Winter Break and Christmas

School went on break for us on December 17th and we have been staying preety busy since then! :-)
We've been busy getting out and walking around in the snow.

This week we went to a Christmas Market on Nevsky Prospekt and went to a new mall here called Galleria (it has almost 300 stores in it).

We've also been watching plenty of Christmas movies and we had a get together with our WP team Tuesday. Yesterday we went to the Hermitage ( a MASSIVE art museum here with TONS of art from around the world).

We went on a walk to pick up a package in the mail and we passed by these very cool houses. We always pass them on the bus ride there but we were actually able to get some pictures. If you enlarge the picture you can see some really cool old style wood work on the peaked roofs.

Below are the many presents we got from students and other teachers. We had several bags full of presents! We definitely felt very appreciated and loved!

New Year's lights on Nevsky. New Year is celebrated similarly to the US, but here it is a much bigger deal. Like Christmas in the States. So the street decorations are New Year's decorations!

Here is a New Year's tree in front of Kazanskysabor (Kazan cathedral) on Nevsky.

A large light bear at the Christmas market on Nevsky.

A New Year's tree on the way to get the package.

A statue of Peter the Great by the Gulf of Finland.

Beautiful sunset (at about 4 pm!).

More Christmas market! They had stalls lining a park with various foods and such.

A statue of Catherine the Great that stood in the center of the park the market was around.

Frozen canals!

These statues hold the building up at every corner and column on this building.

The massive Galeria.

If you click on the picture you can see the little man on the roof better. They hire people here to shovel snow off the roof and to hack of the icicles. The insulation here is terrible so we get massive icicles.

The Hermitage all snowy and with a Christmas tree.

They lit the Alexander Column for New Years. This is from Palace Square facing the Hermitage.

A lovely and huge archway that leads from Palace Square to Nevsky. Another New Year's tree and the Hermitage behind it.

We will be going to Estonia (Tallinn specifically) on the 27th so we will bring news of that with us when we return! And of course pictures.

In other news, I had a dentist appointment on Tuesday. All in all it went better than any dental work I have had done in the US and she was very through. They found that I had a cracked filling and so hopefully that will be the last time that needs to be taken care of!

Thank you for all of your prayers and blessings this holiday season!