new years eve (264/365b)

spent all day getting ready for party! well, not really ... mostly we just hung around and did whatever. we made lots of party food and such, but all in a social no-pressure kind of way.

we tried to use the movie the thief of baghdad as background music, and it was very distracting, everyone wanted to see it, and felix complained "i just HATE this movie!"

matt and i had nerdy teenage alter-egos for each other when we wore glasses.... our names... what were our names? was i gertrude? doreen? maureen? mildred? was he alfred? albert? dilbert? why can't i remember? ... yay, matt reminded me! *giggle, giggle, snort*... Arlo and Mavis.

we played music when we got the urge. rick made unbelievably good paella. i concocted mushroom goulasch, and right after dinner drew left sadly and abruptly. right before midnight another family left too. everyone else stayed for the traditional singing of auld lang syne, and also stayed to watch labeeby's friend rachel and i do a soprano/piano improv on dr.seuss' one fish two fish red fish bluefish.

appropriately enough for midnight on the cusp of a year, it ends:
"today is gone, today was fun, tomorrow is another one. every day from here to there, funny things are everywhere."... i was so impressed she managed to get through the part of the "wump of gump" without breaking down, since the audience was crying.

labeeby and matt playing a very fiery ravel duo

brian organized the whole burning bacardi 151 with sugar and wine.

feuerzangenboule to the sounds of
i've been workin on the railroad

theodore and rick and papa
also the delicious deserts that matt and nina brought.

new years resolutions in thailand

rainer and puk wore the new years resolution hat across facetime. we wrote them all up

James (Matt's son): Next year, don't eat dirt, don't eat the earth
Henry: My new years resolution is to not fight all year
Theodore: Practice at least once a week.
Brian: To go deep
Rasika: To call my parents more
Labeeby: I will speak softly and carry a big stick
Rasika's cousin Umkar: Try to change my job
Rasika's sister: Take more risks in my academic major
Edward: to get my mile time under 5:30
Papa: Resolve to learn enough italian to survive a week in Italy without speaking English.
Peter: To go to England once
Puk (over skype): To sell a script
Nina: To spend more time with *this* family
Rachel: to participate in a full opera production this year
Matt: Play more violin and viola this year
Rick: to be a little less evil
Irma: do all the things that make me happy for at least 5 minutes a day
Rainer (over skype): Learn to write Thai
Jules: to visit one new country this year
Hugh (on facetime): to get enough sleep and eat really tasty food.

jacob's birthday (263/365b)

ed gave me the special recipe box that belonged to my grandmother... i was very touched.

felix was desperate to own drew's purple chair, so he hid it, and offered to give it back if drew would sell it for 15 dollars, 7 of which he didn't have yet, so he was going to take out a loan from labeeby supposedly. he had all kinds of entrepreneurial ideas on how he was going to pay back the loan.

and we celebrated jacob's birthday a few days early...

felix is intrigued by the cake
jacob, aunt mary agnes, papa, felix, uncle ed, robin drew and cut-off brian and cut-off henry

uncle rick made glorious potato pancakes and i'm not sure all the walking in the world could have walked off all those glorious (and unglorious) calories

uncle rick and wilson

waiting for cake to be served

then the ed, robin, jacob, mary agnes crew went back home to their respective homes in ny, and we started planning our epic new years eve party for tomorrow.

crazy scheduling ideas (262/365b)

i guess we saved all the obligations for today.

early morning hike with brian's man-friends and all their kids. then we visited the museum of science with brian's sister erin and her husband ken, and when we finally got back to worcester, drew had arrived to visit, aunt mary agnes was here with ed and robin and jacob, and rick had arrived with his dog wilson.

the hike was flat, easy, beautiful but "too long" for the kids... i distracted them at the lake with my camera, and with lighting a fire with a magnifying glass.

evidence

old unused world war 2 bunkers in the heart of massachusetts, who knew

closed shutter at the lake

felix is "waaay too tired" to walk.

the menfolk: andrew, scott, brian and adam
now that we're back, all the kids ran around and rolled in the grass...
the way too long hike hadn't tired them out a bit.

we took our drive to boston which is just ever so beautiful.

lovely looking city, right?

i didn't take any photos of erin and ken while we were there, but the museum of science was just completely jam packed with people. it was actually like the circus. it was hard to manage just keeping an eye on people. erin had gone ahead and treated us to tickets to an imax movie about a railroad that they built across the rocky mountains at the beginning of the 20th century. felix insisted on sitting the front row, so i sat alone with him.

the movie was also "way too long" for felix

domed screen
i found out afterwards that henry kept his eyes closed the whole time because he was motion sick

the best part of the museum today

there were so many, so *very* many mistakes and omissions on the science side of the museum. stupid things too... like fake plastic plants in a space exhibition, to show "how to grow plants" in space... and a solar energy exhibit where you found out that solar isn't a good way to power a city... and a cool rfid wristband that you could use to measure yourself walking to find out about your arches, where they discovered that theodore is more flatfooted than 99.999% of the science-museum-visiting population. also my skin tone is apparently that of an east asian. also "studies have shown" that intake of vitamin d "may be useful" for people of all skin types. lots of button clicking, including a body model with light-up breasts, which was a favorite for a lot of types of people.

on arriving home, i didn't even know who to spend time with or how. there was drew, sitting nonchalantly in the kitchen chatting with my uncle rick. he had gotten there right after we had left that morning. i guess that's what happens when neither of us has a cell phone or checks email. i decided to just hang out by the fireplace and see who felt like chatting.

learning from the master

grandpapa picks up the pile.
photo across 4 generations

i guess a pinochle game started right as i was going to sleep. 

another no-obligations day (261/365b)

what's better than beer, potato chips and bridge with family by candle light?

who will be the dummy?
papa, labeeby, me and brian
at least brian and i aren't partnered up for this one

only one thing better... MUSIC!

old french carol for two violins and harpsichord...
theodore, irma and edward <3

and then, because it was earlier than it looks in these pictures, brian and i went off contra dancing, aaaall the way to GREENFIELD, the mecca of all new england contra dances, which was just ....... aaaaah! so fun! it was a contra dance for experts, which meant they called all kinds of complex dances that one normally wouldn't call, because everyone would get too mixed up. brian danced in the so called "chaos" line, where people switch roles randomly, sometimes there are 3 or 4 people to a "couple" and all kinds of other stuff like that.  :)

letter writing (260/365b)

on days with no obligations it is nice to take a step back and think of others.... like agnes, in japan. we all at least addressed envelopes for her, and will write her letters over the next few weeks.

to osaka

grandpapa is putting the finishing touches on his letter already

boxing day (259/365b)

labeeby cut everyones hair today

Henry's first question this morning: “what’s for today’s Christmas dinner?” the answer to that? "leftovers!" we didn't cook a thing today. we just let people find whatever they wanted.

we tried to play apples to apples but i always cheat at apples to apples, and this time everyone was annoyed by that, so we gave up. we tried some other new games, like codenames. edward and i were still super tired from staying up late last night.

taking aim... at what?

henry's turn

we had a delightful tea-party with the kids, labeeby, papa, brian and me, with some of the fancy teas we got for christmas. labeeby chose well, everybody thought they got the best tea.

christmas day (258/365b)

we walked to the lutheran church with the kids, and we thought we must be very early, there were only 25 people there. i went up to look at the little manger scene in the front with felix, since i figured there was at least another half an hour, when all of a sudden the organ boomed out, and i jumped and ran to my seat, everyone laughed, and the service started. the guy speaking was very young, and his sermon was very strange, mostly about twitter and what "the word" means... and more than once he tried out this tongue twister: "an unworded word world"

the stollen was perfect, in fact, it was nearly gone by the end of the day. success. the kids had even started munching it on their way to church in the morning.

breakfast presents
right after cracking the british "crackers" that matt and nina made for us

centa christmas!

then we did various fun things for the afternoon, including cooking

but first the kitchen is a work table...
...somehow australian firefighters are a little bigger than little kids
so a few extra holes are necessary

try not to burn your fingers on the awl - it gets hot!

perfect egg noodles are a team effort

peter made beef wellington all on his own

 uncle martin's recipe for the now traditional (3 years running) truffle sauce

everyone helps with the table

mood music for the evening

everything was delicious and we were all in a great mood that evening. :)

christmas eve (257/365b)

delightful christmas eve, just perfect. there was even light snowfall, although nothing stuck.

potato chopping with santa claus

for dinner we had hearts of palm (and fish) and potato salad and canned veggies

we all had a nice time but for felix the day was extra special. he told us in no uncertain terms that santa claus was really dead. 

felixinsisted on us getting a santa costume to wear, but we didn't have one, so he decided to make one himself:
he dressed up as santa claus, by putting red stockings on his head, wearing a read shirt, a red vest (that used to be labeeby's but shrank in the dryer) and red construction worker pants. 
when he was finished eating (i hate this this food, i hate these potatoes, i hate these mandarin oranges, i hate all this food) he suddenly said, "i'm done" and just then the bell rang for christmas eve. everyone ran towards the tree *except* felix, who ran outside, so he could try to see santa claus' sleigh.
when we got to the tree, the music switched to "maria durch den dornwald ging" which felix sang alone (with the cd) clearly, loudly, and perfectly with the candles behind him. i tried to take a video, and he completely stopped singing.
when peter swooped in and airdropped the treasure box behind felix by magic, and felix finally turned around he exclaimed with the greatest disappointment ever: "but *I* wanted a treasure box!"... it took several minutes, but then he figured out that it was for him and was delighted.

presents, candles, fireplace
we all got tea

a perfect visit (256/365b)

shannon and spencer came over for a visit. first some tea and piping hot blueberry muffins. then we went for a walk to bancroft tower, but couldn't pick the lock with a paper clip to get in the side with the stairs. the kids squeezed through the bars instead and played jail. while we were there we witnessed an apparent drug deal (like every time we go there).

the "witch's tree" on the old erskine lawn...
a weeping birch
perfect for climbing

they can slip through the bars no problem.

spencer went exploring and found an unplayed game called rush hour, and they all got very excited to play it right away.

rush hour can be puzzling

shannon and me :)

it was so nice to see them again, but eventually the visit came to an end, and we got ourselves pajama-ed and hung out with books and popcorn.

companionship

brian made us all popcorn. it was the first time he made enough. felix fell asleep with a great bowl of it.

it's all mine all mine all mine

after the kids went to sleep papa, brian, peter and i went midnight (11:30) shopping at price chopper and forgot the list. papa went home to get it, and in the meantime labeeby texted it to us. it took her a while to text us back because she and theodore were home reading danny dunn books.

16 million dollars (please) (255/365b)

Brian and Theodore went hiking in the blue hills this morning. 

at the exact moment that they got home labeeby arrived back from syracuse and matt came over with james.

felix asked labeeby out of the blue "how can you *promise* never to fall into a mud puddle?"

after a long explanation of godfathers and what they could possibly be good for, matt said he could give felix 5 dollars without even asking his mother, and would he like that. Felix held out his hand and said he wanted 19 million dollars. we had an awfully good evening all together.

1000 vanilla kipferln

i want 19 million dollars!

yaaaaaay!

i want this to be my passport picture

go dog go

finally contra dancing again (254/365b)

Theodore spent all day solving and re-solving the Rubrik's cube... albeit with a solution book that we found in the basement.

theodore is happiest with a puzzle, a book and his cat

contra dancing in carlisle today. henry wanted to go with us, and nobody else, so we went. stopped on the way to go to whole foods and buy truffles for christmas day. they are very expensive. the cashier was the slowest cashier we had ever encountered. i was impatient because i also wanted to go visit keith and alison who are only a mile or two away from the contra dance. it was so nice to see them and their 5 kids. henry might have been a little overwhelmed. the dance was nice, although a bit disorganized. the infinite-piece lexington band Roaring Jelly was playing there, and i even saw some people clapping after a petronella turn (a big difference from a few years ago when i was told "we don't clap in carlisle" and i christened that dance the "clapless carlisle contra" and never went there again)

palatschinkenmeister (253/365b)

russell and kristine came over to visit in the evening, and we had lentil soup which felix ate but told us adamantly he didn't like after every single bit.

Felix helps get the pans for palatschinken

some things he still likes to eat though... Felix requested the palatschinkenmeister to make us breakfast this morning, which he was happy to do, except we had no eggs. so he demanded brian go buy eggs. poor brian... the bag broke at the grocery store and 18 eggs went everywhere, cracking, and rolling around the checkout. no matter. more eggs were procured and felix was happy with the palatschinken he was rewarded with.

easy life (252/365b)

mostly lots of sleeping at various times, reading to kids, not much to do. peter and edward took most most of the kid care on. edward got all a's in his first semester of grad school.

meanwhile we went through the basement and found lots of old memories, including brian's wpi year book...

aww, what a sweetheart

culture shocked and jetlagged shopping day (251/365b)

jetlagged day, we decided (planned actually a long time ago), that we were going to make the most of the day by doing dumb things. shopping for stuff to pack for our return trip, getting felix's passport renewed and stuff like that.

same kitchen, different time zones.
grandpapa just back from australia
us just back from austria