Wow, it's been over a month since I last wrote something here.

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So, let's see. What happened lately? In a nutshell: my shoulder is better but not really great yet, Lily had a a cold turned into a bad cough turned into ear infection that kept her home from Kindergarten for about 2 weeks, the cats are officially quite sick, Neil is temporarily blinded (and not by my beauty) and Finn is doing well. He just read his first book all by himself, in German.

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Also, sadly and quite unexpectedly despite her having cancer, my aunt passed away at the beginning of December. We stopped by to visit with her on our way down south from Rostock in November, and I am so glad we did. We miss her. I had planned on attending her funeral this coming Monday, but I would be gone from Sunday to Tuesday and right now there is no way I want to leave Neil alone here.

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Neil had lasek eye surgery in Munich yesterday, and it has been rough on him. He has been in a lot of pain and probably will be until the protective lenses will be removed from his eyes next Tuesday. By then his corneas will have grown back, hopefully, and once he is able to open his eyes properly again his eye sight will be a lot better than it was and he can (hopefully) ditch his glasses. After a sleepless night because of the pain he finally got some rest today. He takes pain killers every 3 hours and is on 3 different kinds of eye drops. Being in pain and laying in a darkened room all day with protective goggles (so he won't accidentally rub his eyes) is not how most people start off their Christmas break, but there's light at the end of the tunnel. Or so we hope. :)

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As for the cats, while I was in the hospital with my shoulder surgery Neil took the boys to their yearly check-up at the vet's and Lenny's heart sounded bad which led the vet to draw some blood to test for markers for a genetic heart defect in cats called HCM. Long story short, it turned out both cats inherited this defect from their sire who was diagnosed (and promptly castrated) after he had already been used for breeding. The final diagnosis takes a special heart ultrasound that not many vets offer. We got the cats enrolled in a trial at the University of Munich, where the researchers are working on developing a blood test to screen cats in breeding programs before they show symptoms of this fatal condition. Lenny and Blue left some blood there and we got the expensive ultrasounds for free. In half a year we'll go back and then we might have a better idea of how long we have left with them. They are only 3 years old and dearly loved. Right now they are still doing well and were put on beta blockers by the vet. They have to take 1/4 of a pill every day, which is tricky when you have a very picky cat that really only likes dry cat food. All I can say is, hooray for German leberwurst.

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But enough of the talking, here are the pictures you are waiting for. We had a bit of fun these last weeks, too, despite it all!

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Christmas baking!

 

 

Cherishing the advent season

 

 

Uh-oh, brother, this means trouble! Let's make a move, I ain't getting in that thing!

 

 

Lily got a "Strickliesel" from Nikolaus, or as she put it: Oma gave it to Nikolaus, and Nikolaus put it in her boot for Lily to find. A strickliesel helps you knit long ropes of wool, and it was popular with generations of Germans past. I had one as a child. Lily and Finn (who got one too) love it and got the hang of it quickly. Lily's been busy knitting rope halters for her unicorn and Finn made his koala named Pandy a blue bracelet.

 

 

More baking

 

 

Our tree has been up for a week and I think Blue approves, as he spends almost all day snoozing under it.

 

 

We also had some snow, and the morning I took this picture it was -16 degrees. Beautiful, but C.O.L.D.

 

 

Not that the kids minded. Luckily, Lily was well enough again to go outside and play in it.

 

 

Have I mentioned, that Finn takes his koala named Pandy everywhere?

 

 

And this is Lily after she jumped into what she thought was a snow drift knees first. Only, it was more rocks than snow. Her knee is still bruised and sore a few days later. Live and learn.

 

 

Poor baby.