silvester! (365/365d)

Sleep till 12 for no reason (except going to sleep after 3am) ... upon alighting from my bed i went right to work on finishing mary's 2020factorial project.

Each of us,, edward and I published a 12 minute video today - he made spiegel im spiegel public and i finished and finished and uploaded the audio (mary did the video and midi animation) for our "2020!" video... 

impressed, i think

When we felt ready to go, we headed to the Foersters in small groups. We packed a ton of clothes and bedding (for the kids' sleep over) food drink and more. Centa made egg nog. We played carcassone, drank happily, had a stellar buffet, and generally had a terrific evening that ended after midnight - with us dancing and singing around a bonfire and henry asking onkel ludwig: “why does fire burn?”

i wish every day was world peace day (364/365d)

I cooked today, and when I got done, Centa brought home some fresh ravioli that she and ingrid had made, so we ate that instead - I guess I don't have to to cook tomorrow.

I showed each kid seperately how to fold a paper origami crane... maria wants to make a kind of 1000crane project in honor of world-peace-day which is in september, i think, so we really would have to start now. 

i was in a black and white mood

centa reading from letters from father christmas
which is really fascinating for felix right now

edward and henry being silly
trading instruments

Stayed up very very late with Mary, working on 2020factorial, switching off sometimes with Bruno, with whom I was also discussing the composition... It's almost finished. Some wonderful Bruno-isms... when he says "default" he means "defect" and when he says "experiences" he means "experiments"

snow and imagined sun (363/365d)

It took some convincing to get everyone into their winter clothes, but then we went down the Mur past kalvarienberg and went sledding with Gabriel and Maria. The mamas talked a lot, and my toes got numb with cold. I was wearing a pair of theodore’s winter boots (which now fit me). Theodore had corona testing, which came back negative, which means he can go to tonight's rehearsal for verkaufte braut, .... he joined us a few minutes after we got there, very happy that i had thought to bring his snow pants and hat and gloves with me.

Everyone was hungry (and a bit "hangry") when we got home. Brian made bread, which the kids loved a lot – but fought about the end pieces

Ingrid cz. came over in the evening and we played wizard and 6-nimmt and lit the candles on the tree. She drove me to the opera, picked up Theodore and together we walked to renate although renate was not at all pleased that theodore was coming along, as he may not meditate till he's older, and it is too late for a child to be out. i told her theodore would be happy to just have quiet time to read, and he was!

reading "indian captive"

Meditation was ...i want to open a huge heavy door - so heavy i can barely move it, to let in the light. Finally “inside/outside” I find a rose garden. There are small pebbles under the roses and I build pyramids with them, but must be very careful so they don't slip. I finally give up and lay in the sun with my eyes closed watching the patterns on the insides of my eyelids.

Theodore and I walked home together in the rainy drizzle, and got back very late, after 10. I still managed to have a skype group call with mama, centa (downstairs), papa and me.

the road more traveled (362/365d)

We took the road well traveled - we went on the exact same circuit as yesterday. Today we walked with Maria and her son Gabriel – walked along mur past the kalvarienberg and over the bridge

Pauli came by to have a coffee with me, and give me Stefan Zweig's "Maria Stuart" - it reminded him of me, because "it's a strong woman and such"

Foersters came over, but didn’t sleep over while nina and I painted a Bob Ross in the basement, then Edward took a champagne opening video (for Barbara, who is putting together a quintet mini-video for the quintet's facebook following) and since it was open, we had to drink it and so we shared it with Jackie (who had come to pick up her kids) and nina and centa and me (but nina and I hogged all the potato chips)

me and my bob ross

I still had enough energy, kind of, for a nice long chat with Bruno.

sunday brunch (361/365d)

Up really early and ate a bag of potato chips for breakfast at 5:30am... ewwww 

The foersters came over for sunday brunch, which we decided was short order eggs. no mimosas needed. ronja doesn't "like eggs" but asked for one sunny-side-up and then ordered 3 more in rapid succession. We tried to play a game together, but gave up when all the kids piled on top of us. It was fun though, we played with blocks, and watched a "show" the kids put on.

kids version of a fancy dinner table

We left with them, ostensibly we were going to walk together, but they headed straight home, so it was just a long walk with brian, the kids, and me, until we found uncle Ludwig on the way home from *his* alone walk and made him turn around and caused his walk to be even longer. I don't think he minded. When we got back it was quite dark, and we lit the candles on the tree and sang carols together.

good king w. (360/365d)

Good king wensceslas looked out (on the feast of steven)

We all read Charles Dicken's “Christmas tree” in the morning and discovered a fine new word in the process: sassigassity... apparently it never caught on (“audacity with an attitude”)

Noodle making was awesome with Centa - she had the kids, especially Felix, working hard rolling out dough with neighbor Ingrid's noodle machine. I made the truffle sauce, and it was amazing, if I do say so myself. We ate shortly after noon in our pajamas, except Theodore who dressed way up.

Servatius family zoom meeting followed at 4 and lasted almost 3 hours ... by the end all the kids were out of screen patience, not surprisingly, but unfortunately, they also didn't want to leave or do anything elss. but seeing everyone all at once was really a big treat. puk went to sleep quite soon after we started, and peter didn't make it. 

lots of people all at once

postponing christmas dinner (359/365d)

We noticed we forgot PARMESAN! oh noooo!!! So we won't make truffels today, because without parmesan it's a disaster!

Baked (a completely perfect) stollen in the morning, and while it was being finished we went to eggenberg to the swing. Because of bicycle issues, and fights I ended up riding Centa's tricycle there and back, which has its own steep learning curve, and it is also generally a bit slower than theothers. We came back when it started to rain/snow, but we were very happy we had been at the swing

a piece with all the condiment options carefully arranged

perfect stollen breakfast after noon

We had a large roberts family zoom meeting, and it got a bit too long for felix and henry who started getting loudly impatient and annoyed. But we held on till the end. 

Brian made a quiche for dinner, and Edward didn't feel so well, so it was a pretty strange christmas dinner - we're just saving our good dinner for tomorrow. 

christmas eve 2020! (358/365d)

There were no trees to be had at the market this morning, not even for ready money. Brian made himself on the hero-tour and found one after some searching. Not just anyone, but a gorgeous and perfect specimen. 

Brian and I cooked and cleaned and got a ton ready and then we walked to church where we first practiced and then had an absolutely perfect service. it was just so very very perfect. when we got and back the tree wasn't done yet, so I stalled as much as I could, but I didn't have to do much, as the kids were making a surprise in my room, and didn't want to be bothered. We adults all helped decorate in shifts, and finally everything was ready and we had our delightful christmas eve dinner and the bell rang, the tree was lit, we sang songs, and opened presents - not too many presents, in fact, nearly none, and everyone was happy with that.

christmas dinner: celeriac and potato salad and vogerlsalat
dessert was too sweet for edward: candied green black walnuts

on the way home, at the deserted hauptplatz

mostly deserted herrengasse in full lighting

theodore at the organ

gounod's ave maria

singing

advent comes to a gentle close (357/365d)

Finished editing Bruno's resume and put together a proposal for steirischer herbst… lets see what comes of it.

Last advent wreath lighting, i took it apart and put it in the grill outside already, there were no needles on it at all. that comes from not using balsam branches like i should.

Played at a funeral at the dom and was late to get there because I totally forgot to check when it was! – took me 10 mintues to get there, including the phone call and putting on my shoes. I took some illegal shortcuts with the bike, and was so winded when I got there but was afraid to cough to clear my poor lungs. I didn't have to play right away though - i had 40 minutes before my viola moment arrived.

Edward took the kids to the playground, but apparently that wasn’t enough to get out a lot of negative energy. Some positive feelings returned when we practiced for our musical moments in church tomorrow, because we are in charge of the children’s service. I’m playing gounod's Ave Maria with Henry.

Kids took an old favorite toy of theirs and wrapped it as a present for Vito while I talked to Papa for a long time, and then after they went to sleep I talked to Manuela and Labeeby while baking bread.

badly organized day (356/365d)

Woke up very very late, after Brian got back from bringing Theodore to a corona test that was extremely badly organized. - the red cross "forgot" to get there, so everyone had to wait for an hour.

Nina brought over surprise croissants, and that was delightful. She gave me the idea to make curry, which I did, but I didn’t have time to eat before rehearsal.

In the Dom, played a rehearsal, which was extremely badly organized, as in, it should have been half an hour in total, and ended up being over an hour, a lot of it waiting for other people to practice things.

Did tons of cleanup with the kids – I traded them 1 minute of video time for one minute of cleanup, so we got to see the Grinch stole Christmas and one pippi longstocking video.

Brian put in new lightbulbs so it’s super bright in our room now - great idea!

Talked to Bruno and convinced him to make a musicians CV - also a great idea, so we can do projects together

masked bandit in the bartered bride (355/365d)

Last lesson of the year with Elke this morning... Gave her a book of Reger annecdotes, from which I took this for my own memory...

"man musiziert hier ohne feuer!"

I had to get Theodore back and forth everywhere – to try on costume for Smetana's bartered bride, and to get him to his last lesson with elke and in between a quick stop for quick dinner at home.

with the mask he looked a bit like a bandit

A mom of a friend of Theodore's from singing brought us 4 bags of hand-me-down clothing and we were overwhelmed by going through all of them. There was a LOT of stuff, and now we have to sort through everything we have that's too small or too broken, and nobody likes that job.

Edward finished the pauli video rough cut... it looks soooo good!

We had a family meeting to talk about chores and to point out that chore participation has gone down...

Mary and I tried to communicate about the 2020 factorial project, but I think we were both too tired and talking past one another.

too many lights too many cameras too much action (354/365d)

I could barely could sleep - anxious all night, plus henry crawled into our bed with a bad dream and he runs very warm. 

I finished the final touches of the krippenspiel video between 7:30 and 8 - brian watched it while i showered then i frantically edited a small typo in the credits and some minor syncing problems, and tasked brian with the job of uploading it when the final render was complete.

Then we did *three* video shoots – one TV interview, the new-years social-distancing champagne video, our jingle bells video, while Barbara had a *fourth* video shoot with for a canceled ball. Plus many discussions. At the end I remembered I wanted to have a scene where I sign pierponts name with a quill pen, and because i didn't want to actually ruin my amazing prop, klaus set up a green-paper to use as a green screen - good thing too, because i messed it up about 10 times.

me multi-tasking, both taking this self-portrait, and acting in the video.

in the greatest of all dental ironies, Brian lost part of a tooth while flossing ....... poor guy will have to find a dentist in the middle of the empty holiday season.

in which i accidentally trade a book for a phone (353/365d)

We wanted to go for a nice hike ... when we suggested the Burgruine, Felix said it was too far, but when we suggested Jungfernsprung (20meters difference) he said that was perfect. So we went. We thought based on eye-witness accounts from earlier in the day, that there would be snow, but by the time we got to the top it had all melted.

a snack in the fog

a view of the autobahn

Pauli paid us a lovely visit and gave me a book by Stefan Zweig. ... unfortunately when he leaves he accidentally stole my phone (!) ... i didn't know that though so i looked all over everywhere for it. It was off so i couldn't call it. I even checked ridiculous things, as though I was going insane - in the fridge and the microwave. pockets of coat i haven't worn, etc.

I cooked with Edward, which was lovely, and had to leave in a hurry to discuss our surprise TV interview with the quintet. Back home, I was nervous about tomorrow, and felt better after going to Jackie's house and borrowing some nice clothes (for interview) ... and a charger... because... I actually called to say I was coming over, on the way out i checked on my rendering movie, and saw that the laptop had given up working half-way through render ...... 

we had a relaxing glass of wine, and brian and i had a relaxing walk back ... (the charger cable worked so i restarted the rendering!) and now i am very nervous about tomorrow again.

(352/365d)

 

Jakobsleiter w brigitta – weird half tree (go take a better photo). We found this tree... hanging in another tree! Oh how I regretted not having my camera. I got a little nervous even just standing there...

brigitta was also amazed

Almost forgot I had to go play at a funeral - it's been so long since I had a gig - irmtraud was among the mourners and the rest of the quintet played quartet music out of sight. my mask kept slipping over my eyes. 

I really finished the video editing, and also recorded all the jingle bells (reorganized our room to do it) for centa’s advent calendar video

four part harmony and a very demanding piano part

i am overwhelmed! (351/365d)

Woke up very late - i have been so very tired lately, and the kids are at school so the mornings are so quiet!

Felix had a lesson with Brigitta, but it was at her house, so I sat in her hallway with some sudokus and read Burnside's summer of drowning... 

Felix and I walked past Gabriel's house to trade some pokemon (i hate pokemon!!) cards and met Henry and Theodore there. Felix and Henry had finally gotten their cards back because we had 3 days without fighting. Gabriel was a bit over-stimlated and crazy, and came back with us to our house, but even me reading stories couldn't calm him down to any kind of useful feeling. But it was a short visit, and afterwards we finally finished watching Anchors Aweigh :)

And I edited the krippenspiel and thought I was done! Hooray! ... but after rendering saw I still have to re-sync some audio ... //sigh

classic movie night (350/365d)

Edward did a lot of random filming today - some shots for centa's effective-immediately project, and we tried to do a version and felix and me playing jingle bells as a duet – it was super fun with felix bouncing back and forth. this time i made it through almost without mistakes. - it's not even a hard thing to play, i just get distracted by felix going in and out of my field of vision. 

we also did our now-traditional beeswax candle rolling. we had exactly the right amount of wick with a small bit left over from last year.

carefully rolling

We wanted to watch the rest of Anchors Aweigh but didn't get around to it. I was excited about a movie night of my own, and wanted all the kids asleep by 8 or so, so that I could watch Rebecca - my favorite from my teenage years, and still very high on my best-movies-ever list.

Nina came over for it, and Edward and Centa and I watched. Brian was not interested and had work anyways. We had great snacks, and a very enjoyable movie, then went to bed waaay too late

25th anniversary of the trowbridge house (349/365d)

Another really good day, although I slept really late... but I did do a lot of video-editing and I'm pretty much all the way done. 

Took the kids into town for singing (to practice for Christmas eve, which we are singing as a family, since choirs are forbidden)

Finally returned my book to the library at the KUG (waaay late, because I didn't start reading the book until after i had renewed it twice so 9 weeks after i got it out, but at least I read it!) and sent manuelas package – the line was very very very long, way out the door and around the block, but I entertained myself by people-watching.

We all started watching Anchors Aweigh... Great childhood memories! 

Felix and I tried to take a video of us playing jingle bells but I kept messing up.  Argh. Felix kept playing it perfectly.

Edward played his video that he made in honor of us having the trowbridge house in the family for 25 years and I cried and cried because of nostalgia.

Talked to kris for a long time, while doing sudokos. maybe we'll do a music project together.

sudokus and political discussion

A really really good day (348/365d)

Recorded 35(!) tremolos for Bruno - i called myself time-management magician, but ran out of time! Had to run out to get to Elke – she taught me for 2 hours! I went to the library afterwards, returning things, and getting out Rebecca for viewing later in the week. 

Did a lot of photo editing, little bits at a time

I baked a ton of cookies - so many different types. Felix and Henry especially liked using the cookie press. Felix read in a magazine that we could send a drawing in to enter to win something. He suddenly became very determined to draw something.

a drawing for a drawing

coloring

Went for a 1.5 hour walk with Jackie in the fog late at night, all around the Schlossberg, including a path I hadn’t actually ever been on, where it was closed for winter storm damage and we had to step over trees. When I got back, although it was very late, I talked to Bruno about steirischer herbst project

3rd Sunday of Advent (347/365d)

3^rd Sunday of Advent. I was totally in the mood to bake cookies...... so was Centa....... so were the kids........ but didn’t because we were all out of butter! All OUT OF BUTTER! A travesty!

Peter sent us his "metal/grunge" recording of Santa is coming to town

they loved it!

Pauli walked with us (with a plastic corona-deflector on his head) to the mass-corona-testing site at the helmut list halle and waited for us outside. It was an ugly walk with lots of construction sites and noise, but he stuck with us, because the conversation was good. brian and i were both negative. hooray!

Nina came over for cookie and tea-time and wreath-lighting and stayed to observe a short family meeting and then for a game of wizard. 

team work (346/365d)

Felix and Henry started the day by making palatschinken for Edward and Centa, early in the morning, and then Theodore and Brian went to the farmers market while Henry and Felix stayed home playing wizard. Meanwhile I regretfully read a book by Nick Cave and hated it very much. Very much. As in, i regretted reading it. I felt bad because I had recommended the book to Pauli, and now I'm worried what horrible stuff he'll think of me.

Brian and I cooked together as a team, and I made cookies. Felix and Henry helped me clean up.

whisk-cleaning service

We went roller blading with Maria and Gabriel. The kids roller-bladed. Maria and I just walked around in circles. Played way lots of music with Theodore – cool Carl Boehm piece that I am accompanying him on. And we sang our 4-part Jingle Bells accappella with tea and cookies and advent wreath.

We didn't get to see Peter on his actual birthday, unfortunately, though I tried a few times to contact him. 

snapped (345/365d)

Brian and I got to visit the farmer’s market together today, just the two of us, for fun. I made new advent-wreath candles, and did some computer work before everyone got home from school. Right when they walked in the door I could hear that tensions were high….

Henry was so volatile today. I’m not sure why but I guess he was actually nervous about recording. Unfortunately he got mad and banged his bow against the stand and threw my earphones on the floor. The earphones survived, the bow didn’t. These things happen, but they feel terrible. He cried and tantrumed. He got dressed in bow-tie and suit and packed everything up but left his music at home on purpose. They had music there, and it was totally fine. according to his teacher he did better than anyone else on playing on the beat. … sigh 

With Henry back to normal, the day got much better… we dinnered with the Foersters, and the kids played (a bit rough and over-stimulated but happy) and a wonderful bedtime. We even got to crash Centa’s skype call with Peter for a few minutes.

computer teamwork

Then in the evening Brian and I did computer work together: ebay-ing and new-old bow for Henry and signing up for a  of the nation-wide weekend corona testing for everyone.

swinger of birches (344/365d)

Edward, Brian and I enjoyed a long political discussion this morning over coffee and tea, then I edited the sound of Pauli's and my arvo paert… I didn't like the way it sounded but I guess I just have to live with it.

I had the wonderful luxury of playing with Brigitta - We played some Siegl & sightread Coates after Felix had a wonderful piano lesson.

It was Papa’s birthday, and we extra-much enjoyed the wonderful audio advent calendar music listening  (although it made us a bit sad/nostalgic - robert frost reading his poem Birches) with tea and cookies

tea, cookies, wreath and laptop - advent in the 21st century

We sang jingle bells with centa in 4 part harmony with felix swinging from the beams like a monkey, and then we went right into practicing. So much fun to learn Bach note by note with Henry and accompany Theodore. Got to talk to Manuela

biking in the snow (343/365d)

The kids are back at school again! - Lockdown is minimally lifted, and it feels unusual and luxurious to have the morning to myself.

Brian let me sleep till 9 and then finally! after 5 days! my headache was gone. Brian got the kids up in the morning then went back to sleep till noon

Kids brought home big chocolate Nickolauses. Felix had walked home with a friend, Gabriel but his mom didn't know and called me in a panic because she went to pick up her son and he had already left. I'm so grateful mine are so independent.

Nina arranged for Henry to get a a box of Clementine's delivered and they were so yummy they overshadowed all the other fruit we had around.

It was snowing like crazy all day, big slushy flakes. I tried for the first time in a long time to bike in the snow. It was a little silly, and a little fun. I didn't have far to go because I was just going across the Mur to Nina's. We, along with friends of his, surprised him at his apartment and finally presented him with the V-encyclopedia. 

from Nina's phone and my perspective

the world sometimes says no (342/365d)

Tuesday - wake up feeling ok-ish. Bright and early and in a good mood and ready for filming for the jingle bells video. I finished my perfect title page prop, and then my headache set back in, 10 times more massive than before. no video making with quintet. I call Irmtraud, she says maybe postpone. She calls again, that will try a different day - one of her friends has died. barbara was also exposed to corona so is in 2 weeks of quarantine, and klaus is sick. we pretty much never cancel or postpone anything - it's too hard to schedule. but today, the world said NO.

instead pauli came over and we DIDNt go to jakobs leiter. - waaay too cold and then it started to rain. brian took the big kids hiking (i don't even know where, but they had left earlier and the rain didnt start till they were on their way back) and centa meanwhile made vanilla kipferl but was unhappy with them

weird faces on purpose
pauli is not that cold - he's just ready to go hiking

and instead i finished that video sending it to andrea at midnight exactly.

oh and centa made vanilla kipferl but was unhappy with them

we sure have a good props master (341/365d)

Very strange day here... I slept sooo late... till 10, then a funny feeling that I had something...

I had a viola lesson at 11! Because there was no school today (autonom-frei) but there are still organ and music lessons. it's the first day after lockdown, and it felt so weird to do stuff. I was at my lesson on time, but I really wasn't mentally ready or prepared.

Then, because I'm sometimes crazy, I made a prop for what may be our next quintet video. I had to make an old version of Pierpont's one horse open sleigh - ostensibly written for us.

the prop is on the right.... pretty good, right?

Felix photographed me making it.

I still had a headache. I've almost lost track of how many days it's been following me around. :( I hate it.

Nina helped my headache a bit - she had me and edward and centa over for dinner, and it was pretty quiet and she made what she called irma-food - snack buffet :)

measuring gingerbread (340/365d)

It was a bit late for picking cherry twigs for St. Barbara day, but I didn't let that stop me from going on a walk with Pauli and picking several to put in water and watch whether we'll have pink flowers in time for Christmas or not... or in this case, 2 days after Christmas I guess...

Today was the third day of my stupid headache, but that didn't stop me from leaving and doing tons of rehearsal with quintet and filming some more video. The bright lights made my headache worse, oh well.

I mostly missed everything at home. As I was leaving, Centa was just starting the process of making an amazing gingerbread house which should be dry by tomorrow

Teamwork!

Different type of teamwork

I also missed online contra dancing and Nina coming by 🙁 Rehearsal had a definite end point because of the curfew, so I was home before 8, and didn't  miss our audio advent calendar for today though, which was Mama reading a poem by Theodor Storm... slightly modified to be personalized to the boys of the gruene gasse. After that we distributed more chores and had another family meeting. They're working quite well!

Late at night, which probably didn't make the headache any better, I really tried to work very hard on the little video for the children's chorus, which feels like it will never be finished.

Nikolaus abend (339/365d)

Oh i had such a bad headache........ We did lots of cleaning in the morning... I had the brilliant idea to switching off playing games and reading aloud with cleaning for short stints.

I thought to make a lasagna, as we hadn't had one in about forever. "I hate lasagna" said Felix and Henry... for that they sure ate a lot of it!

I didn't go outside at all, which was possibly a mistake, but I didn't feel like it.

Edward put the St.Nicholas stuff in the bags and hung out upstairs. We watched the Bishop's Wife and then were delighted to open the online advent calendar and find papa's version of Lass Uns Froh und Munter Sein, played on the piano so that we could sing along. We didn't sing it once, we sang it about 5 times in a row. Again! Again! Again!

then came upstairs to find the things..... Look! Nuts and Oranges! I bet Edward put them there. Well....... we didn't say yes, and we didn't say no. I had promised myself I would NOT make up silly things to my kids when they were little, but now I guess I did.

Finished reading Bulgakov's Master&Margarita late at night in the bath

And for the funniest evening entertainment, Theodore did a magic trick but with the worst showmanship ever, so it was actually just hillarious. He did the egg trick (one floats in the salt-water and one sinks in the normal water but you pretend you can talk to the eggs) and kept asking different people for help, like, "does anyone know where we have more salt" and "do these waters look the same?" and he asked Edward to write on the eggs "float" and "sink" but he didn't have enough salt in the water, so they both sank, so he told us all to hold on, he would be back in a few minutes and then it would work. it was so funny!

the final outcome!

all i want for christmas is my two front teeth (338/365d)

On my way to walk with Brigitta on this beautiful sunny cold day, I dropped Henry off at his friend's house to do homework. Even on such a short tiny walk with Henry, just to the end of the street, he had so much to say. He opens up so much better one on one. Also, the walk with Brigitta was exactly what I needed to get myself motivated for the rest of the day, which I spent mostly working on editing the video for the kids chorus thing. 

Centa did a lot to keep Felix happy - read a lot with him, and took him for a walk to the postoffice. 

Theodore and Henry had their own things to do, online video orchestra for example. 

We had a lovely online talk to Mary and Agnes in the evening, where Agnes showed us her new tooth gap, and they showed us nicely made slides with their pretty neat microscope. It fired up theodore and henry enough that they got out our microscopes and put them downstairs to remind them to look through them tomorrow bright and early in the morning.

this microphone has a cable that connects it to the computer!

no tantrum day hooray (337/365d)

i meditated this morning with renate over the phone at 9am - a little bit later, actually because I got up just a little bit too late. it was nice to sleep extra. it was a very sleepless night because it was sooo bright, with the full moon and the snowing (and i finished the 2020! piece at 3am, surprised to find mary also up at that time in koper)

 brian took the kids down the mur to go sledding because the snow actually stuck! first snowfall in advent in the last two decades, supposedly.  i didn't want to go outside at all.

getting ready to go again

no tantrum from felix all day, he got a special sticker to mark it on the calendar. it's been a long long time of some tantrum every day, and it was a very special nice moment today when he acknowledged how nice the day was without a tantrum.

musical proof of concept (336/365d)

...... FIRST SNOW of the year today! was so excited to take Felix out and look at snowflakes with a magnifying glass. We went out a few times, but were disappointed each time, because they didn't have pretty snowflake shapes at all.

i got new organ music for Henry after arguing that he really knows a lot more than he lets on. I sent the organ teacher a recording of him playing bach, and she sent much better and more interesting music for Henry that he started practicing right away. 

caroline did her last pickwick club, where she read the end of her young adult novel (set in venice, so she read it with a venetian mask)

felix, theodore, henry and caroline

and we watched the really very strange movie "I heart huckabees" ... brian set up the movie downstairs and i took forever to come downstairs because i was talking to mary about her new project to turn "2020!" (2020 factorial, a five-thousand-eight-hundred-something digit number) into a piece. 

papa and i eventually stayed up quite late learning a new music entry program that is similar to latex. papa calm and patient and me irritated and easily frustrated by the results. did a few measures of the beginning after the movie before bed, as a proof of concept.

school at home (335/365d)

First day of the advent calendar. Felix came to show me right away in the morning while I was still in bed. Then Henry and Felix decided to do their homework right there, to get it done as early as possible. I was held prisoner in the blankets between them.

homework in bed

With homework out of the way so early, we went to the Schlossberg with everyone, a beautiful day for using the “telephones” (the long hollow railings act as delightful telephones, we found out several years ago from Renate) Nobody was out on a gorgeous warm winter day, except for us and the street musicians.  Unfortunately, we had brought no wallets and had no money for them. There were many of them, but the streets were otherwise deserted. 

Henry and Brian and I had our meeting with Henry's teacher, to let us know he was doing well. She scheduled a half an hour, but after 15 minutes of her telling us how wonderful Henry is, we all had said everything we wanted to say.