Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for. To our family and friends overseas, we love you and miss you.

We are most thankful for the gift of Jesus. We are excited to celebrate His birth over the next month and thrilled to live where there is a lot less apology for Christianity.  There is a nativity at each of the Christmas Markets we've seen so far, a whole schedule of live Nativities in Luxembourg and even as we have been traveling in France, Germany and Switzerland, Jesus' birth is obviously present in most all of the Christmas decorations around.

Second for God giving us two crazy little boys who are sweet and bring us so much joy.  

We are SO blessed to have the Cantando family here to celebrate our first European Thanksgiving with us! 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving lunch was a little less traditional, but how can we go wrong eating smoked reindeer ham with candied walnuts and cranberry sauce?  Sounds pretty festive and tasted even better!  

Where do you eat reindeer meat on thanksgiving??  At the top of a mountain in Luzerne, Switzerland, of course!

Definitely one of the most spectacular views seen in anyone's lifetime.

The Pilatus Gondola took us to the top of the mountain and was well worth the cold 40 minute ride.  We loved the views and the boys had fun guessing what kind of animal footprints we saw below in the snow. The last quarter of the climb was almost vertical in a large gondola.  Matt, who is afraid of heights, probably wouldn't have agreed to this had he known before we got up there.  When it was over, he agreed it was well worth it!

After lunch, there was a snowball fight and a memorable ride back down the mountain.

We spent the rest of our day in Luzerne, sampling Swiss chocolate and window shopping at all the watch and jewelry shops!

Our First Snow

We woke up to snow for the first time (that the boys can remember).  Our street looks so pretty covered in snow!

The boys remember going to the snow last year in Washington, but to wake up and find it in your yard is super exciting!   They had a great time playing in the snow before school and I'm so glad we enjoyed it and were a little late to school because it was melted by the time they got home.

The Grund

The area of Luxembourg city that is down below the city walls is called Grund.  There is an elevator that takes you down through the old walls.  On a sunny day, it's a pretty area to visit.  While the city center bustles up above, it's pretty quiet in Grund.

Ariane and I were just out for a walk and a little adventure on a Wednesday morning.  After walking through the parks, we arrived at a restored abbey where we stopped for a coffee and looked around the old building.  On our way out we couldn't help but notice the amped security detail and a navy blue Audi with the crown on the license plate.  Unfortunately, I did not see the Duke or Duchess, but I might have to check back there more often. :)

Looking at the Casements (city walls) from below is quite impressive.  Luxembourg was often caught in the crossfire of Belgium and Germany battling for land.  Apparently the walls have an intricate series of tunnels used to live in or escape during wars.

After taking the elevator back up to centre, we stopped by the Wednesday market for some flowers!

I also introduced Ariane to a Charles "Simply Bacon" sandwich.  I forgot to snap a pic again!!  She is hooked now also!

Hola Barcelona!

We put a new marker on the map of places we have visited with our trip to Barcelona the last week of October.

The boys had a week off school to celebrate the "All Saints" Holiday in Luxembourg.  The holiday is quite important in the catholic community here... we received a 12 page booklet listing all of the services held in honor of the Saints just in our quarter of Luxembourg City.  We celebrated by traveling to sunny Barcelona since the gloomy Seattle-like winter has begun to settle in.

We arrived on a beautiful 80 afternoon and enjoyed sitting out on the balcony with a glass of Rioja that evening after we finally settled into our condo in Diagonal Del Mar.  This area of the city is modern and full of families and more parks than you could imagine all around us.  Even our condo had its own playground and 3 pools (unfortunately, they were not heated as promised).

Our first morning in Barcelona, playing at the parks along the beach.

 

Ariane and I hit the grocery store the first day... it was amazing how much more everything costs in Luxembourg!  Check out this wall of jamon on the bone!  There was an equally as big department of jamon and other cured meats in casings or sliced in packages.

The boys will tell you that their favorite part of Barcelona was playing at the beach.  We didn't have much beach weather, but it was fun while it lasted!

The Sagrada Familia is an amazing cathedral, Gaudi's most famous work. 

He spent 40 years working on the design and it is still under construction today.  You can see that some sections of the stained glass are not yet complete and you can even watch the workers making models of the sections that are yet to be built.  Jeremy and I would love to return to Barcelona in 20 or 30 years and see how it has changed.  Its work is completed as private funding comes in (and tourists fund it, of course). 

Never would you be walking around in a construction site like this in the US! 

The boys loved the façade where the birth of Jesus is depicted.

My favorite part of the trip was our babysitter!  Jeremy's previous manager at MS has a daughter studying in Barcelona this semester, so we connected and she gave us some time away from the kids!  The afternoon pictured here was our only rainy day, but we had fun looking at shops and enjoying some mid afternoon cava!

Here I am with Ariane and Scott.  They live around the corner from us in Limpertsberg and have 2 boys of similar ages.  Ariane and I have so much in common and the guys both work at Amazon.  I'm so thankful that I met her and soooo glad we decided to book this trip together!

One of my favorite meals (with the boys) was at the Boqueria Market selecting different foods to sample from the various stalls.  We didn't take many pictures in the market(imagine a Spanish style Pike Place), but here is one from the Gothic district leading up towards the market.

We also had a really fun date night with Ariane and Scott while the babysitter took care of the kids.  We found our way back to a fabulous Tapas restaurant in El Borne that we ate at a year ago.  It was just as fantastic the second time and so fun to find ourselves in a local restaurant away from the busy squares.

We enjoyed riding the Bus Turistic around Barcelona with the boys.  Jeremy and I remembered one of our favorite sections of the city and enjoyed walking back through it stopping along the way to let the boys play at the neighborhood parks, eat some amazing pizza and browse in a few local shops.

It was a lovely week away and so amazing that it is a 2 hour flight away!