What a Whirlwind Weekend!!

This morning we took a bus to the east (for an hour) to Vychodná, in the High Tatras, where Katarina met us at the bus stop and took us to church in her village.  Then we spent a lovely time meeting her family and enjoying her mother's delicious cooking! 

The organ and chandeliers in Katarina's church in Vychodná.
She translated for us during the service, which was really nice.

This is Katarina, her grandmother, and her mother after church.

All of us near the church

A view of some houses in the village and some people heading
home from church.

Three generations of beautiful Slovak women!  

On the long, narrow lot with Katarina's grandma's house on one street,
and Katarina's parents' house on the block behind, there are several
outbuildings in between, including the garage, a workshop which her father
uses for woodworking, a large garden/orchard area, and the barns/huts
for chickens, turkeys, and sheep.  They said we should come back
in the spring when they will have baby lambs.   :-)

Visiting at the table before Sunday dinner, which was AMAZING!
Sunday turkey noodle soup with carrots started the meal, then we had
rice with a delicious deer meat and cranberry stew/gravy - YUM!  We also
had some of the turkey meat from the soup, and homemade pickles!  The
two desserts were scrumptious - a cake with cheese and fruit, and a rolled-up
and sliced honey-walnut cake that's typical at Christmas time in Slovakia.  

Katarina's parents waving goodbye from the door of their beautiful
home, which they built.  Her father did all the woodwork, cabinets,
windows, and fence.  They sent us home with containers of their
pickles, some jam, leftover deer stew, and lots of cakes - oh my!!!  :-)

Katarina walked us to the bus stop - she's such a sweetheart, and
her family was really delightful to meet too.
(Father Yuri, Mother Jana, and Brother Juri)

The scenery from the bus window on the way home was gorgeous.
(In the morning, the mountains were shrouded in fog.) 

We're pretty sure this is Krivan!  The colors kept changing in the setting sun!

We returned to Liptovsky Mikuláš in time to take a bus to Ružomberok for Ivan Mraz's university choir concert.  (I asked him if he's related to Jason!  He's not!  LOL!!)  

The pedestrian area in the Ružomberok center was all decorated.
It was cold, but a pretty walk through all the holiday lights to the
Catholic University for the concert at the Jesuit Church there. 

This statue in front of the town hall had lights behind it in the trees.
Beautiful!!

The church interior was beautiful!

Ivan's choir was wonderful - we thoroughly enjoyed the music!
The first portion of the program included soloists - all excellent.
Then the choir performed six numbers.

The choir sang Rachmaninov, Mendelssohn, Fauré, Mozart, and some
selections included strings.  They closed the concert with César Franck's
"Panis Angelicus" - one of my favorites.  It was lovely!!  :-)  

The crowd was most appreciative, and an encore was performed.....
"Silent Night" in Slovak - I'm pretty sure it was Ivan's arrangement,
with strings accompanying the choir.  It was the perfect way to
end the evening.  We loved being there!!  

 Before the concert, Ivan told us that the concert would last until 7:15, and the train was at 7:28, so Eva would drive us to the train station immediately after the concert.  (The next train would be 2 hours later!)  I didn't think we'd make it, but sure enough, we arrived at the station a few minutes before the train.  That was enough time to purchase our tickets and easily make the train.   :-)   It was so sweet of them to be sure we got back to L.M. quickly!!  Thank you Eva and Ivan!!  

Tim has been wanting to take a picture of me in my "new" thrift-store coat
and new hat.  This is on the train on the way back from the concert.  We are
outside walking a lot, and it's cold enough, that we really do need to stay warm.
We were wearing lots of layers today, being as cold as it was!!

What a weekend it has been!  The Christmas Market, our walk in the woods to find a Christmas tree and have snowball fights with Patka and Rivi, making and decorating Christmas cookies, visiting Katarina's village, going to church, and meeting her family, the delicious meals both days (Patka and Jana are both amazing cooks!), and two concerts, have all made this a weekend full of blessings to remember always!