The Snowman

Aaron and Anna wanted to see our apartment again so we drove over to Bascharage. I think they were quite impressed, the last time they saw it it was filled with boxes.. After a quick trip to the supermarket we returned to Abigails as it was snowing again. Emilie was desperate to build a snowman so Aaron did his duty as a good uncle should. We had about 6" of snow which made it difficult to get to see Amelia and Marc again. The 29th was Abigails birthday but after a late breakfast we had to drive Aaron and Anna to the airport their visit had gone all to quickly.

A Nearly White Christmas

We all spent Christmas at Abigail and Romans. Poor father Christmas Emilie insisted he would only like a drink of water with his mince pie on Christmas eve. Malcolm had a mental block and kept calling them shepherds pies which seems more appropriate. Santa must have been happy with his water as he left lots of presents for everyone I got a flat screen monitor and a new keyboard which has lots of keys in different places so my spelling is worse than usual sorry. Malcolm had Dads Army and Band of Brothers DVD's and lots more lovely things. Aaron and Anna were able to join us from England which made for a wonderful family time. Abigail cooked two turkeys beautifully for lunch I think Marc enjoyed it most as he hadn't had to cook it.... It snowed Boxing day about 2" which thrilled Emilie. Frankie was very sick turned out to have bronchitis poor thing.

Birthday Boy

Malcolm had his first Luxembourgish birthday. Christine & Frank were here which made it special. After breakfast and presents we went to collect Abigail for school. Amelia looked after Frankie so we could have a tour of the city while Abigail had her lesson. Back to Rumelange for lunch then return to the city for a walk. There was a Christmas market in the square. A rest and a freshen up then off to Hotel Sieweburen, a restaurant in the forest, for dinner - wonderful.

First Guests

We were so excited to be having our first visitors from the U.K. The room was ready but would they like the apartment, would they like Luxembourg, would they think we were mad! Well, we know the answer to the last question. No need to have worried. I think Frank and Christine had a good time and we hope they will be back in the summer. They got to know the motorway system well, as we were back and forth to the city several times and to the Battle of the Buldge museum up north. The weather was quite chilly and it even snowed a little. It was just a quick visit but we tried to do as much as possible, not to mention the eating & drinking!

The tale of the Pine Martin or Murder

We had a busy week, children to look after and 2 viewings at Abigail's house but no offers, yet, unfortunately. St Nicholas came on Tuesday to the delight of Emilie & Frankie. On Friday we went to a Chinese restaurant with Amelia & Marc. The meal was wonderful. Amelia had reserved a special 'cartwheel' table and chairs for us. Brilliant! We stayed the night at Amelia's as it was arranged that we would pick up 2 Christmas trees in our car the following morning. Off we went but our car was not at all happy, it hic-coughed all along the road. Malcolm was thinking the worst, it was only running on 3 cylinders... a new engine, a new car!- and after all the money we had just spent on it.... uuuggggggggg. We arrived at the small holding where the trees were on sale and said to Amelia "There's a problem with the car , what do we do? She had break-down cover and called the help-line. Malcolm lifted the bonnet and the HT lead to one of the spark plugs was claeanly bitten through .The man duly arrived ( in 16 minutes!!) and said "Murder Murder" which quite perplexed us but it turns out to be Pine martins. They climb into the engine when it's warm and just chew and chew. He did a temporary repair, thank goodness, so we got our trees and got under way. Malcolm said he would 'murder' the creature if he saw it. The old couple selling the trees will not forget us... they had to interpret for the "AA" man what the problem was.
Pauline made a magnificent job of setting up the tree as you can see!