Thanksgiving in Russia 2017

Obviously, Thanksgiving in November is an American holiday, so what does an American do in Russia?  Well, if you work for the US government, you get the day off (lucky you!), otherwise it's a regular work day (which was the case for Brandon).  What about school?  Since it's an American sponsored school, they found a creative way to almost take the day off: three-way conferences.  It's like parent-teacher conferences, but the student is actively involved in the meeting.  So the kids and I went to the school for conferences in the morning and then had the rest of the day off.  We relaxed for a while at home, watching "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" (thank you youtube!), and playing games.

And then I got to work on dinner!  The kids were eager to help (snacking on the roasted carrots and brussel sprouts while they waited for the turkey cutlets to cook), so by the time Brandon got home from work we were all set to eat.  The food wasn't quite the same as it would have been had we been living in the States, but it was pretty dang good, if I do say so myself!

We ended the evening by watching some Harry Potter (#4).  It was a fun and relaxing Thanksgiving!

School Pics 2017!

We finally got Kiddo and BG's school pictures back.  Aren't they cute?

4th Grade

Kindergarten

Halloween in Russia 2017

It shouldn't be a surprise, but Russians don't really celebrate Halloween.  However, there are plenty of expats here that do!  We were going to go trick-or-treating on Halloween night (on a Tuesday) at one of the expat compounds, but the weather was awful, so we decided not to go.  As consolation, the kids got dressed up and I hid behind various doors in the apartment while they tried to guess where I was so they could "trick-or-treat" for candy.  I think it was good practice for G2.

soccer player 

spider 

pumpkin

Luckily for us, there was trick-or-treating again a few nights later (on Friday) since that was the day that the school did all of their parties.

BG decided to be a queen for her school party

After school, Kiddo went straight over to a friend's house in the compound, and BG came home so I could get the her ready (yet another costume change!) before we met up with Kiddo.

The kids had a great time trick-or-treating and I was impressed by the amount of candy they recevied--about 25% American candy and 75% Russian.  (No surprise--my kids prefer the extra sweetness of the American candy.) It was also an eye-opening experience in what it would be like if we had decided to live in a compound instead of a Russian apartment building.  Basically, it's just like living in an American suburb.  But as nice as it would be, we're glad we live where we do, and it was nice to leave it all behind at the end of the night and come home to our apartment.