The beauty of biking

I just have to say...... We LOVE biking everywhere.

Here's the top 5 reasons why.

Fitness: 
It's not a lot, but it's nice to say, I did nothing but drop the kids off at school and pick them up today. But still. 2 miles of biking. cool.

Parking:
Literally Anywhere. I went to a concert at a fancy place in the middle of downtown. And parked right by the front door.

"Keys":
No digging through pockets. Just combo and go.

Road Rage:
or lack thereof. It still exists, but it's hard to stay mad at people when you can see their eyes.

Money:
I've spent um...... $0.67 so far, on a new lightbulb. Since July. That's my bike transportation budget. Maybe if I'm unlucky, I might have to put in new innertubes sometime next year. ;)

a visit to our relatives

W went for a visit to Ingrid and Manfred's abode. As to how we are related, our mother and Ingrid's grandparents were siblings. but who cares, blood is thicker than anything else, right.

So we went for dinner, which we'll get to, but they live in this gorgeous suburb of Graz so before dinner, we went on a little mini hike around some castle grounds with lots of animals and such.

Brian teaching them to climb fences.

Felix being very successful at learning to climb fences.

The 4 boys running on a dirt path, to use up energy before stopping at the playground.

Theo and Felix sliding together. Henry close behind.

It's good that we arrived after some exercise and cold air to make us hungry. There were many foods made by Manfred, who is a fantastic cook, and who had been working at it all day.

We were greeted with champagne.

A bean salad, a green salad and a beet salad, with potato strudel. The kids ate a LOT at this course.

Then celeriac schnitzel (!) with turnip sauce, which was incredible.

Then potatoes au gratin with swisschard.  mmmm.

[side note: in german, swiss chard is called mangold, which is such an interesting name, but then, swiss chard is also an interesting name.]

Lots of wine bottles were emptied until here.

Then we had coffee and desert...

We lit the first candle because it was the first Sunday of Advent.

Dessert was an applecake.

Theo, Ingrid, Manfred, Centa and Brian

Of course, there was more wine and cheese and afterdinner dinking, delicious grappa, and the conversation was delightful the whole time.

Ingrid told us that the only thing we still had to do when we got home was get into bed. 

And she was right. :)

Not-French Onion Soup

Quick recipe I *had* to share. Easy and quick.

It goes like this:
chop lots of onions, big and small pieces
mix with some soysauce and oil

cook on medium heat till it smells unbearably good, add some water, and boil till all the onions are soft.

eat with a spoon.

Thanksgiving away

Grateful and happy was the resounding theme as we went around the table.

It was thus;
We grew up in a family of enormous numbers and are used to corresponding enormous thanksgiving parties. Often we absorbed "extra" people - that is, foreign exchange students who had didn't know about the holiday, people who's family lived too far away, or stragglers from other thanksgiving parties who liked our's better. ;)

Here there is no Thanksgiving, but they have St. Martin's day (see all about the Laternenfest) where it's traditional to roast a goose and have all the trimmings. Turkey goose same gander.

So my sister has been hosting Graz Thanksgiving for a few years, and she decided to do it in terrific style this year. There were two centerpieces of dinner. One the traditional brown stuffed animal (not a bear!) and one a manificent vegetarian (actually, probably vegan, I'm not 100% sure) stuffed gigantic pumpkin which slow roasted all day.
Chestnuts are quite common here, as are specialty mushrooms, and everyone who came brought something. Our table was stuffed to the gills, and eventually we were too.

Multigenerational, multinational, multitraditional and we all went around the table and said what we were thankful for. Even people who were uncomfortable with being put on the spot had positive things to say. The rule was enforced for late comers too. All told, close to 35 people were there over the course of the long night. I only have some pictures from the beginning, when only a few people were there, and my dear sister was playing ultimate hostess. Carving.

And from the other side. 

My new friend Manuela had her trusty camera with her and got some action shots of our kids eating at the kiddie table:

All five of us. 

Their terrific chefs hats that we made ourselves with printer paper and wax paper. Fun project!

Felix struggling to keep awake.

No longer struggling. Now just snuggling. Yes, he's wearing an apron, and holding three stuffed animals and reading a book, and fell asleep pointing at something.

And what are we grateful for?? That our first Thanksgiving in a country that doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving was full of welcoming people, whether they knew us or not. <3 p="">