Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Christmas was celebrated or by most merely observed here in Russia yesterday, January 7th.
We wanted to share with you some of the ways we have been spending our holidays here in Moscow. Along with some language lessons and getting things situated in our new apartment there has been a great deal of fun! Many of the reasons have to do with the several inches of fresh snow on our 11th story flat window and two days of heavy snow fall that seem to come every weak!
After the first few drops in temperature we were able to try out our used ice skate purchases on a small rink five minutes from our flat.
We celebrated Thanksgiving with our team. Through and English school we were able to get a hold of a turkey and celebrated with all of the usual holiday dishes. In this picture you see me with teammates making green and red popcorn balls. A tradition for one of the families here.
We attended the midnight Christmas Eve service at the English speaking Anglican Church. The 25th is like any other work day in the city and we were thankful to have a place of worship! On Christmas morning, we had a dear friend and teammate over for brunch and talked with our families on skype. The afternoon was filled with sledding adventures and ended with cider and games.
New Year's Eve we hosted a prayer time for remembering the greatness of our King and His works, blessings and provisions for us over the past year. We looked towards the future and asked for renewed hopes and vision for the coming year. We then rushed to Red Square with thousands of other Russians to ring in the New Year, the largest holiday in the country.
We spent the morning of January 1st in a forest about 30 min. by bus from out flat. There was a fresh foot of snow and every limb had inches of snow piled high. It was almost completely empty and Dave and I found solitude, silence and great beauty a priceless gift!! We cross country skied and found rest there. (unfortunately, we did not have our camera but here is a shot from more recent adventures in the forest that Dave was not on. Merry Christmas and Happy New year! Love,Dave & Jess
2 comments:
We are so glad to see you two looking so happy and having so much fun. I take a personal interest in your happiness :-) and am glad to see you are finding a good balance between work and play! We are all so proud of you and miss you! Love, Lisa MOm
You look like you are having so much fun! I love how colorful the market is. We miss you greatly :)
Emma
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