Escape To Paris!

What a week it has been!! First of all, the weather has been crazy. Yesterday was particularly interesting. The sky would be bright blue with scattered clouds one second, then I'd turn back and it would be completely dark and pouring rain! For a minute, I thought I might be back in Ohio haha.

The day before yesterday, our friend Matt was able to stop by for the night. He was just passing through on his way down range for 6 months. Matt works for AFAA just like Regan, but he's also a member of the Air National Guard. We decided to take him to Landstuhl for some sight seeing. I really like Landstuhl! We ended up just going out for dinner, though. We went to a place called DaNico - it's a typical German/Italian blend restaurant (those are very popular around here). I felt bad, though. Before we went out to eat, Matt had mentioned that he didn't really like Schnitzel. Shocking, right?! Apparently, he had tried jagerschnitzel years before and hated it because it was covered in mushrooms. Like most people, he wasn't aware that there were so many different kinds of schnitzel! In any case, we told him we'd find a place that had some variety so that he wouldn't be forced into the schnitzel. Well, DaNico has variety, but somehow all 3 of us ended up with schnitzel! haha. Matt got pfefferschnitzel, which is pork schnitzel in a peppercorn sauce. It's fantastic, I tell you! AMAZING! He said it was much better than the jagerschnitzel, so I was happy for him haha. After that, we took him to Globus so that he could get some candy to send home to his kids. I like going to Globus. In all honesty, I just like going to German stores in general. It's fun to walk around and look at the German products. Is that weird? I hope not haha

Regan and Matt in front of our house. Love those yellow trash bags!

Yesterday we were finally able to have our home-visit with our social worker. Regan and I cleaned like crazy people all morning, and I'm not going to lie, the house looked great! I think the inspection part went well - the only comments he made were about how much space we had and how big our yard was, etc. And anytime we came upon something that I thought could be construed as a safety hazard, I pointed out how we planned to change it. One of the many adoption books I've been looking at said it was better to point it out and talk about plans to change it than to hope it wasn't noticed. After the initial walk-through, we sat and talked about the process for about 3 hours. He went over our questionnaire (the crazy long one we filled out about a month ago) and then we talked about different forms we're going to need to fill out with different agencies and about the trips to Russia, etc. I really enjoyed the visit, actually! He was so friendly and I got the impression that he liked us and all of our answers. YAY!

When he originally called to set up a time to come see us, I had invited him to dinner. He forgot about it, though, and I can't say I'm sorry for that. I had a bit of a mishap yesterday involving our slow cooker. To be honest, I really haven't used our slow cooker much. We've had it for over a year (we got it for our wedding), but I've only used it a handful of times, so I'm just not a slow cooker pro. Yesterday morning I was trying to think of something to make in the slow cooker so that I wouldn't have to think about making anything while the social worker was actually here. Somehow I figured that if he arrived at our house at 1 PM, that's when we'd have dinner. Of course, that's silly - we'd eat around 5. But in my confused mind, I picked a recipe that needed to be cooked on high for 3-5 hours. Since our slow cooker is a 110 volt appliance, I had to bust out the extremely heavy and annoying converter. I put all of the food in the slow cooker, turned it on, and went about my cleaning. I came back an hour later to check on it, only to find out that the slow cooker's plug had fallen out of the converter. Great. As I plugged it back in, it occurred to me that I'd miscalculated the time for dinner, so I set the slow cooker to low and hoped for the best. 2 hours later, I came back to check on it and discovered that it was still soup and not a casserole at all! I decided to throw caution to the wind and set it to high. The plan was to turn it back to low around 4 PM so that it wouldn't over cook, but still be warm at 5 PM. Well, while we were with the social worker, I forgot about it and at around 4:45 I went to check on it only to find an over-cooked, mushy mess. I made the decision not to mention that we'd invited him to stay for dinner, since he hadn't brought it up yet, and hope that he forgot. Forget he did and I was very grateful! Regan and I ate the mush, but it was...yeah. The flavor was ok, but the texture was something like oatmeal. And oatmeal shouldn't taste like chicken, garlic, and broccoli *shudder*

So last weekend, Regan and I took our first trip to PARIS!! Ah it was so fun. I can't wait to go back again! There is so much to do and so much to see! We hit a few of the major sights, but 2 days (more like 24 hours) is not enough time to spend in Paris.

Paris! C'est magnifique!

We left our house around 7:30 AM, but after getting gas and driving about an hour down the road, we realized we forgot our passports. So we drove all the way home an got them. Regan and I were both very irritated by this set back, but after a little while on the road the excitement of going to Paris overcame our annoyance at our late start. We decided to take the long way to Paris and avoid the toll roads - this saved us close to 90$, but bumped our travel time up to 6 hours one way! We got to Paris around 4:30 PM. I had a head ache and Regan was really tired, so we took a nap in our hotel before hitting the town. We decided to go to the Louvre first, so that we could pick up our museum pass. We hopped on a train and got off at a stop that is pretty much directly under the Louvre. Very convenient! The Paris train system is pretty easy to navigate, I found. It's no different than any other major city's system I've been through - of course, we didn't try the RER trains, which I hear can be more confusing.

Anyway! The Louvre!!

This was taken just outside of the train station. We hadn't even figured out where to get our tickets yet haha

The Louvre is HUGE! I didn't realize how big it was at all. We spent 2 hours there, and barely scratched the surface. I think it would be easy to spend an entire day wandering the halls.

The Oath of the Horatii by Jaques-Louis David! In recent years, this has become my favorite painting. Regan found it for me and I was VERY happy to take my picture with it!

The Venus De Milo! When I saw it, all I could think about was Disney's Hercules. Is that lame of me?? haha

I set our camera up on a small light post to take this picture. Next time, I will remember the tripod! I love this shot, though. I like the shadows and the blurred people and of course, the Louvre looks awesome!

We saw so many famous paintings there, it was kind of surreal. In fact, most of what we did in Paris was kind of surreal. It's so strange to visit a place that you've heard about your whole life. But most of our time here in Germany has felt like that.

After the Louvre, we decided to be bold and walk to the Eiffel tower. From where we were, it didn't look too far away! It was about 9 PM by this point, so it was dark and we didn't meet very many other people on our way. Probably because NORMAL people would have taken the train haha. The closer we got the Eiffel tower, the more people we saw, though. It took us an entire hour to walk there. It was fun, though! And since we were mostly alone, we were able to goof around talk as loud as we wanted to haha. When we got to the tower, it was 10 PM so they had the fun flashing lights going! It was so beautiful. Really. REALLY beautiful. There were still a lot of people around, too.

We took about 100 pictures, but I'm only posting one! Suckers!

By the time we got back to our hotel, it was after 11 PM and we were both exhausted. Regan stayed up to watch the Ohio State game anyway, though! Dedicated fan! The next morning, we had Special K Blueberry for breakfast! Our hotel had a mini-kitchen, so we were able to save a lot of money by bringing in our own food. In fact, the only food we bought in Paris was a pair of Crepes! After breakfast, we decided to head for the Arc de Triomphe!

I was shocked at how huge it was! I mean, I knew it was big...but it was REALLY big!

We got there early enough that the crowds weren't too bad. With the help of our museum pass, we were able to cut the ticket line and head right up the stairs! There were a lot of stairs, too. There were also two mini-museums inside, which I didn't know about. We were a little anxious for the view from the roof, though, so we didn't spend much time inside.

TA DA!! That's a pretty fantastic view!

The Eiffel Tower! I think this shot makes it look kind of small, though...

Those weird posts were all around the roof (so people won't fall, I suppose). They made it hard to get cool shots, though. Oh well.

After we finished at the Arc, we decided to once again, walk to the Eiffel Tower. From the Arc it was only about 30 minutes, though. Not too bad! We bought our Crepes at this time - just thinking about them again is making me hungry. They were SO yummy!

We came at it from the other side, so we were able to take a lot more photos. Plus, the clouds were clearing a bit! Very nice!

I'm torn between this picture, and the first one I posted - I don't know which one I like more! They're both so pretty!

Regan brought his Buckeye gnome and insisted on taking it's picture everywhere haha! This was my favorite shot we took of him.

After re-visiting the Eiffel Tower, we decided to head over the Les Invalides - it's a huge complex consisting of a military museum, Napoleon's tomb, and some other stuff haha. Out of all the places we saw, this is the one I regret not spending more time at the most. The military museum was SO COOL but we were only there for about 45 mins!

This is the center front. Napoleon's tomb is right inside those center double doors.

This is the dome directly above Napoleon's tomb! VERY PRETTY, yes?

The reason we couldn't spend longer there was because we had to hurry over to Notre Dame at 2:30 PM for the guided tour in English! For some reason, I thought Notre Dame was smaller than it was...it was not small at all, actually!

AAAH so famous! It's fun to see famous things, I think. The square was crowded and the line to get into the cathedral was VERY long, but moved quickly.

Whenever someone asks me to take their picture in front of something, I always try to do a really good job. It seems like when we ask people to take our picture in front of something, it's always crooked, not centered, or (as is the case here) they cut the top off! *sigh* oh well.

It's funny with cathedrals...I always just think about their facades and forget that they're really long, too! Am I the only one that does that? So I'm always surprised when we walk around the side of a cathedral. You'd think I'd learn haha.
ps. how many people can you spot having their picture taken with Notre Dame!

After touring Notre Dame, we set out for the Pantheon! Very, very cool place. I wasn't really aware of its existence before doing research for our trip to Paris, but I think it's definitely worth a visit! Many famous and important French citizens are buried there - including Victor Hugo, whose tomb we were able to see.

One of the MANY sculptures inside with one of the MANY paintings behind it. That place was just crawling in cool art.

This is the view down the street in front of the Pantheon. I just thought it looked very Parisian (especially with the Eiffel tower in the distance).

And here we are in front of the Pantheon!

After that, it was like 5 PM and we had to hit the road. I'm pleased with the number of things we were able to see in such a short amount of time, but we will DEFINITELY be going back. I can't wait to take my family there next summer! On the way home, we listed to "Into the Wild" on CD - I thought it was a very interesting book (I wasn't familiar with the story at all), but it made me really angry.

Anyway, that was our last big adventure for a while. Regan will be in Iraq soon, so I guess he'll be having an adventure! But I'll be here, looking for work and sticking with the usual daily grind.

I think Spring has sprung!

The weather was so amazing all last week! Then, all weekend it rained. BOO!! But I've seen lots of blue sky today, despite the clouds. At least it's not raining.

So last Thursday, we got our adoption contract in the mail. We didn't waste any time and filled it out that night, then Friday morning I met Regan down at Ramstein and we had it notorized and mailed off! YAY! I forgot to get delivery confirmation, though. I hope it gets there OK. I was just so excited to mail it that I guess my mind left me for a bit haha. We're right on track with our goal to have our home study submitted before Regan's little trip to Iraq next month. We haven't had much luck getting a hold of our social worker, though - we really want to schedule our home inspection!

On Saturday night, Quoc and Beth came over and we ate breakfast for dinner! Breakfast food is the best food, I swear. We had blueberry pancakes, potato pancakes, bacon, and fried eggs! Then we played pass the pigs, which for some reason felt kind of boring. My family always had so much fun playing that game in the past, so I really don't know why it was so lame on Saturday. So after 2 games, we switched over to Yahtzee, which is our usual game of choice. We played until about 11:30 PM, at which point poor Beth was about to pass out so they went home! Regan wanted to Quoc to stay and watch Basketball all night (I have no idea why - both of their brackets are bust!) but Quoc was a good husband and left with Beth haha. I'm glad we have them to hang out with. I'm not usually an especially social person, but it's nice to have another young, childless couple to spend weekends with!

This weekend, Regan and I are going to PARIS, FRANCE!!! I'm so excited!!! Besides the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, The Arch De Triumph, and all of the other things Paris is famous for, I'm really excited to hit the Sanrio store and the Angelic Pretty store! I hope we get a chance to go to both of them! We're only staying for 2 days, though, so if we don't get to, there's always next time. Paris is only a 4 hour drive, after all.

Cats on a 'sill!

Today was so blustery and cold, but my kitty cats just slept on the warm windowsill and it made me feel warmer just looking at them! I need some kind of heated surface to take naps on.

The home study stuff is coming along. Right now we're waiting to hear back about when our home inspection will be. I hope we have at least a week to get ready - I have a lot of stuff I want to get done around here before the inspection. We really need some new shelves for the bathrooms...and my sewing room is a complete disaster area!

So...I'm going to admit to something here. Regan has horrible taste in entertainment sometimes. Right now...he's watching...WWE Smackdown *hangs head in shame* please don't judge us! It started out with Regan claiming he enjoyed it for purely nostalgic reasons...but then he just kept watching! And...do I enjoy it?! Don't answer that...

Regan and I had a really good weekend! On Friday, we went to the Temple and it was wonderful, as always. Saturday morning I had a writing seminar, and then we tried to go see "Alice In Wonderland" but it was sold out. BOO! So we ate at Captain D's - we both got sick from it. Never, ever again. I love hush puppies, though...I'll just have to learn how to make them myself.

Let's Do It!

Hiya! The Brant house is all abuzz! After careful consideration, Regan and I have decided that instead of starting the process for our Russian adoption in January of 2011, we will instead be starting it NOW! This does, of course, raise some minor issues, not least of which will be coming up with the cash. I'm trying to get some things made that I can sell on Etsy to raise money, and Regan and I have been throwing around some other fundraising activities. I'll keep you posted (said as if anyone reads this haha).

Right now we're working on the home study! So far, we've got the 30+ page initial paperwork filled out (still needs a final run-through, though). It only took us 3-4 days! Regan worked on it pretty much non-stop over the weekend. He's so good! We're going to try to get our physicals done this week, and then it's just a matter of gathering a TON of other paperwork and documents, getting some background checks done, and having a home inspection. Hopefully we'll be pretty much done by the end of this month! That would be great.

Our goal is to have the child by the end of this year. That's pretty ambitious, though. Everything would have to go like clockwork...and since this is an adoption...yeah. We'll see. But that's our goal anyway!

We're so excited!!! I've already been thinking about all of the toys and clothes I want to make for the baby - when I say baby, I mean *around 12-14 month old* because that's how old the children coming out of Russia are on average. It's VERY rare to get a child less than a year old. That's fine with us, though! I also daydream about taking family photos when we're on vacation, reading books with them, playing at the park, going to the zoo, making crafts together...aah I'm so excited!!!

Last week I finished working at the CDC. I just hated it and couldn't take it anymore...so I'm back on the job hunt! I've put in some applications already, so hopefully by the end of the month I'll be working at a new job. Without a little more money coming in, Regan and I won't be able to have any kind of luxury or fun until we've paid for the adoption - so yeah, I want a job haha.

Venice Is For Love

February is almost over...I can't believe how time just slips away!

A couple of weeks ago, for Valentine's weekend, Regan and I took a trip to Venice, Italy! Ah it was fantastic. We had so much fun!

On Thurs, Feb 11 we drove to Frankfurt and hopped on a flight to Italy! It was only about an hour in the air!

This was at the airport. Don't you think something about this guy is a little...disturbing?

Once in Italy, we took a train for about 45 min to the house (or at least the city where the house was) of some of Regan's old friends, the Lazenby family! I was really excited to ride on the train. I love trains!

We stayed with the Lazenby's for the night and they fed us the most amazing pasta! They called it Saccetini, but in my research, I've found that it's more commonly known as Fiocchi. It's a little pouch of pasta stuffed with cheese and pear and it's amazing. I'd LOVE to get my hands on a recipe!!!

The next morning, we took a train to Venice! We didn't realize it at the time, but we took the slow train there so it ended up taking us about 1.5 hours. When we walked out of the train station, we were met with a huge open area full of people, both costumed and not! To be honest, I was expecting to see more people in costume. Carnevale was still going on, but only a very small number of people were in costume. We decided to forgo one of the many the water buses available and set off for what would be a few hours of walking to find our hotel!

This was the first major bridge we crossed after exiting the train station!

One of the MANY canal's we crossed on our journey. I was actually surprised that there were no cars on the island. I didn't realize that the city was almost entirely dependant on the canals for transportation! I always learn so much on our trips.

After probably 3 hours of walking, we finally located our hotel! The Hotel Fontana http://www.hotelfontana.it/eng/index.htm

We didn't stay long, though. We dumped our bag and set off again! We decided that Friday was going to be our 'walking-tour' day and Saturday would be our 'boat-tour' day! Walking around Venice was really fun! More than once we wandered until we were totally lost. There was so much to just soak up and enjoy - the buildings, the people, the shops, the smells (I've never smelled so many different things in such a short amount of time - it was amazing).

There were shops everywhere selling Carnevale masks. We did end up coming home with 2 masks, I'm happy to say!

This tower was one of the landmarks we used in our wanderings. We always seemed to end up near it when we got lost. Venice was full of amazing architecture - so many churches!

One of my favorite places to wander was along the waterfront! Mainly because it was so warm, but the scenery was certainly something!

I love our cat mask!

Later that night, while trying to decide what to do for dinner, we ended up in St. Mark's square! There were many people in costumes wandering around and some really interesting decor had been erected (prime example, the lion behind me). Also note the rose I'm holding: Regan was forced to buy it from a street vendor who was so persistent that he stuffed the rose into my pocket! 4 Euros! Though, it was a very lovely rose.

For dinner, we chose a random restaurant offering a very popular 'sample' menu option. Basically, you could pay a set price (usually between 15-20 Euro) and eat a 2-3 course meal. We, unfortunately, chose rather poorly. If I could remember the name of the restaurant, I'd advice against going. The food was decent, but not worth anything close to what we payed for it. The best deals are at the pizza cafes! SOOOO good and much cheaper!

That night, we went back to the hotel rather early and watched Walker, Texas Ranger in Italian (still amazing, fyi). After a long day of walking, the bed is the best place to hang out! The next morning, we got up early and enjoyed our hotel's free breakfast. Then we were off to St. Mark's square in the hopes that getting there early would help us beat the crowds! It did help us a bit, but not nearly as much as the flooded square did! Inches of water everywhere!

The flood was pretty annoying, but it did make for some pretty cool pictures!

We were able to tour St. Mark's Cathedral without having to fight any huge crowds! This photo is from the roof facing the square (which was still flooded). We spent over an hour there - it was just so beautiful and interesting! The mosaics that filled the cathedral were stunning. I can't wait to go back and see it again!

After we left St. Mark's, there was a noticeable influx of people into that general area, so we decided it would be a good time to hop on a water bus and ride out to the island of Murano!

Murano, as you may or may not know, is famous for glass making! So, naturally, we attended a glass making demonstration. It was pretty amazing, actually. It inspired us to pick up a few pieces! We hadn't really planned on it, but we found a small shop selling work done by apprentices and it was much cheaper than the master's shops.

There were funky glass sculptures all over the island!

We wandered all over Murano for a while - it was nice because there was practically no one there! It was a pretty small island, so we never got terribly lost, but it was nice to escape the crowds of Venice for a while. Eventually, our rumbling stomachs told us it was time for lunch, so we took a water bus back to Venice. The crowds there had gotten pretty intense, though.

This was the scene as we tried to walk from the water bus to our hotel to pick up our belongings! It was total insanity.

Riding on the water buses was one of my favorite things in Venice. I really like being on boats, and these boats in particular had a great view 90% of the time!

This is the Rialto Bridge. As you can see, it's totally packed out with people! We crossed it the day before, but we'd have been insane to try to do so on Saturday!

We decided to have lunch at the pizza place directly across from our hotel! The pizza was amazing (I'm drooling now just thinking about it).

After that, we were pretty much ready to go. The crowds were getting even crazier and we wanted to get back to the Lazenby's place early enough to enjoy dinner and some conversation. They fed us some AMAZING lasagna and we all stayed up too late talking. Good times.

The next morning, we went with them to church. I really enjoyed being in Sunday school and Relief Society! Simple pleasures after months in the Nursery. That night we enjoyed more Saccetini and then it was off to the train station and on to the airport!

Here we are in the airport waiting for our flight! Goodbye, Italy!

Venice was so much fun! We both agreed that we have to go back - there was still so much to do and see, we really only scratched the surface! Italy in general seems like a really great place. Everyone was so friendly and the food is SOOOOOO good! I'd like to go back when it's a little warmer, though.

Last weekend, we took a trip with our friends, the Ta's, down to Strasbourg, France! It was my first time going to France, so I was really excited! Strasbourg is less than 2 hours from here, so it's a trip we could easily make many times in the future. We met Beth and Quac at their house and drove down around 9 AM. We stayed until the cold and rain (and an expired parking meter ticket) drove us back home around 3 PM.

Regan and I in front of Strasbourg's Notre Dom Cathedral! It was a huge building! I wish we could have gone inside, but that will be an adventure for another time.

I'm not sure what was going on, but there were vendors selling carnival food everywhere! Regan couldn't resist getting some Churo's!

Those nubby trees were everywhere! We couldn't tell if they grew that way naturally, of they were trimmed to look like that. Either way - weird! As you can see, there weren't a lot of other people wandering around. It was a pretty chilly day, but it didn't really get yucky until right before we left.

Other than that, life goes on as normal. I'm on the job hunt again - working at the CDC just wasn't a good fit. I hope I find something else soon, though. The money I can bring in will really help with some of our goals for this year.

Snowing~

I don't care what anybody says, it snows a lot in Germany! Regan had a 2 hour delay for work this morning and it was nice to have him around a little longer. But then after he left I realized that the roads weren't the only things covered in snow, so I went to shovel the walk. That was the first time I've shoveled our walk. Fun.

Germans are nuts for clean sidewalks! When you drive through villages, you always see people (usually old people) out sweeping their walks. I guess if your walk is messy you can get in trouble, but people really take it seriously.

I hate to say it, but I really don't have much to update about right now. We've been up to a whole lot of nothing lately! I really...have nothing to write. hrm...

Well, This is our last full week of German classes and then we're on our own! On Saturday we're going with our German teacher for a city tour of Landstuhl and then out to eat. I'm looking forward to some schnitzel!

I guess I can go ahead and talk about some of our upcoming travel plans. For Valentine's Day, Regan and I are heading down to Venice! I'm really excited because I hear that Carnival is amazing! We also want to take our first trip to Paris in probably April - I'm so excited to hit the Sanrio and Angelic Pretty stores! Plans for our trip back in the summer are coming along slowly - it looks like we (Regan, myself, and 3 of my sisters) will most likely be going to Otakon! I'm not going to lie...that makes me super happy haha.

Well hopefully we'll have some adventures this week so that I have something to talk about next time!

A new year!

Happy 2010!! How was everyone's holiday season? Ours was great! Kind of stressful, but great. We went back to Ohio to spend the holidays with our families. The day before we left Germany, we got to see our first snow.

This is a street in our village! Winter wonderland!

Regan and I built a snow man in our front yard!

The next morning, we got up around 5 AM and hit the road to the Frankfurt airport! We got stuck in traffic and got to the airport only an hour before our flight. When we got up to the ticket counter to get our boarding passes, the woman working said "You're on the flight for Atlanta? Ah...you're too late" - not a happy moment. She gave us our boarding passes anyway, though and told us to hurry. By the time we finally made it through all of the security, it was about 30 minutes until take off...and there was still a huge line waiting to board. Stupid lady stressed us out for nothing! Unfortunately, our feeling of relief was fleeting. Before we even made it to our seats on the plane, Regan realized his wallet wasn't in his pocket anymore. He told the flight staff and they went to check at security, where we assumed it had fallen out. When they came back empty handed, we really got worried. I was convinced it had been stolen. Regan acted very chill, but I spent the entire 9 hour flight to Atlanta completely stressed out of my mind! Our two hour layover in Atlanta mostly consisted of us running from one Delta-related office to another with no luck on contacting Frankfurt. Finally the woman at the ticket counter (where we had to go to get a new boarding pass - security right off the plane in Atlanta was crazy) gave us a number to call the lost and found at Frankfurt, which we decided to do after we got to Dayton.

Regan's parents and my family were waiting for us in Dayton! It was a happy reunion! We all went out for pizza, too! Very good night. Well, except for the missing wallet still hanging over our heads. The happy ending is that the next morning we called Frankfurt and *ta da* the wallet had been found, completely intact! Amazing! A miracle!!

Most of our first week home was spent bumming around Regan's parent's house during the day and hanging out with my family at night. I was able to get in touch with a few friends, but it seemed like a lot of people were really busy with the holiday season, so I was only able to actually meet up with a couple of my best friends. We were also able to go out to lunch with some people from Regan's old office and spend time with some of his friends as well.

Laly and I at a midnight waffle house meetup! Just like old times!

Junko Sato and I at Abuelo's = pretty much the best lunch ever!

This is at my parent's house...and it's pretty much my favorite photo of the trip. My sister put the sign above the tub. It reads "Do NOT turn on water for cats" and yet, someone obviously did. And even my darling Ziva joined in?? Well, she better not get used to it because that's not how we roll at my house!

The weekend after we got to Ohio, my brother, sister, and her husband arrived from Utah! After that, there was a lot of quality time spent with my entire family, including a family photo, a trip to the temple, and dinner at the Golden Trough (Golden Corral).

The happy oinkers!! Gotta love over-eating!

Christmas Eve is when Regan's family gets together. It can get pretty wild, but it's always a good time! The adults play a white elephant game and this year I was extremely excited with the gift I ended up with!

Waffle maker, yes! And it's one of those cool flippy ones like I always see at hotels! I'm very excited to use this thing!

Regan and I were up until about 4 AM Christmas Eve. That made things a little difficult Christmas morning because we were supposed to be at my parent's house around 6:30 AM! My family still likes to get up crazy early and open gifts one at a time - it usually takes a few hours!

Happy Christmas, Harvey house!

This is my 2nd favorite picture of the week! Soooooo good. My dad and sister are pretty much amazing.

Christmas dinner, which we ate around 2 PM, was also sooooooooo good. I love love love stuffing. I love it.

Sadly, my sister and her husband had to leave shortly after dinner. So we all waved a white sock and said our goodbyes! Shortly after Christmas, Regan got some family news that caused he and his parents to drive to Maryland. I stayed behind in Ohio to finish getting things ready for our cats to move to Germany and also trying to push our flight back a few days - I was able to push it back only one day. The 29th was my mom's birthday! We celebrated with a little family party complete with cake and gifts!

She looks pretty good for being 82 years old, I think.

The 31st came too quickly and it was back home to Germany for us! The cats were all taken care of, but it was still really hard for me to hand their cage off to the airport security guys. I was so worried about them!

Regan and his parents at the airport.

Me and my family at the airport!

We made our way through security and turned to see a great multitude of white sock waving people! We felt so loved.

My poor little kitty cats in their cage. I know they must have been scared out of their brains.

I was so worried that the cats would be distant and sad, but they adjusted to their new home almost immediately! See Choco playing so well with Daddy?

That trip feels like it was so long ago, even though we've only been home for a little over a week! Now it's back to the grind. I'm trying to get all of my paperwork in for my new job and it's taking a lot longer than I would like. Regan and I started taking a German language class on base every Monday and Wednesday night. We both really enjoy it! We've already learned how to say a lot of useful phrases, but for some reason when we go out to dinner I still feel like I can't say anything except 'danke' to the waitress! I am determined, though! I WILL be confident!

It's been snowing a lot here lately. When we moved here, everyone told us that it doesn't snow much, but I really think it's been snowing off and on since we got back from our trip. It's snowing right now, too. I should probably go shovel the walk...