Holiday Post!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Matthew and I had our 3rd Thanksgiving here in Russia and it was a nice small gathering with our team. I made a rather labor intensive trifle (which involved making whipped cream by putting cream in a jar and shaking the jar till we had whipped cream) but it was pretty awesome so it was worth it. :-)

Matt's taking the picture but there I am. 

This metro is by where we met and it's been under remont since we moved here. The pillars are covered in sculpted glass and bronze bands. 

The day after Thanksgiving, we picked up a big box of presents my mother had sent (very exciting!) and then went to a game with our friends Masha and Jarod. We had amazing seats right behind the goal with no one in front of us! The tickets were cheap as well since it's the goal CKA is at the least. It was great too because you could see the expressions on the player's faces.

Here we are!

After the game, Jarod found this picture from the official CKA page and there we all are in the corner! So cool! 

Last night we went to hang out with Matt's Russian teacher/our friend and her kitty. She knew I love cats and offered to let me play with her lovely cat. She's very similar to Matt and I so it was a lot of fun to spend time with her. 

To complete our busy and fun break, we put up our Christmas tree today so we would have somewhere to put the presents. We have our usual tinsel in the Russian flag stripes. :-)

Last, but not least, it's been a while since I posted the book nails I've done so here they are! Some of the books we've done I haven't done nails for (like Lord of the Flies) but so far I've done 80% of the books we've read in all grades. 

Top row: The Giver, an apple, blue eyes, Gabriel

Bottom row: sunshine, snow, nature, music, love

Top row: a raccoon

Bottom row: love, the dogs' initials, the silver cup, the gold cup

Top row: a button, the letter H, a bloody knife, a scarlet kimono, a pipe

Bottom row: a train and Hercule's mustaches 

Top row: a compass rose, Violet, king and queen piece in chess, Turtle's braid

Bottom row: inheritance money, purple waves, Westing Paper Products stock, a crutch, fireworks

And this brings our busy life up to date! Matt and I both have had our observations by our academic principal and we both felt it went very well. It's always nice to get positive feedback so thanks for everyone who was praying for that. 

For Christmas, we are planning to go to Tallinn, Estonia, which we did our first winter here. We loved it so much we decided to go back. :-)
We are very thankful for all of you who pray, email, contribute, and keep us in your minds and hearts. You're the reason we're here and why we are able to bless and be blessed by the International Academy.