And we finally came home and set up our Christmas tree. We've been meaning to do it since before Halloween, but we kept putting it off because we always have something to do, or I'd rather go to bed. But I love our pretty little colored lights.
There are two new members of our family, just in time for Christmas. Charles' mom has a brand new baby maltese named Boo, and she is a stinking cutie. And my parents just got a baby golden retreiver (my dad's always wanted one of his own) named Grant. I think they've taken to calling him Bozo, though. So now our house is positively crawling with animals. Two cats, two dogs, a guinea pig, and whatever insects Maggie and Cam are working on collecting right now. I can't wait to go home!
Speaking of animals, Anna (whose nickname is animal) accidentally found my dad's grizzly bear pepper spray and the house had to be evacuated for a few hours for the fumes to clear out. I'm told Lizzy heroically braved the fumes to save my lazy cat Moose from a terrible fate. I wonder how effective that spray can be if it can't even get rid of a moose?
This is the boys reading their map books outside the lady's room in the Pushkin art museum. If I'd known how attached they were going to get to these books, I'd have taken over touring duties. These boys loved those map books. We were sitting in the middle of a really cool art museum, and they both had their noses in their books. Silly boys. However, Mike's sense of direction was pretty obvious. He was helping us figure out what metro exits we needed to take by the end of the trip. He's got me beat. Pretty good for someone who doesn't even read Cyrillic!
This is the Russian Orthodox Temple, which we took Mike and Sarah to. Charles couldn't go inside because he wore shorts that day, but he's seen it several times, so he sat outside and read his map book while I took them inside. I love that temple. It's really cool. It's got a museum in the bottom that shows exhibits about how the temple was built, and stuff. It was destroyed during communism, and when Stalin tried to build a giant statue of Lenin there, they discovered that nothing could be built on the foundation. Not even a one story house. The water table was too high, or something. So they turned it into the world's largest public swimming pool, and called it good. Then in 1995 the government decided to rebuild the temple, and strangely enough, didn't encounter any problems with the foundation. Mike didn't seem too impressed, though.
Charles and I took off to get some food for all of us while they were busy with doctors, and found a really good shashlik place pretty close to the hospital. There was a tree growing in the middle of the restaurant, but nobody else seemed to notice it. It was raining buckets outside, so it was nice to get inside and smell good shashlik smells. We remembered at that point that we hadn't eaten or slept since dinner the night before, and it was now close to bedtime again!
She loved the market so much that we went back the next day, and I just have to tell you that Charles is going to get a really cool Christmas present this year! But I won't tell you what it is. We did get some really cool mittens, 
a faberge egg, 
and a wooden santa 
that I've been wanting to buy since I saw it weeks ago at the market. I LOVE my santa! Mike and Sarah left yesterday morning, and we took the rest of the day to just chillax and recuperate from an exhausting week!
It was all dark wood and peacock blue and magenta and turquoise, with tiffany lampshades above the tables, and some of the tables were pulled up to the window seats, which were full of cushions and pillows and silky blankets and stuff. It was the sort of place I would want to take a Jane Austen novel and curl up in forever. I am so in love with this place. And it did my heart good to know that it existed. Charles ordered a hot chocolate and an apple custard tart thing, and I ordered fresh squeezed apple juice (I'm so serious.) and chocolate mousse. 
We probably looked ridiculous, just ordering dessert, and then taking pictures of our dessert, and then I hate to think what we looked like actually eating the dessert, because it was so good! Charles' apple thing was a tart on the bottom, with kind of a pie crust outer layer, and apple slices with spices inside, and the top was a custard thing with caramelized sugar on top. From just looking at it, you couldn't tell where the tart started and the custard ended, which I thought was really clever. You don't bake custards and tarts at the same temperature, so from all I can figure out they had to put the two together after they were baked, so how did they make it so beautiful? The chocolate mousse I ordered was divine. As in, it was made by heavenly hands. It had a slight orangey taste, like maybe there was a little bit of orange zest mixed in. And it was so light and airy. Oh my gosh.
Say goodbye to them, because they're being moved into a box on our balcony for the duration of our stay. No offense, Valya.
When I told Cecily I thought I'd be grateful for even a four-legged child after all the weird places Charles and I have lived, she said, "Well, the easiest thing to do is to line all of your clothes with lead." That's why she's my best friend.
The first time we went there, she complimented Charles on his Russian after she heard us speaking English and realized that he was actually American. That made me very proud!
Very thin crust and sweet tomato sauce. I really want to try their pork chops next. They're pretty cheap, and they haven't made us sick yet, so we're very optimistic! They're such a cute little family that runs the place.
Charles just finished reading a very interesting book about the space race and the cold war. It was called Red Moon Rising. Sounds pretty funny, from what he's told me about it.
I personally would want a summer scene so that I can have a bit of summer during the long, cold, dark, Russian winters. I always long for summer, but I detest winter at all times. Everyone always seems to talk about how dark Russian winters are, because they hardly get any sunlight at all here during the winters. But nobody told me to expect so much sunlight during the summer! The sun goes down around midnight, and it comes up around four or five am. I'm loving all the sunshine! Sometimes it makes me grumpy to be woken up so early, but it's really nice to go for late walks with Charles while the sun is still up. 
So, Charles decided on his internship, and he's going to be working for a capitol investment firm. There aren't very many in Russia, because they're just now redeveloping an upper class who has capitol to invest. This particular firm has only been in business for about six months. It's more than doubled its funds since then, so they seem to be doing pretty well. Charles' job there is to research various commodities and services to invest in. He may even be doing some pitches to companies when he finishes researching. It's very exciting to him, and the job's pretty much tailored just to him. He may even be paid to fly to America a few times! He actually won't be speaking too much Russian, which ironically is a selling point for him. He wanted to spend time in Moscow, but he wasn't as thrilled with the Russian speaking aspect as the rest of the people who are in his program. They're all Russian majors, and he's a public policy major.
I heat water for him, too. We take turns doing it. A couple teapotfulls is good for a semi-cleansing shower, but I always use the actual shower head with cold water for my hair, because I need that water pressure to get all the shampoo out of my hair. Shaving is a nightmare. I can't wait for my hot shower tomorrow! 
