Birthdays and Visits

     There were many happy events over the last seven days that I haven't had a chance to write about. We began with Tess' 19th (!!) birthday. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that our youngest is nineteen. We then had a three day visit from Claire and Daniel and the grandchildren. I was high on 'cuteness overload' with the three little ones here. Steve returned home briefly on Sunday, having half an hour in passing with Claire and family before they departed. He brought me some excellent toffee, which I shared : ). That afternoon we were able to attend a dinner reservation made weeks earlier at Tizzone. Twice per month Tizzone's holds wine pairing dinner events and this was the first one we tried. This one happened to be a four course dinner, each course being paired with a Bordeaux wine. The meal was delicious, the aperitif was my favorite, and Steve and I enjoyed being out together along with friends, old and new.
     Aside from all this, we've had some breathtaking autumn days. I even enjoy the rainy days when we make the house cozy with lights on in the day time time and blankets on our laps when we curl up for a movie at night. Most of us know the importance of cozying up our living environments on these shortened fall and winter days, but did you know the Danish are experts at this and raise it to an art? It is known as the Danish art of hygge. You can read all about it here.
     Before I could gather my thoughts to write about any one of these events singularly, my mother and I both came down with heavy colds. Needless to say, we've had several nights of disrupted sleep. I hope we will turn the corner on this and feel better soon. Steve is away again, which may mean he has been spared the suffering. We're trying very hard not to pass it on to Tess. She's too busy with school and work to get sick. I'll leave a few photos to highlight our week until I feel more up to writing.

Preparing Tess' birthday dinner of an excellent beef stew in the crockpot and...

... fruit pizzas!! Good recipe HERE 
We've been making these for years and they are so much fun to decorate and they taste great. 

For the grandchildren, I baked pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies, frosted them, and gave the kids candies to decorate them with funny faces.

Yes, bikes are allowed inside at Nonni's house : )

This little guy is ready to take some steps.

We also visited the sheep,

looked for the chickens,

and ran home across the field.