Yesterday we finally got word that the package my sister sent from the USA arrived in Cluj and was waiting for us to come pick it up following a quick customs check. So we decided, after waking up to another dreary day to head out to the city.

The drive to the city was fairytale beautiful – everything is covered in white – still just frost no snow …. but oh so beautiful and delicate.

We picked up the box and went through another short shopping spree. This time the main theme was collecting the things Andreea would need for furnish couches for us. This included fabrics which we will fill with straw to make home-made mattresses, simple fleece blankets to cover the mattresses and and make pillow covers, 6 large pillows, 4 small pillows, buttons and a few other small sewing thingys. So now we have this huge pile of a couch-kit in the living room 🙂

We got Andreea a pair of decent non-work winter shoes and a pair of padded boots for me (the existing boots are not enough for my feet in the freezing temperatures we’ve been experiencing).

We purchased a small pine tree which will be our Christmas tree for the coming years. We are thrilled to have started a healthy (and reversed) process where a tree grows with us until it is planted outside instead of getting and throwing out a tree every year.

We also stopped on the way back and filled four large containers – two with diesel (which we use for lighting our stoves) and two with refined gasoline which runs the chainsaw.

I looked at the car as it was packed full again – this time with mostly fluffy things and I laughed. Every time we come back from the city the car is packed … and every time with a funny mixture of things … and every time I think I’ve seen it all … and then the next visit to the city we come up with another weird combination 🙂

We got a glimpse of the sun in the city (haven’t seen it in almost a week) and the sky are now crystal clear – we are hoping to be blessed with a sunny work day tomorrow 🙂

And finally, we made a stop at neighbors in the village (we brought them grapes from the city market) and we got an offer to buy a pregnant goat for a really good price … it just keeps getting better and better and funnier and funnier 🙂