The Harrison Family: December 2019 - Winter Wonderland and home for the holidays!

December was a crazy month filled with end of school activities and preparation for our first trip home to Houston. The kids were able to celebrate with end of year parties with their classroom here at the international school. We have survived the first half our our first year in Russia! Lots to celebrate and be thankful for!

Carters Teacher Ms Katya and his class

Rileys Teacher Mr Andy and her class

Carter playing during recess

Riley showing us her end of term work - a pottery piece she made and some art

Carters class had a snowy field trip to a local museum here in Sakhalin

Carter has an obsession with Dinosaurs - showing his friend Everett the skeleton

Going away party with the neighborhood ladies - these are common around here

Riley had a swim competition at here school here. Of course she swam her little heart out and won all her races. I am so glad she has the opportunity to swim while living here!

We had our annual Holiday Party here at work. In Russia Christmas is not the bug celebration - its New Years... so technically its a New Years party. Its a huge formal event where the company rents a hall and all come to enjoy live entertainment, food and drinks. We have a talent competition - and my team, the HR team won first place in the competition. Most of you won't understand the video and thats ok... what is the most amazing part of this experience to me was the fact that my team - an amazing group of awesome ladies had never participated before and thought that they had no talents. We made an awesome video mocking the dress code that generated a ton of laughs and we had a lot of fun doing it!

Sakhalin is known for the massive crabs. I went shopping here in Russia and was able to bring some home for the family to enjoy - imported from Russia and hailed around the world.

The finished meal - scallops and crabmeat au gratin

The Sakhalin airport. Super small and cozy - so different from what we see in the US. Its nice to get there and not wait in line and just walk right on the plane. I didn't take pics of our trip but this was our first trip home that we flew coach. The kids surprisingly did awesome. They struggled to understand why people didn't bring us ice cream and meals all the time but overall they did amazing for such a long flight.

We left Sakhalin on December 20 and arrived in Houston on December 20 so Riley was able to celebrate her birthday in Russia and America. We got to see Nanny and Uncle Jeff soon after we arrived and got to celebrate Rileys birthday with them - and we were thrilled to learn we are going to have another cousin in the clan!

For Rileys birthday we went to get Manicures and Pedicures - just the girls. Mags and Riley had a ton of fun getting pampered

We were able to see Bill and Anita and the girls to exchange gifts and decorate cookies. I didn't take many pictures but was able to capture this cute one of this precious crew.

One of our favorite traditions is making the drive to college station with the kids to spend the day at Santas Wonderland. Its such a fun day for all of us to get in the Christmas Spirit. The kids enjoy the hayride, hot cocoa, seeing all the amazing lights and all the Texas holiday activities. Nothing says Christmas like Bull Riding!