The YWAM team came over this evening to celebrate the New Year with us. We made some pizza and had lots of fun exchanging gag gifts.

Ramona and Abby during the evening celebration.

Nastia

Sveta and Abigail (not ours)

The King is born! Merry Christmas!!


Ramona and Timothy opening gifts in front of the tree.

Ramona and her new mobile.

A special jar of jam. Mmm!

Abigail and her new shower gel.

Nina a friend of ours was married today. She is a lovely bride. Her husband is the brother of her best friend. She met him at her girlfriend’s wedding exactly six months ago to the day.

A happy bride on her wedding day.

Sasha in the waiting room at the wedding palace.

The couple and their parents.

Well, we are celebrating Timothy’s birthday today. We invited several friends over for the occasion. We had a total of 14 kids over for the party. Timothy is REALLY into presents this year. Thanks to all who made this a special day for Timothy.

Timothy opening his gift of an umbrella, something he has been desiring.

Abigail and several friends who were at the party.

Me baking pizza in the kitchen.

Today we are spending some time with Martha Dmitryvna. She is our old landlady and adopted Russian grandmother. It has been over a year and a half since we have spent time with her. We have missed her and she has missed our kids. She fixed a lovely meal to have with tea and Timothy spent a great deal of time playing with Dima her grandson.

Martha and Timothy

Martha and Abigail

Dima and Timothy

Zenit is St. Petersburg’s professional soccer team. Yuri, the son of a friend of mine plays for the B-squad, but for the last game of the season was called up to the professional team. He did not see any game time, but it was still a fun match to attend. The score ended in a 0-0 tie.

Shot of the field and the fans.

Some flares spelling out 2007.

Some fans lit flares near the end of the game and there was so much smoke that they had to suspend the game for a few minutes until it cleared.

We celebrated the birthday’s of Andrew and James and had Thanksgiving out at our friends who live outside of St. Petersburg. It was a great day with lots of wonderful food. The turkey and sweet potatoes were marvelous.


Abby in a birthday hat.

Timothy and Anders playing on the couch.

Dave and Sarah at our Thanksgiving meal.

We are celebrating Thanksgiving once again with another set of friends. This year we did not even get a chance to host a Turkey day party since we were invited to other people’s celebrations. What a blessing!

The kids getting ready to eat some turkey.

A shot of the feast.

Some good friends of ours came over for dinner. Here are a couple of pictures from the evening.

Boys flexing their muscles for all the ladies.

Aiden showing off a hat he found at our place.

My lovely wife on her birthday!!!

Tonight we had Tanya over for dinner. She is a YWAMer working in Germany, but who is originally from Siberia. We met Tanya in southern Russia working in youth camps. She came to our youth camp as a counselor with a friend from Siberia. She is in town for a couple of weeks with the local YWAM team.

Timothy’s good friend Kolya plays hockey and brought his uniform and equipment over one day. Fun!

Every six months the Russian government requires us to leave the country in order to re-register our visas. This time we decided to make a trip to Tallinn. The last time we visited this lovely city was for Timothy’s first birthday. The weather did not cooperate with us and rained the entire time except for the last morning and that is when I took most of these pictures.

Abby and Ramona in the a local mall’s play land.

Tallinn and the wall which protects old town.

One street in Tallinn’s old town.

YWAM St. Petersburg is running Mission Adventures in the summer and during the off season they are holding meetings for youth to encourage them. The name of these meetings is Chainik which literally translated means teapot. The other meaning is simpleton and that is the focus of these meetings and the ministry, that we should all have simple faith in Jesus. The world will see us as fools, but the scripture says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Tonight was the first Chainik.

Tim, the director of YWAM speaking with some of the youth leaders.

Dave in one of the skits.

Here is a picture of my lovely Abigail. She loves hats and shoes (in this case slippers). I cannot remember how many times I tried to get my son to wear those slippers, but they came of three seconds after I put them on. My daughter on the hand has taken to them like fish to water. What a doll!

Timothy and Abby posing for a picture. They are both growing so quickly. It’s fun as a parent to watch them grow and develop. As the Lord says they are truly, “fearfully and wonderfully made”!

A wedding done Russian style…

My former colleague and friend Zakhar and his fiancée’ Katya are getting married in true Russian style – the ZAKS wedding. ZAKS or the wedding palace is the Russian civil ceremony where most Russians hold their weddings. St. Petersburg has a hand full of these palaces scattered throughout the city. The couples often march in under a recorded (sometimes live) musical accompaniment and then a woman often conducts the ceremony. It usually takes around 15-20 minutes, after which the couple and their guests are promptly herded out of the palace and the next lucky couple begins their ceremony. This palace where my friend was married is the most prestigious in town and sits on the embankment of the Neva River. Riding to church we passed it one morning and counted 7 limousines waiting outside for the couples to finish their ceremonies.

This is a picture of the couple making their entry into the wedding hall.

Here is a shot from the back of the room.

This is the final shot before the lovely couple kisses.

Ramona has done many crafts with Timothy this past week and has also begun teaching him various subjects in school. Tim loves to color and write his letters. He can now do every letter of his name it's putting them in the right order that needs a little work.

As Abby has grown Timothy has begun to play with her more and more. He loves to get her to chase him around the apartment. She loves to play with Tim's train set and cars.

Timothy and his jack-o-lantern.

My little doll.

Timothy and Abby playing together.

The fall evenings have been so lovely the past week. We have gone on a walk nearly every evening. The days are definitely getting shorter and the air is a bit cooler, but amazingly enough the sun continues to shine on. It usually turns rainy and cold by this time, but we will take this weather right up through spring.

Ramona with the kids at the end of the Fontanka.

I am holding the kids - a local bridge behind us is being remodeled.

Ramona and the kids at sundown.

A new discovery! The Varshavsky mall opened up recently in an old train station nearby our house. Ramona and I took the kids out this evening to see what we could find. What we found was a rainy day treasure.

The mall has a lovely food court and kids play area for those days when the weather just doesn't cooperate. St. Petersburg has a lot of those days, just not this summer.

Timothy played around in a three story playland/labyrinth. He even helped save a little girl who got stuck. Abby just ran around pushing buttons on all the flashing lights of the video games nearby. For 50 rubbles ($1.86) it was well worth it.

Family eating in the food court of the new mall.

Timothy and a picture of half the play land.


Abby posing at the end of our time at the mall. The smile says it all.

Strongly independent children and the lack of fine motor skilss makes for great pictures when your kids begin eating messy foods. Here are a few photos from the past month of our kids eating. Aren't they cute?!

Abigail eating some lasagna or spaghetti.

Timothy dipping into some delicious chocolate pudding.

Abigail trying on her new mud mask or should I say pudding mask.