Frohes Neu Jahr Part II

On the 25^th, we went over to Felix's dad's parents' house for a late lunch with that side of the family. I've only met them once or twice before and there are more of them than on Felix's mom's side, so I don't know them well. They are very nice people, but the only one I have really had any kind of conversation with is Felix's Uncle Christian. All in all, it was a pretty boring time for me because I couldn't distinguish words that I understood with all of the conversations going on around me.

We went over to Jina and Ranva's (Felix's dad and his wife) house on the 26^th for homemade Indian for dinner. After dinner we played a game called Dopplekopf. It's a card game using 2 decks, but only from 10 through Ace. It is very tricky with all sorts of rules that I still don't fully understand. You “marry” a partner, but the two people with the queen of clubs are married no matter what. If you have the queen of clubs, you don't know who your partner is until he/she lays down their queen, but then that person still doesn't know that you are their partner. If you have both queens, you can say you're going to “marry” the person who wins the first trick and if you have 3 or fewer trump cards, you can sell yourself and then you're partnered with the person who buys you IF someone buys you. Blech. It's a mess, but it's popular here, along with Scat, which I have never played.

For New Years we went with Felix's 2^nd cousins Jens and Jan, Jens' girlfriend Sandra, Jens' 2 friends Sara and Marcus, and Sara's brother to a restaurant in Wiesbaden that I believe Sara's parents own. We had dinner and played with table fireworks. Those were super fun! Sara and Marcus brought 2 types. One is a cardboard cylinder with a fuse sticking out toward the bottom that you light and then quickly cover your drink. It shoots confetti and folded origami stars everywhere. The second type were these coiled streamer rings. You hold the outside of the ring in your hand and then blow through the center and it causes the streamer to fly out the other side while it uncoils. It's kinda hard to explain. :/ Sandra and I both brought 2 packages of Bleigiessen, so everyone got to do 3 of them.