thursday, december 30, 1943

dearest kitty,

since the last raging quarrels, things have settled down here, not only between ourselves, dussel and "upstairs," but also between mr. and mrs. van d. nevertheless, a few dark thunderclouds are heading this way, and all because of . . . food. mrs. van d. came up with the ridiculous idea of frying fewer potatoes in the morning and saving them for later in the day. mother and dussel and the rest of us didn't agree with her, so now we're dividing up the potatoes as well. it seems the fats and oils aren't being doled out fairly, and mother's going to have to put a stop to it. i'll let you know if there are any interesting developments. for the last few months now we've been splitting up the meat (theirs with fat, ours without), the soup (they eat it, we don't), the potatoes (theirs peeled, ours not), the extras and now the fried potatoes too.

if only we could split up completely!

yours, anne

p.s. bep had a picture postcard of the entire royal family copied for me. juliana looks very young, and so does the queen. the three little girls are adorable. it was incredibly nice of bep, don't you think?