friess.org

Hello!

We hope that you are all well and happy. We are all fine and enjoying an amazingly warm winter. We had snow on New Year's Eve and it snowed all day yesterday (but it has all melted now to the disappointment of the little boy next door who is waiting to use his new sledge!). Everything in the garden is now waking up!

Little Friess is continuing to do well and is very active. We are starting to think about the baby's room and have already been given clothes, the pushchair, a cradle, Moses basket and a cot! There are only 11 weeks to go now! We visited our local hospital for their information evening and were very impressed with the delivery suite. Little Friess will be induced on his/her due date (May 22nd) as Catherine's sugar is high and the gynaecologist is concerned about the baby getting too big! The first session of the birth preparation course was last night so it is all becoming very real! It is a big year for babies, we know seven other couples who are also expecting this year so Little Friess will have lots of friends!

January passed by really quickly. We caught up with several friends for coffee and dinner and went to our first Murder Mystery party. Michael was the priest, Father Alfredo, and Catherine was the clairvoyant but neither of us 'did it'! We also helped friends with a house move and Michael spent time looking for a new car.

Michael spent a weekend with Christian and Manuela in Düsseldorf at the beginning of February and also picked up the new car (a Honda FR-V). We used it for the first time when Claire came to visit. The six seat combination meant that the three os us could all sit in the front together! We visited Tübingen, Bebenhausen and the Ritter Sport factory, had a day sightseeing and shopping in Stuttgart and spent some time relaxing in the spa. Claire also did some gardening which was most appreciated! For Valentine's Day we went to a Jazz concert and Little Friess had a great time judging by all the movement! We have also spent some time with Thomas, Jutta, Hanna and Daniel and have had lots of help and baby advice from them

Michael is extremely busy at work and has a trip to America planned before the middle of April. Catherine will be working at the local college until Easter but has also been going in to school to help out on a voluntary basis and doing some proofreading work for Andrew and his new company. There are still a few bits and pieces that we want to do around the house before Little Friess arrives and now that we have the bigger car we can buy furniture and larger items without having to ask friends to pick them up for us! We also now have a cleaner who comes once a week which is wonderful!

We are looking forward to Wendy, Nicky and Laila's visit in April. Then in May life changes!