Another year comes to a close…it’s hard to believe that 2005 is ending. Friends from YWAM gather at our home this evening to celebrate what God has done in 2005. Ramona fixes a large turkey and the guests bring salads and sweets. It is a wonderful evening, except our guests leave early so that they can catch the President’s speech on TV. None-the-less it was a lovely evening. Ramona and I even had a chance to speak with my parents via Skype. Pretty cool.

Ramona and Abby chat with a good friend Marina.

Tim plays with Slava a young energetic former street kid.

This a fountain firework lit off just below our balcony on the Fontanka River.

Here is a picture of one rocket lit off below our balcony as well.

Hey, it’s dinner for four, no wait six. Good friends of ours were home in Russia on furlough having served for over a year in a Muslim nation. We had decided to invite them over for dinner since they would only be a town a couple of weeks.

The same evening I was to meet a friend from MN at the train station. He was carrying a care package from my parents. Yes, Christmas now a third time for the Bogott family. Anyway after arriving Graig called from the airport asking if he could come over before heading to the train station. That is how Russian hospitality works. You never know when somebody else might arrive, but you should always be ready.

It’s Christmas again. I know it’s hard to believe, but Christmas has come a second time to our family this year. This afternoon another package arrived in the mail from Ramona’s sister Becky. What a blessing!

The kids were so excited to see more gifts under the tree. Timothy was ecstatic after opening a Thomas the Train video. His parents made him wait until the next day to watch it. Thank you so much Becky!

On Christmas Eve Ramona and I lead worship for a joint service involving three Calvary Chapel churches. There were lots of specials and a really funny drama put on by the youth. It was a wonderful evening, but the kids were exhausted by the time we arrived home that gifting giving and opening had to wait until morning. On a side note, on the way home in our taxi we saw President Putin’s motorcade heading to the airport. It made for clear roads and green lights most of the way which was nice.

In the morning Timothy woke up really excited about opening gifts. He would yell, “I see presents, I see padarki!” The last word is Russian for present. Unlike past years Timothy opened his presents with flare and enthusiasm. He had so much excitement he soon started opening other people’s gift. Abby was fine with that as long as he left the paper for her to chew.

The day was splendid; Grandma Bogott had sent three Christmas stocking stuffer packages. Timothy’s favorite gift was, of course, Diesel 10 from the Thomas the Train series. Auntie Amy had sent some cute clothes and “It’s a Wonderful Life” for the parents. Ramona and I watched this movie with great joy. It reminded us of being home when all the channels are playing the Christmas classics.

Most of all we are so thankful for the King who has come and made His Tabernacle in us. He is our joy, celebration, and the reason we live. All glory to Jesus!

Dear Friends & Family,

May the Lord bless you all abundantly! May Emmanuel truly be with you and yours this holiday season. We love and miss you.

The Bogott Clan

Click on the picture to see the larger version. :-)

The holiday season kicked into full gear this weekend with the annual International Women’s Club’s Christmas Fair. This year there were tons of people and the I think the club raised $18,000 for local charities. There was a bake sale in which Ramona supplied the tastiest cookies of all- chocolate cookies with a white mint frosting. So good!

The club brought in a local performing group which is made up of all children. They perform circus type acts to music. They were a lot of fun. Timothy watched with wide eyes as the kids flipped, jumped, tumbled and rolled around the room.

Finally a good friend from church was out to help with the bake sale. Marina dressed up as the snow maiden. In place of Santa and elves, Russia tells a tale of Grandfather Frost and his granddaughter the snow maiden.

May you all have a blessed Christmas!

Timothy received an Ikea train track set for his birthday and it fits into his Thomas the Tank Engine set. He is having a blast creating all kinds of different tracks to run his trains on. He will sit for nearly an hour pushing his train around the track. His loves Thomas the train.

Oh, to be three again!

Hiding behind daddy’s leg Timothy slowly creeps out into the living room where two of his birthday guests have already arrived and started emptying the toy box. Timothy had woken out of a deep sleep was not ready to participate in the festivities. He like an iron after his naps, he needs a few minutes to warm up.

Soon Timothy is running around the house chasing and being chased by his good friend Kolya. Leah the pastor’s daughter sits quietly playing with toys on the floor. Abigail just takes in the spectacle of all these kids and all these noises.

Before opening his gifts Timothy passes out gift bags to all his guests. He enjoys it so much that after opening his gifts from his guests he tries giving them the toys back. What a sweet hearted little boy. He received cars, books, a train set, and a special Max Lucado movie from Grandma.

It’s nearly 23:30 and Timothy and Abby can be heard from their bedroom discussing the evening events, high from the sugar and fun that they had. Maybe dad will get to sleep in tomorrow? Maybe?

The other side of St. Petersburg…


Here is the courtyard of Nevsky 32 which was recently renovated by the city. This old city takes on such beauty when it is given a little TLC.

SNAP! This is the sound of my will breaking. I have given in. I have betrayed my conscience. This year I went out and bought our family a FAKE Christmas tree. Ramona convinced me that we need something to hang all these ornaments on which we have been saving in our back bedroom.

It’s a short 4 footer which should pack up nicely and store for the other 300 days out of the year. I sure do miss the smells, but the huge smile on my wife’s face makes it all worth it. I wonder if I can buy pine smell in a can to spray on the tree? If not, I can always pick pine smell car freshener that people hang from their rear view mirror and put that on the tree. Here’s hoping that the rest of you get a real tree this Christmas season.

A visit with good friends…

It was a lovely evening over the Tim and Sarah’s place. It’s always a wonderful when we get together with good friends. Our friends serve with YWAM and have a real heart to work with the local churches. We are praying for them and their team as they step out to minister in this area.

Aaaaahhhhhh! One of the boys is yelling again. Anders and Timothy are in the other room playing and sometimes arguing. Anders room looks like a tornado hit it. Toys are scattered everywhere and the boys are throwing anything and everything about the room. By the end of the evening the h\toy house had also come down and was taken completely apartment by these two rambunctious ones.

Pictures are worth a thousand words.

A few pictures from the business center my company owns and manages.

The city has started placing lighting on the outside of all the buildings along Nevsky Prospect, the city’s main street. It certainly makes a noticeable difference in the way things look.

Tuesday Night faces…a couple of daddy’s favorites.

It was certainly a night to remember. As Ramona put it, “It wasn’t a boring ballet”. That is was not. Monday is Ramona’s birthday and therefore I decided the take her out to the Mariinsky Theater for a ballet as a birthday gift. The Mariinsky is the Bolshoi Theater of St. Petersburg and is where the most prestigious ballet dancers perform.

Earlier in the week I had gone to the ticket office and looked to see what was playing. The choices for Saturday were an opera, which I will never allow myself to suffer through again and some boring ballet performance. Sunday’s line up featured a premier showing of a new ballet called The Magic Nut. It is a prequel or prologue to the story of the Nutcracker. My wife’s favorite ballet of all time is the Nutcracker, so I figure this was a no lose situation. Oh, how I was wrong.

Although the ballet had riveting backdrops, incredible costumes and even some lovely dances it lacked the classical ballet feel and style. First there was the synthesized music with every sound imaginable except for one that sounded like an instrument. One redeeming factor was the fact that the orchestra still played several pieces. Second, the audience was filled with kids (as this was supposed to be a children’s story), but the ballet had some very dark themes. Several rats from the rat kingdom were hung and there was a backdrop with a body parts hanging from torture devices. Then the characters also traveled to a kingdom of wine and women. I told Ramona that I wouldn’t let Timothy see this ballet until he was at least twelve. Lastly there was one character in particular, a frog, with unusually large mammary glands. As far as I remember for my school days, reptiles do not feed their young milk.

Ramona still kissed me at the end of it all and told me that she had a wonderful evening. The company was definitely worth even minute of the evening it was the entertainment that could have been better. Oh well, there is always next year. Maybe I should start by picking the ballet a bit earlier.

Aiyee, Maties! Scrub the deck and hoist the sails…

We all gathered together on this Saturday to celebrate the November birthdays in our families. We decided to make it a dress up parties and most of the kids came in pirate costumes. A half an hour into the party the kids had ripped off their costumes and were playing in plain clothes. It was cute while it lasted.

Christine made a special cake for her boy’s birthday. It was a three level chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. They were nearly twenty guest and we didn’t even finish off half the cake. See the photo above. It was, of course make in the shape of a treasure chest.

The day was filled with great fellowship and awesome food.

This weekend has been a two-birthday weekend. Timothy has had a ball playing and eating cake since his parents limit his sugar intake. On Saturday our good friend’s boy had his second birthday party. These friends live next to a mall which has an indoor playground and rides for kids. Timothy played for an hour and a half inside labyrinth with balls, slides and secret passage ways.



On Sunday our pastor’s daughter had her third birthday party. She is a doll as you can see from the pictures. Our pastor was out of town and so the pastor’s wife threw this party all by herself without her husband’s help. Amazing! The food was terrific and the kids had a great time playing with all the new gifts.

Abby continues to grow and gain new skills. Recently she gained her balance and can sit up on her own. In addition she has started crawling army style. With elbows on the ground moving frankly she thrusts with her legs and lunges forward with sharp movements. It’s fun to put a toy outside her reach and watch her got after it. She is amazingly quick.

Ramona is preparing Timothy a costume for a harvest party we plan to have with some friends. It’s actually turned into a birthday party, but all the kids will dress up for it none-the-less. Our little pirate is ready to go he just needs a sword. For the safety of the other children it might be better he go without this last piece of his costume. The waterproof mascara proved harder to remove than first thought. Timothy had to wear his mustache a little longer than intended. :-)

St. Petersburg, Russia never ceases to amaze me. Today is the first snowfall of the year. For the past three years it has snowed on or before October 15. Even though the first snow is somewhat late in comparison with past years, it has come with great force. At the end of the day there is probably two inches of snow on the ground. The radio announcer said that there were over 500 traffic accidents reported on this first day of snow.


The pictures of the first snowfall were taken at the Sestroretsk Tool Works Factory outside of St. Petersburg. The factory was started by Peter the Great in 1721. The snow remained on the ground for over a week. The summer sun and warm weather are already missed.

We took some good friends out for dinner this evening at a Greek restaurant called Olivia. The food was spectacular. It had been a while since the four of us had hung out and talk. The evening was a lovely time. Dana our friend’s oldest also joined us for the dinner.

After dinner we hit a local coffee shop for a quick dessert and some tea. The pastries and drinks were tremendous. By the time we left I could hardly walk. I was so stuffed from such great food that I could hardly move.

Christmas Card Pictures and the Traffic Police

Today is the day for my company to take its annual picture for the Christmas card it sends out to clients, investors and friends. As we arrive to the Neva River for the picture taking I notice a large group of (traffic) policemen who are also getting their picture taken.

In Russia there are two kinds of police: traffic police and civilian police. The traffic police have the right to stop cars indiscriminately to perform searches, check documents, or to generally harass drivers. Most of the time they are looking for a hand out which they usually extract with ease if somebody is found to be missing a document or has violated a traffic law. There are at least five documents that each driver much carry on his person at all times. 1. Technical passport on the vehicle. 2. Technical inspection paper which states that the car is running well. 3. Insurance. 4. Title for ownership. 5. Driver’s license.


Notice the type of vehicles these traffic policemen are driving. They must do quite well for themselves. Hey, maybe they are sending out Christmas cards to their investors? :-)

This is one area that you all can pray about. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 2:1-2 “First of all, then, I exhort that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.” Please pray for the authorities in St. Petersburg that they would turn to the Lord and forsake their evil ways.