Things! Lotsa things Karl tried out this weekend and would love to use, but, oh well -
Skee-Lo said it best..... This last Sunday might have been one of the greatest Sundays in the life of Karl though. First it was the traditional neighborly pre-Christmas brunch, which was at Monika's place again this year (Monika sitting next to Karl in the small pic). With Henri being the baby and Karl already a returning regular he felt a bit like one of the adults. Klaus showed him how to run the coffee machine and the foam jet, so Karl became the barista of the day,
prodding everybody to drink more capuccino. Whilest the conversation got turbo-fueled by many an extra jolt of caffeine I got to manage the Sunday shift from afar with Henri looking on. The highpoint of that brunch is of course the game of "Schrottwichteln", the "trashy Santa". Everybody has to leave a cheap present (worth no more than 5 Euros, preferrably not bought, but found in your apartment) in a bag at the entrance, so it's the perfect chance regift or to get rid of superfluous Sky Mall impulse buys. It's a knock-out dice game during which you get to pick one of the unwrapped presents. Karl lucked out, because he picked the biggest, most kid-friendly wrapped one and - surprise! - there was a children's book and a great
"3-D mirascope" in it. We suspect foul play, but didn't investigate further. Although we do have our suspicion (which start with a K and ends with the German word for a small insect nesting in hair or fur).
Karl and I had to leave a bit earlier, since we had to go to
Schloss Nymphenburg's Hubertussaal, where the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra (well, parts of it) did one of their
concerts for kids. The concert was based on
Camille Saint-Seans' "Carnival of the Animals", which has been one of Karl's favorites lately, since Grandma and Grandpa gave him a multi-CD box of kids' classics for his birthday.
The real thrill was of course that Opa Paul was the impresario of the whole event. My dad's been a promoter of classical concerts most of his life and he still puts on quite a few shows. So there was no better bonding than the two roaming the statley backstage rooms of the castle, Karl being
in total awe watching the musicians unpacking and noodling on their instruments, the members of the kids' ballet in animal costumes stretching, all the while he was clasping grandpa's hand. Another advantage of being the grandson of the boss of the castle is of course that you get to run and sprint around without a bunch of goons getting on your case. Which Karl definitely took advantage of.
The show was great. I think Karl could have done without the clowns.
He was way more into the instruments. During the break he got to explore a double bass, the bass player playing some bowed cadences while Karl got to keep his hand on the large wooden frame, getting a kick out of the massive vibrations on the lower strings. Well, this is how we do it castle style... Miami Bass my ... Grandpa (see below next to Karl) was quite impressed how focused, well, actually how entranced and focused to the point of scarily lost in the music Karl can be during a concert. You literally can't get through to him when there's live music. I guess that's how it's supposed to be.
After the show we picked up Fred and Henri at another pre-Christmas party at Julia's and Marcus' place. Karl's buddy Antonia was there and the two snuck off to the kitchen with some contraband chocolates. It was quite cute to see them conspiratively sharing the loot in the dark. Both sets of parent of course half-jokingly speculating on the things those two might share in the dark ten, twelve years down the line (kids don't do drugs anymore, right?)
When Antonia got a light scolding from her dad Markus, Karl tried to negotiate them two out of the predicament of being caught. He was almost convincing.
Top photo credits: guitar courtesy of Marcus at the party; boxing gear courtesy of Fred who went to her first training session in four years last week; tuba courtesy of Rudi, my managing editor and band-mate who didn't "find his way home" after we played a show with lotsa free beer on Saturday.
The real reason why we haven't posted much are of course the slightly feverish days since we had our great Christmas dinner bash on Christmas day. Karl and now Henri have been running fevers of 102 to 104 degrees (39 - 40 Celsius). Doctor said not to worry. It's just a virus, no antibiotics necessary. But a nasty virus it is. So we're trying to enjoy the great indoors as much as we can, although it takes some getting used to listening to Henri's hoarse cries and Karl's inconsolable whines. They do hit those primal scream frequencies that used to get the tribe into high alert mode. Even worse tough - those beady little eyes pleading "can you make it all go away now please?"
