Thanksgiving, Prayer & High-5's

Since we have been home from Russia a little over 3 weeks now, I thought I would share with you some of my observations on the "easy" life here in the good ol' USA:
I am thankful for...underwear dried in the drier.
...a king-size bed.
...my car.
...snow that stays white more than one day.
...cooking with more than one utensil.
...my microwave.
...more than 1 outlet in the bathroom.

...homogenized milk.
...brushing my teeth and rinsing my mouth with water from the faucet.
...flat toilet seats.
...not having to worry how many Megabytes of data I am using while surfing the internet.
...having more than 1 pair of jeans.
...sidewalks and parking lots cleared of ice and snow.
...drive-through ANYTHING (banking, dry cleaning, McD's, etc.)
...my washing machine.
...temperatures in the "positive" range.

These are just a few of the comforts that I took for granted, but won't any more! :o)

I also wanted to share with you Alek's latest fixation...it's praying!! We read a little book before bed that is called the Story of Jesus. There is one picture in it of a family around the dinner table with their hands folded. He asked what that was and I said, "praying." So, he told us that he wanted to pray and folded his little hands. We started praying with him before meals this week. He loves it and after we are done praying he ususally says, "yee-show" (more). We say, "More praying?" and he says "DA!" At the end he shouts, "Jesus!" What more could we ask for?

Finally, here is a photo of Alek's High-Five with me at the restaurant last night. We went out for pizza and to see our friend Yulia who is from Chelyabinsk. We had fun and she spoke some Russian to Alek!