couch sitting outside for ways to slide even faster.(yes, we witnessed this one happening...wish I had a before and after picture, but I don't.  The couch was demolished by the end and yes, it was just sitting outside in the snow---someone didn't need it anymore???)

Christmas Morning Photos--2009

All the kids were esctatic with excitment...but they actually slept til 7am!  It helps that the sun doesn't come up til 9:30 or so.  Mimer and Papa had sent legos and purses for the kids with other friends who came over from the states---it was nice to have the extra personal touch.  Matthew is already asking when is Christmas?

The girls' school--Christmas Program

Katie's choir group signing....Katie has really grown up in her ability to keep a note!  So fun to see that she has a great teacher!                  

The second pic was of Melissa's class and the 1st graders(I think) singing Meleke leke Maka---Merry Christmas in Hawaiian.  The last picture is of the higher choir---they were amazing!!

December Snow fun

These are pictures of just snow fun right outside our apartment building.  The kids where all tackling daddy in the first picture.  This is when snow was white!  Back in December.

Christmas Fajita night

We went over to our friend's house for Fajitas in December---and we just had to take the photos just to show how smoky we got the apartment.  We had to disalarm the fire alarm.  No fire, just smoke.
Olga made homemade tortillas and we brought chips and homemade salsa.  One fine Mexican night!  The kids watched a movie while we worked on dinner(John and I really didn't do much other than watch the masters!).

Christmas Carolers and?????

John has been at Elema all day and I am expecting him home around 11pm, but there was a ring at our door at about 9:30pm---you must know if you are in a foreign country, you need to know who it is to answer the door, especially at night!  So I said--in English--Who is it--thinking it was John and he was early, but NO!  We had carolers!  Our friends, who will remain nameless--but they know who they are---came to our door and sang us Christmas songs and then delivered a very unexpected gift to us!!  A vacuum!!! You see our vacuum that we had purchased in September broke about three weeks ago and we were having to sweep our carpets---doesn't really work.  ---it was used when we bought it so it was not totally a shock.  We priced them this week, but didn't get one. 

But, OH my!  The sweetness of these folks---amazes me!  Thank you for the vacuum and Thank God for His blessings that I didn't even expect!  What a gift!

Walk down memory lane....come with us!

Thought you would enjoy our trip down memory lane!

Our kids had a great laugh at how they used to look---Melissa wants to cut her hair so she looks like this and Mark still thinks he is the cutest person in the WORLD!

Yes It Is!

Being from the South, I am not used to cold weather but I am really not used to -4 F!  Wow!  That's cold.

My friends here in Russia!

These are some of my Russian, English friends here in St. Pete!  Many of the girls in the pics are from the family home---the group we worked with last year!  They keep me feeling young!