Granny-sitting Chronicles: Week 28 (Town edition)

In June 2013 I moved to countryside with my elderly aunt to run a "Grannysitting Expedition". 
During this time I have been taken pictures more or less constantly. I'll be posting these picture chronicles one week at the time. In December 2013 we had to relocate to town for a while - I'll be doing my best to keep up the weekly picture chronicles. Previous week is in this post.


The following moments are from December 30 - January 5.

The worst of the holiday frenzy was dissipating and our settling-in course got to continue. Settling-in-course mostly manifesting in space-organizing and enthusiastic grooming. (Increased grooming enthusiasm was also the tell-tale good sign back in the day we were still getting used to the countryside setting.)

Then there was new year. The fireworks was a blast. The auntie was clearly impressed - initial fright growing into sheer awe and glee. (She admiringly reported never having seen anything like this. Although she probably wouldn't remember even if she had, this might be accurate. Gotta admit - in the span of just a five-or-so-years when I've never paid much attention to it, the stuff that regular folks blow up seems to have become more elaborate and more abundant. I still cherish that one time twenty-ish years ago when we found a signal-flare's parachute out in the bushes, though.)

Settling-in-and-organizing at full throttle continued. One specific manifestation of this would be the enthusiastic hoarding of All Things Kitty. During the holiday dinners we noticed that the auntie got a bit of fixation towards a pair of cristmassy salt shaker figurines (Kitty!). A few times her attempts to acquire them and add them to All The Things We've Got Packed And Ready collection had been thwarted already. Then one morning I heard her return from the next-room explorations, accompanied by the unmistakable porcelain clinking sounds. (Later on we sneakily stole the shakers back and brought other "kitties" for replacement.) Also discussion-worthy: neighbours' christmas lights (would those awful things still appear at night?) and power outages (some menfolk would need to go fix that!).