silvester (21/365d)

a few scattered walks throughout the day in various configurations....

cardgames in various configurations...

meals in various configurations..... 

and then staying up till midnight.... trying to do a puzzle, which ended up just being mama, papa, brian and me ...

farewell to the slovenians (20/365c)

mama is so sick that when we got to frieda's house, she and papa were out at the hospital getting a strong dose of migraine medication. we figured out frieda's morning routine with katrina, and mary and martin and agnes left for slovenia again ..... we had a very quiet evening, and mama eventually joined us although  she wasn't completely up for much more than watching us play bridge

frieda watching henry with "henry the vacuum-cleaner"

playing partners, grandpapa and grossmutter and felix

MANCHESTER (with no camera, oh well) (18/365d)

MANCHESTER (with no camera, oh well)

We went on an awesome train trip with Grandpapa to the city of Manchester, where the city was grey and worcester-ey. The kids who have been preparing to busk (in any city but our home-town) chickened out. 

we went to a wonderful museum, had asian food and generally had a wonderful time out in the fresh air.

christmas concert for auntie frieda and crackers (19/365d)

mama has a horrible headache, and stayed away for much of the day, unfortunately.

we made a tiny christmas concert for auntie frieda and had crackers that mary and martin had bought as a surprise at m&s. 

edward and mary practicing

henry watching

papa explaining the family tree

game night

trionimoes 

game of chess from a christmas cracker

irma and henry get right to playing

although all the pieces look the same to irma

photo bomb

performers, grandpapa and felix

audience

everyday stuff (17/365d)

Brian and I had to go shopping. I absolutely HATE sainsbury.... but at least I found some maitake mushrooms...

Mostly today we just kept ourselves happy and comfortable, hanging out in Frieda's living room and playing cards and reading books.

mary and agnes

 frieda

grandpapa helping felix

travel day (16/365d)

leaving so early in the morning is no fun, but mary and martin left even earlier. and i woke up even earlier. at 4am. maybe i was just nervous. brian takes care of all logistics with finesse so i shouldn't have to be nervous. regardless, all travel stuff went off without a hitch and we arrived in manchester at tante frieda's in time for a together meal of leftovers and had fun finding enough chairs to put around the table. we played the piano (desperately needing a tune.. g-major is nearly impossible) and sang ... many many verses of good-king wenceslas.

found our airbnb home to a be a charming clone of aunt frieda's house, as well as a charming clone of everybody else in heald green's house as well. only in our airbnb mirrors were taped to their frames, the flooring was rolled on without being properly fashioned and there were missing lightbulbs in fixtures that actually didn't work anyways. but there is a REAL coffee machine, which makes up for everything, because nearly anything is better than instant coffee.

edward and i found the tesco express and bought coffee and ...... potato chips. there were so many meat flavors.... stupid meat flavors, because, really, how does chicken tikki masala taste different than tikki masala? stayed up late chatting and trying "cranberry and brie" flavor... which was oddly not terrible, but not great, and yet we finished the bag.

christmas day (15/365d)

played morning mass in the dom, nearly didn't wake up early enough. just hopped on the bike and got there as everyone was tuning. i was very sleepy but the cold church woke me up eventually.

barely enough time to take a breath at home before i was back at the dom for the next service. centa and theodore and brian went to that one. towards the end they came upstairs to us and watched the end from there. when i got home centa had made all the eggnoodles possible and i made the truffel sauce to go with it, which was very yummy. i like our "new" tradition.

egg-noodles in the making 

everybody works together

i forgot to make stollen yesterday, so there was none. but then again, nobody asked for it either. dinner was truffles