This week...

This year Dalton is playing percussion and Seth is playing the Saxophone.  The concert was for grades 5-8.  (I was pretty proud of myself for remembering all of the elements of the Formal Uniform.  No tan pants this time!  I did notice 2 other kids who had on tan pants and I felt bad for their poor mothers!)

Grocery Shopping

This store is Wal Mart on Crack.  It is Black Friday shopping every day of the year.  I have to psych myself up to go and reward myself for making through.  

The shopping carts are chained together.  You pay 10r to use the cart and when you bring it back, you get your rubles back.  

When shopping here, it is the unspoken rule that you leave your cart at the end of the isle and go get your stuff and then carry it back to your cart.  

The week AFTER Thanksgiving, sweet potatoes...

How many rubber gloves do you need to choose from???  

SOCKS!!  I am in so much trouble!!  

And, here is my reward for making it through that mad house AND getting through traffic!  2 weeks ago when I went shopping, it took us 2 hours to get home!  2 HOURS!!!  1 hour to get there, 2 hours to shop and 2 hours to get home.  5 hours for your weekly grocery shopping is too much!!

This is the best treat in Russia!  It is a little bit of heaven.  The best thing I can think of to describe it is a bite size cheesecake.  This one has caramel in the middle.  Yum yum yum!!!

There are ginormous Christmas trees everywhere!  You can see the Russian White House on the right side of the tree.

This is our new church building.  Our ward meets on the third floor.  It looks a little sketchy but, it is actually great.  We really like it.  It is very close to our place.  It only takes about 15-20 mins to get there as opposed to 30-45 mins.  Hooray!

Ward Christmas Party

African's Christmas dance

Korean Christmas dance group (Plus Elder Melchor.  They asked him to be in the picture with them.  Perhaps one of them has a crush on him...)  

Our family sang Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, chinigan style but, since we were performing, we didn't record it.  It is probably best.

Here is a documentation photo.  When we first moved here in January 2014, The ruble was at 31.  It is now at 59!  When we were here in 97, the ruble was at 13.  It jumped to 33 over night causing a ruble crisis.  We are unsure what this means for the locals and those getting paid in rubles...

This vending machine sales phone accessories.  Cracks me up!