Happy Birthday Opa!

We celebrated Opa's 3x4x7th birthday with flowers, ethiopian food, and lots of silliness. Here's to another trip around the sun, with lots of love!

Happy 2019!

We rang in the new year with our traditional table, candles, small gifts, and banter about what we usually do or don't do. Here's some pictures (for the record, Molly did make a "dime cake" and Zach got the dime!):

From Opa in New York

he writes: "berkeley escapee with son"

Happy Birthday Opa!

We didn't forget to celebrate Opa's 81st birthday - I just forgot to post pictures! Here he is, 9x9 years old, after a lovely night out to dinner with the whole crew. I am still trying to make him new slippers - here's my latest attempt, before felting. They're just today all felted up, but I have yet to see if they fit him. Fingers crossed! 

New Year's Gifts

Salty-sour-spicey sauce from Nouri to Zach:

Handmade pom-pom headband from Clara to Molly:

Folded stars (with a tale) from Molly to Opa (and scrappy neck gaiter / headband from me to Molly):

Mmmmm... merengues from Molly to the rest of us:

 Who knows what is on Zach's head?

Or what Opa is up to?

Clara decorating box from Nouri:

And with Nouri:

Pomelo from Opa to Zach:

New Year's Eve

Nouri flew out from New York to celebrate New Year's with us this year. It was sad having our first New Year's without Mary. Dieter wrote a really sweet short note about marking the transition this year - both marking Mary's death, but also taking a moment to reflect on the history and evolution of our family's version of this holiday. It's funny to think, for example, that the round candelabra that we have maybe wasn't always in existence: it's one of those things that existed as long as I can remember, so in my brain it must have always existed! But Dieter reminded us that him and Mary cobbled together the celebration with us as a way to mark the year and help their small kids (me and Nouri) understand better the passing of time.

Here's some pictures from the evening. First, just scenes from the earlier part of the evening (before candles and gifts and watching UHF):

Uncle Nouri Visiting