all saints' day.

V.

Good evening from Austria! Today is All Saints' Day (for some people probably better known as 'the day after Halloween'). For us Austrians All Saints' and All Souls' Day are very important days filled with old tradition. Even though, it's not All Souls' Day yet, where you are mindful of loved ones who already passed away, my parents and I went to the cemetery today in advance to visit the graves of our ancestors. Considering that I normally avoid going to places like those, since I don't feel comfortable there, I still happily went along with them. We first drove to a cemetery a little further away from our hometown where there was this beautiful little church. 

We went inside to take a look at the altar and icons paintings on the walls. They were really nice. Afterwards we lit some candles at the cemetary and my father told me some interesting stories about his family.

Our next stop was the cemetery near our hometown where we also lit some candles and took a walk through the woods, that is centered in that cemetery.

To be absolutely honest with you guys,- I've rarely seen something as beautiful and calming as this sea of lights all around the graves. It was so lovely and oddly pleasant to see all those lit candles shimmering trough the dark bushes and trees. Out of respect I didn't take a picture of it though, but I'm sure you get the image.

Earlier that day a little surprise was waiting for me at home! :) As you might already know, I simply love adopting plushy little friends.. And today, our family grew a little bigger. Let me introduce to you .. Kiki! :)

For many years my father has been donating to the cancer foundation "St. Anna Kinderspital", which collects money for very young cancer patients. When you donate a certain amount of money you can choose to get a plushy toy for free. One of my parents' close friends, who's a doctor, has made it a habit to give those toys to his young patients after vaccinations and so on.. So my dad always donates money to the hospital, gives those plushy little fellas to his doctor friend, who then gives it to the kids. So everybody wins. :) Oh and of course, I do too,- 'cause everytime there's a new model (this time it's a chick) I get to keep one of them. :) (Yes, Esther, I'm done talking about cuddly toys now.. :) )

Also, -since I've been annoying absolutely everybody with the topic Halloween for weeks,- my mum got me a little Halloween present!! Look at that! It's a pumpkin! With eyes! And a mouth! And some delicious rice waffles! :) Fantastic!! :)

During the rest of the day I took pictures of our house (which I won't bore you with, as you've already seen so many ..) and then I ate up the leftovers from today's lunch. :) Yummy! :)

Have a nice weekend you guys! :)