leaving already (274/365a)

it would have been nice to stay longer, but with school coming up on monday, and general restlessness, off we went again.

goodbye and thank you!

it was a gloriously sunny day in Graz, and we did manage to all get ice-skating. we had forgotten it was a national holiday, and had no groceries, so brian went out and got those for us. we came home so very very very hungry, and cooked and ate and went to sleep pretty early. my theory is that driving time is equivalent to lost sleep time.

foggy and rainy but still beautiful in koper

koper! (273/365a)

done with driving, done for the day

left early this morning, full of youthful exhuberance and energy, and was then exhausted upon arrival and for the rest of the day. Drove to koper, stopping only to switch drivers. henry and agnes had all to tell us all the exciting this right away, which kept us quite entertained. mary went to watch a friend of her's dissertation defense, and we stayed and barely kept track of the kids, as we lay on the couch lacking alertness, but they don't need very much help.

leaning and leaving

henry reading to the others! i haven't seen him really attempt this before!

more SET!

a fan dance

playing ball in the house, and the adults are too tired to object

contra improv

we did do some improv musicing, and the kids danced and danced to our contras/walzes/polkas/sad songs. that was glorious fun. and we went out in the rain and lit sparklers on the spinny thing at the playground while singing We Three Kings. we weren't good at lighting them in the rain, and the kids had a strange reaction to the things, they shied away from them instead of reaching out to take them, so more than once i got doused with an extra amount of water from a fleeing umbrella. so fun.

then felix had a restless night, which left no rest for the weary...

he is sure cute though!

celebration with meditation or meditation with celebration? (272/365a)

Nearly done with our yoga course, day 27 out of 28. it was a calm day of relaxing and breathing and meditating and staring into a candle, which broke serendipitously into spontaneous over-celebrating. let's just say the chips were gone before brian even came upstairs from work and there were two empty bottles of wine (don't worry! they didn't start out full!) on the table. ;)

we missed henry all day, of course. tomorrow we will go get him from koper.

theodore practicing to try to beat didipatz

before the party starts

party goings on (thanks for the photo, nina!)

[the old joke is:
A young priest asked his bishop, “May I smoke while praying?”
The answer was an emphatic “No!”

Later, when he sees an older priest puffing on a cigarette while praying, the younger priest scolded him, “You shouldn’t be smoking while praying! I asked the bishop, and he said I couldn’t do it!”

“That’s odd,” the old priest replied. “I asked the bishop if I could pray while I’m smoking, and he told me that it was okay to pray at any time!”]

Ice skating and Stern Singen (271/365a)

4 cloves of garlic resting

Brian spent the day with Theodore and I spent the day with Felix. Theodore was Sternsingen, where the three kings (in this case, a troupe of 6 7-10 year olds) knock on houses, sing songs, and get treats. Brian went along as the only adult/chaperone. They were out from 8-4. Meanwhile Felix and I were off iceskating on the karmeliterplatz. By the end of our several hour stint there, he could skate without holding on to anything, but very very slowly. My second hand ice skates are about a size too big for me (Brian bought them on his own, and I used them all last year) and I think the skates need sharpening too, so I wasn't very secure/fast on the ice myself.

We invited Artur and his family for dinner, and they were fun. We sat on the floor and played set. We had breads and cheeses. We hatched ideas for projects. Felix decided at exactly 7pm it was time for bed, kicked us out of the room, and went to sleep, so our guests left and Theodore and I skyped with Henry, and played him some violin duos. :)

I planted garlic with Artur and Felix, with the hopes that I can use the garlic chives soon, in a little advancement of spring. Please come quickly, vitamins, sun, and spring!

Walking, Dinner at Manfred's, Walking (270/365a)

We got to see the animals at
To begin with we were all so tired we nearly all went right back to bed.

Too tired for breakfast

When we were awake again, we went off to visit Manfred.... first breakfast became our second... 

some of us are in a much better mood now...

or are we?

And we stopped at the castle to pet some animals. I found some pigeons kind of cute looking.

rooftop visitors

Manfred's vegetarian meal was quite delicious, and we discussed his broken chandelier in the dining room, and wine, women and song.

When we left, we went back to the castle, at dark, to see the supermoon rising, and find all sorts of constellations. I was very happy to see what a good place it is there to see stars. (although there are still many trees in the way, it is quite dark)

Our view on our short hike: The Schoeckl

New Year's Day (269/365a)

The day on which we waved goodbye as Mary and Agnes walked down the street to the train, this time taking Henry with them for a few-day visit. I already miss him!

Other than that the day was mostly empty. We were all so tired from staying up late every night and waking up early. We took naps and they did not help. We went for a short walk. We practiced a little. I edited my photos for Papa's year in review. Unfortunately it was "review day" in our 28 day yoga plan, and I wasn't sure I would get all the way through, but I did. Barely. ;) And we were all in bed very early.

fun travels, Henry!

sylvester (268/365a)

The day before New Year's Day is called "sylvester" which can only lead Mary to think of Sylvester the cat, or me to think of Sylvester and the Magic Pebble.

In the morning I cooked "for later" only to realize at 3pm that I had nothing to eat *now* ... so I cooked frantically because my blood sugar was low, and also because Theodore had to get to the opera for the Eine Nacht in Venedig production. Mary and I were leisurely in getting ready for the Salonorchester concert, which was directly across the street from the opera. We biked there with Henry. When I got there I was immediately pulled aside and put to work, watching the cash box and putting out food and pouring champagne. We stayed until I got the message that Theodore was done. 

We did one more toast to 2018 on our way home at Michi's (we left Theodore and Henry at our front door) and then we did fun sparklers and lit our advent wreath on fire, singing Auld Lang Syne. The littlest kids were already asleep. We talked about resolutions and what they meant. I did my yoga. I was too exhausted to edit 2017 pictures, like I had planned.

Fireworks went off everywhere like crazy. The city has a ban in place, there were no public fireworks this year. I think that made everyone go get their own ... There are always illegal personal fireworks, but this year extra many because there would be no others. Many were shot off right from the construction site across our street, so we had literally the best view I've ever had of fireworks. :) :) 

should auld acquaintance be forgot

our New Year's Resolutions for 2018

Didipatz: Drink nothing but water

Brian: Cultivate good habits

Irma: No more yelling

Theodore: To practice a little bit more.

Henry: No fighting. To have patience. To listen.

Felix: Clean up the stairs.