I <3 Autumn

It’s that time of year again when I start gushing over how much I love the fall.  I did it last year… and the year before, twice even!  So why should this year be any different?

This weekend we went to a big Thanksgiving dinner for an expat group I belong to for expat women in Holland.  One of the girls from the list turned her livingroom into a giant table for all of us.  There was somewhere between 30-40 people there from all over… Dutch, American, Canadian, British, Portuguese and others as well.  So it was a pretty mixed group. 

I have to admit it was kind of funny being a Canadian attending an American Thanksgiving dinner at the house of a Portuguese woman and her Dutch husband! 

As you can see from the photo, Xander was less than impressed in the beginning, although he assured me that he’d forgive me within a week.  He generally hates crowds and since I am new to the group and didn’t know many people yet I really sucked at the small talk thing.  So a portion of the beginning of the evening was spent with Xander and I standing around like morons.

Once a few people we knew showed up and everyone sat it got much better.   We had a huge laugh with the people sitting around us and everything became much more relaxed. The food was great, the company was great and we both had an awesome time.

For the first time in almost 6 months I had a desert.   I figured since it was a special occasion and we don’t go to something like that often that I should treat myself.   I haven’t eaten any sweets so long I almost felt like I was falling off the wagon.  I took the thinnest sliver of pumpkin pie I was able to cut and half a chocolate chip cookie.  It was heavenly.  Just enough to taste but not enough to make me feel  guilty about ‘cheating’ on my diet.  (Not past the 29 lb loss mark yet, when I hit 30 ya’s will know it)

The drive to the dinner was lovely.  It was about an hour away from here in Tilburg which is a beautiful area.

As we were driving along it was quite windy and there were leaves blowing everywhere in the air.  It was such a nice fall day and I loved riding along in the car seeing parts of the country I hadn’t seen before.

It got me to thinking once again about how much I love this time of year.   I love the chill in the air, being able to wear warm and cozy sweaters again, getting out the scarves and gloves and of course… the hint of the holidays in the air.  Everything about this season makes you want to curl up on the sofa with a cup of hot tea.

I also noticed how different the colors are here in the fall.  Back in Canada the trees turn every different shade of red, yellow and orange.  They are bright and colorful.  Here in the Netherlands, they turn various shades of copper and rust, but never really reach the bright colors of back home.

It’s no less beautiful though.  No better, no worse, just different.