seny i rauxa: More pictures of Thanksgiving

After our own version of a Thanksgiving feast at the Italian restaurant on Thursday. The kids had half a day on school Friday. The three oldest wanted to go to school. I know, weird. But, Jessica decided to stay home with us. Nick took her hiking on Montserrat. Here is what Wikipedia says...

Santa Maria de Montserrat is a Benedictine abbey located in the Montserrat mountain, in Monistrol de Montserrat, in Catalonia.
It hosts the Virgin of Montserrat, and the Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat, a publishing house, the oldest press in the world, still running, with the first book published in 1499.
The monastery is Catalonia's most important religious retreat and groups of young people from Barcelona and all over Catalonia make overnight hikes at least once in their lives to watch the sunrise from the heights of Montserrat. Virgin of Montserrat (the black virgin), is Catalonia's favourite saint, (and I want to add is said to have been carved by St Luke in 50 AD-ish) and is located in the sanctuary of the Mare de Deu de Montserrat, next to the Benedictine monastery nestling in the towers and crags of the mountain. Montserrat, whose name means serrated mountain, is 48 kilometers (approx 30 miles) west of Barcelona, and can be reached by road, train/cable car.
At 1236 meters (4055 ft) above the valley floor, Montserrat, is the highest point of the Catalan lowlands, and stands central to the most populated part of Catalonia. The stone monolith is ideally located to play an important role in the cultural and spiritual life of Catalonia.
The Basilica houses a museum with works of art by many prominent painters and sculptors including works by El Greco, Dalí, Picasso and more. Montserrat's highest point, Sant Jeroni, can be reached by funicular railway from the Romanesque monastery of Santa Cecilia. From Sant Jeroni, almost all of Catalonia can be seen and on a clear day the island of Majorca is visible.

The puppies on the walk...

Jessica near statue...

The iron cross...

Jessica with the monestary off in the distance.

The monestary at Montserrat

Close up of the iron cross...

Jessica doing her St Francis imitation in front of her inspiration.

Rascal on the road to Montserrat

Meanwhile back at the ranch...the PTA sponsered a skating event in Barcelona. So we took off early to catch the train to get the bus to walk down the street to the ice rink. The kids all met up with friends there.
Here are two of my friends, Wendy, Melinda and Melinda's daughter, I'm blanking on her name.

Joe, Ben and Lucas...

Here's Andrea and her friend Lila. Joe is in the frame too but his back is to us.

And Joe...

Joe and his friend Ben...

Alexa, in the blue jacket with her friend Maude. Alexa has had a rough "mean girls" week at school. Maude has been such a breath of fresh air and helped Alexa keep her head up. Alexa went over Maude's after school and they came together to the ice skating event.

Alexa and Maude's family. Maude came with her whole family including her gradnfather who was also out there on the ice. I'm not certain what country they come from. I think her Mom might be American but she speaks many languages and has been here a while. I think maybe her grandfather is from Sweden...maybe? They speak to each other in french. *Shrug* They are super nice and helped Alexa get through her awful week.