Ivan walked on towards Lidénius house. There he heard Zoja rehearsing the piano. He opened the unlocked door and went up on the turning stairs to Svante´s room
Ivan knocked. Svante asked him to come in.
"Oh, it was you?" vante said in a disappointed voice when he saw Ivan.
He sat in front of a computor and wrote something.
"What are you doing?" van asked.
"Surfing."
Ivan did not have a computor and there was no Internet at the dean´s nor at his father´s office, but everyone talked about it in school and it seemed like everyone was using it.
He sat down beside Svante and grabbed the mouse.
"Carefully!" Svante said impatiently.
"Could I not try?"

Ivan stopped in front of the china shop.
"Hello. Is Svante here?"
"No", Svante´s mother Gunilla said. "He is at home. And so is Zoja."
Ivan turned.
"You!" Gunilla said confidentially. "Do you know anyone who has old tea pots i could sell here?"
"Maybe Abbe has", Ivan said thaughtfully.
Gunilla Lidénius brightened.
"There you said something", she said happily and walked into the shop again.

They had braught boiled ham, jellied ham, dried stockfish, red cabbage, meat balls, bread flavoured with wort, ham bouillon to dip bread in, Christmas beer, ginger bread and crullers. At last they had sushi with them. All of them ate until they were full.
They were delighted because of the sushi. For dessert Eva helped them to share some yokan. With it they drank Japanese green tea. She told they had lived in Japan for two years. She had her parents living there and her sister Erika and a brother Leif in Africa. Robert had his aunt in Japan.
"May I have one more bite?" Malin asked.
"Me too", Povel said. "Four of them?"
"Yes, what are they called?" the dean asked.
"They were called Jasmine, Jan, Yan an Ylva", Robert said.
"Did we introduce our new family member?" Jhon asked.
"Stop chewing before speaking, Jhon", his father said.
"Yes, did they say hello to Stig Helmer Olsson, dad ?" Filipa asked.
"Who is Stig Helmer Ohlson?" the dean asked.
"We show him later, when we made a tour of inspection of the house", Eva said. "Stig Helmer is a guinea-pig. Robert needed a little animal for his work."
"Ooohh", all of them said at the same time.
"You must be tired", the dean´s wife interposed. "I have made beds. Jhon sleaps in Povel´s room and Ivan and Filipa with the girls."

Then they made the tour of inspection.
Ivan already has popped over to Svante, who is his best pal here. Povel has no best friend here. Ivan and Svante learned to know each others one summer, when they were in the same riding school group.
In the winter they write long letters to each others. And Svante has visited Ivan in Fyn.

The wheel in the guinea-pig box went on and on. Stig Helmer´s short legs pedalled on. Stig Helmer Ohlson was the last guinea pig among his sisters and brothers- that was the way he got his name. He was skinny like Lasse Åberg. Eva and Robert had succeeded in giving the others away, but decided to bring Stig Helmer to Sweden.
Eva said he was like a pug, and Malin agreed it was something with the look of his big dark eyes.

Malin Ramsey smiled introspectively when the doorbell rang. The dean Hans Dyring with a stick comes in. He has difficulies walkin. But he looks fit and happy, with the persian cap drawn down to his eye-brows. After him came the Christmas guests. Mr Jhonson carries two suitcases in each hand. Mrs Jhonson has her handbag in one hand and a suitcase in the other.
The girl, who had a brown suede jacket and was nine years old carried a hamster cage...
Her brother Jhon carried their rucksacks. He was a dark twelve years old.

"Good day", greeted Eva and Robert unisonely.
Than Eva said: "I packed Swedish grammar and math books for Filipa and Jhon. They will get lessons for master Ericsson in the Old Mill in Christmas."
"So will Ivan and Povel as well", the dean´s wife said and looked at the boys, who were as brown. "The girls have holidays. Tea is ready."
"It will taste fine", Robert said. "We bring food."
"Dad has made sushi", Jhon said, and looked at him happily.

English visitors visiting:
"And Mother Mouse is busy, she is fetching piece of coal, blackening the ceiling..",
the dean´s wife was singing while she divided dough into equal parts to the extra grandchildren Ivan, Hanna, Helen, Povel and Malin.
"Here you are! Knead and shape dough! she said, and ended her favourite Christmas song "Christmas Eve of the Mice". "Find out something, Hans likes that when he comes with the English guests. He always talks about using one´s phantasy."

The dean Dyring and the dean´s wife had received the grandchildren for Christmas and all Christmas holidays. And for them it was like when their grandsons Erik and Daniel lived with them. Now they also were expecting an English professor with wife and children. They were Robert and Eva Jhonson. The girl was named Filipa and her brother Jhon. Jhon Jhonson was eleven years old and Filipa Jhonson was nine.

The dean´s wife was again thinking of Dennis, the little poodle Daniel took home and had in the apple cellar, until the dean had to leave it to the police.

Soon the last sheet was in the oven.

At last weather was a little milder! Days before Christmas the dean´s wife had planned to go to the shopkeeper Lidbom and shop until Patrik´s and Josefina´s children came. It had been so cold you could not even go to the post box.
Now it was the day before Christmas Eve. They had nearly no Christmas food at home. Today was really last chance to buy Christmas food and bake ginger bread and do everything else for Christmas.
They had got a fir tree from aunt Greta. They were going to dress it. All ornaments were in a wooden box in the attics high up in a chest of drawers together with the teddy dog Pelle and a shoulder string bag and a Fortune Telling Glass Ball.