We invited Oma and Opa to come and stay with us for December and January. It wasn’t even that long since their last visit, less than a year, but they’d had a miserable summer in the Netherlands, with both weather and health issues.
Their visits in the past have not always been totally-stress free, for either them or us, but I guess that’s just part and parcel of long-term visitors. Having people live in your home, or living in someone else’s home can be fraught with tension, space issues and long-running disputes about buying-the-wrong-cheese.
We always Skype on our Sunday evening, their Sunday morning, and overcome by that particular contentment peculiar to late sunday afternoons we offered to shout them their tickets if they wanted to spend the summer here. And they did.
After several years we know how to make these visits work. The Dutchman takes as much leave as possible, or at least ‘works from home’ and I escape to the studio as much as I need to for work. Trying to get work done at home with a house full of people doesn’t work for me.
We had a very relaxing lead up to the new year, with the Flipster happy to spend time hanging out with his Oma and Opa, even resurrecting his rusty Dutch.
We made our annual summer pilgrimage to the berry farm at King Lake and made bottles of raspberry cordial and icey poles from the left over sludge.
Oma decided to make olieballen for New Year, setting up in the backyard to avoid spattering the kitchen with oil.
And the Flipster made pizza bases.
postcards from the north 