Badminton

When Mia was playing with her new Badminton set in the courtyard the ball on got tuck in the top of one of the trees. It took quite some effort to get it out - luckily we had some old net from a vacation at the Baltic see

Christmas

On Christmas day dinner was a Sauerbraten roast with red cabbage and potato dumplings

Then we tried a Christmas concert with guitar and register

 Some Christmas presents 

And of course Christmas selfies

Christmas Eve

Like it is tradition on Germany we set up the Christmas eve. This year the tree was in a different spot since ta small chest drawer is now he corner by the TV where we had set up in the years before

 

 

We set also up the Christmas pyramid 

 

The traditional dinner for Christmas eve

Thirteen Years Old

Mia is now officially a teenager but because of Covid it was another birthday without a party or going out to a restaurant.
After a long day at school until 4 pm it was finally time to get the birthday cake ready

At least one friend was here for the special day. While everything was getting ready for the birthday cake it was time to show a Christmas present from uncle Stefan from three years ago - the flying disco ball:

In the meantime the presents were guarded in the living room

Then it was time to light 13 candles....

..and of course to blow them out again 

The chocolate cake was really good

Unwrapping of the presents

Uncle Stefan scored another big hit with his light box - inspired by cousin Ellis

Tübingen

We had originally planned to go on a little vacation during Mia's one week fall break but with the weather not so nice we only did two day trips. One by car to a small town close to the border with Luxembourg with a Lands End Outlet store and another one by train to Tübingen
It was a bit foggy and cool but the old university town on the river Nrckar looked quite romantic on a misty morning

But before exploring the city we first met some friends for a late breakfast

 Mia"s friend had come along as well

After breakfast we walked along the waterfront by the river

An main attraction of the city is the Hölderlin tower where the poet spend his last years. It is now a small museum
Since Mia"s school is named after Hölderlin we checked it out

The view from Hölderlin's room

The next stop on the walking tour was the castle

Then we saw the market square

Some old streets

The old town hall

A town with many nice corners - it would be nice to be back on a nice warm summer day

Pfaffengrunder Terasse

On a walk on the first day of November - a public holiday in this part of Germany - walked we checked out the Pfaffengrunder Terasse - the new central square in Bahnstat where we played some frisbee and  ping pong

 On the way back it started to rain

Then the sun came out again