Christmas in Berlin and Visiting Peter's Dad in Kleve

Only one of the images has been retouched (a sunset panorama below).

We got some wooden games; the Brio labyrinth game is a classic. It's like a wooden video game. When I was a teenager, I played it forward and backward for speed.	Robin with the other game, a wooden soccer table with magnetically moved players.— Funny how the white balance changes between these two pictures.	In the background an advent calendar. That's a German tradition for children to count down to Christmas Eve. This year Michelle created one where each day had a little sweet in a lantern-wrap. (They are really not THAT bright.)
A magnetic dart game.

After celebrating Christmas in Berlin we went to Kleve to see my dad. It's a 6 hour train ride. We enjoyed seeing Martha, Bernd and my dad, of course.

Bernd with Martha's one-eyed dog (from an animal shelter, like all her dogs). I think the dogs who come in Martha's care have hit the doggy-jackpot, so to speak :-).	A funny picture of my dad in the drugstore. We needed a small ad-hoc image of his face in order to finish a present for Martha. This attempt is curious because of the geometric shelves and my dad's solemn expression.
	Martha's other dog.

The next day we went for a walk with my father along the Rhine promenade in Emmerich, 15 minutes by car from Kleve. It was pretty good weather, just not too cold. Good for us to get some daylight. And I like the pictures I took with my camera. Some of them are challenging for any camera, with bright backlight.

	An example of the camera's panorama function. A shore is a natural motif for that mode.	It was a fun walk. We talked and talked. Lots of images with fill-in flash to illuminate the faces against the bright sky. That worked quite nicely.
	We had a cup of coffee/hot chocolate on a terrace with a view, while the sun was slowly setting.
	This was a good opportunity to take some pictures of my dad and Michelle together.
	This backlight setting is a challenge for any camera. I like the images here. Note that there is no fill-in flash, and no retouching. The faces are nicely exposed and the contrast as well as the sharpness are satisfactory. Of course, pre-computer cameras in auto focus would have focused (and exposed!) on the background in this conversational scene.
Michelle is "tlking with her hands" :-).		Outside again, we had some nice pre-sunset clouds. This calle for fill-in flash again.
		This is the only image which I retouched. The camera can't flash in panorama mode so that Michelle and Robin's faces were mere silhouettes. I pretty heavy-handedly pumped up brightness and contrast within a less-than-perfect selection of their faces. But for the occasion (screen presentation and — with all due respect — casual audience) it does the job just so.
A few fun shots. I like the street lights.	The Martini Church, roughly 1000 years old. (Here the auto focus didn't recognize the persons, clearly visible in the big image version.)	Michelle is looking into my eyes; I perform a blind shot with the camera at my hip