Bonjour!

So on this wonderful Friday afternoon, I just want to tell you all that I love you extra lots. We get home in a few days and I have mixed feelings about coming home... It's time to be home though, I guess you have to live with another family for a few weeks to really appreciate how completely normal your own messed up family is.
Ok at 1 am last night we rolled in, coming home from PARIS! Paris was wonderful! It was awkward.... and quite dirty in some parts, but in the main areas it was completely wonderful. It was nice to finally be in a place where I could actually understand what in the heck people were trying to say to me. I never actually believed that all the time Mr. Reynolds spent on learning food and things was ever going to be worth it, but it totally helped. It was nice to be able to semi communicate with the people I wanted to talk to, and I'm officially a lot freaking better at reading and comprehending French. We went to all of the usual places, the Louvre (absolutely amazing. I mean it. I could spend years in there), the Eiffle Tower, the Arc de Triumph, stuff like that. After that we went to Versailles! The palace there was absolutely amazing. :D:D I'm basically too tired to know what else to write..... I'll blog again later.

Hugs and Kisses

En

Christmas Eve

So it's Christmas Eve... I don't know what to do. Everyone is so content to be here with family and friends... yet I wish I were anywhere but here. I want my family and friends. A lot. So here is a list of things i'll miss this year... I love you all.

I miss wrapping the last of the christmas presents with my mommy
I miss sitting with friends and playing in the snow before the holiday
I miss having a big formal dinner with my family
I miss playing in the snow with my cousins
I miss reading the Best Christmas Pagent Ever
I miss singing for my family
I miss getting pj's on Christmas ever
I miss the shrimp and twice baked potatoes that my family will be eating tonight
I miss making reindeer food for my cousins
I miss sitting up at my Jan's cabin by the fire
I miss driving home in the snow
I miss christmas morning and having my sister come down at 8 to get me
I miss opening presents and eating pumpkin chocolate chip bread with the Macey's christmas day parade in the back ground
I miss Grandma and Grandpa coming over for coffee to watch us open their presents
I miss christmas brunch at kari's
I miss eating orange rolls and playing with a select few christmas presents
I miss going up to Jan's to play in the snow and building snowmen
I miss calling my britta marie to see if i can come visit
I miss walking into her house and yelling MERRY CHRISTMAS NYSTULS!
I miss relaxing with friends and eating left overs
I miss watched Scrooged with my parents
I miss New Years Eve traditions with britta
I miss Mnt Dew
I miss watching New Years Rockin Eve
I miss my Britta
I miss my Hannah
I miss my Lurpey
I miss my Brady Lee
I miss my Enano
I miss my Jebby
I miss my Besto
I miss my Michael
I miss my Randi Lynn
I miss my Ty Ty
I miss my Mommy
I miss my sister
I miss my Papa
I miss my Grandparents
I miss my Aunts, Uncles, and cousins
I miss everyone... Being alone on Christmas sucks... a lot

I'm thankful for all of you and I just want you all to know that you're in my thoughts... Best wishes and happy holidays.

Jo Crippleface

Guten TaG!

hahah sooo I'm a slacker.. I know I know! SO... let's recap. ummm Brock and I flew into the airport, went through customs, blah blah blah. lame. lol it took for freaking ever! So when we got here and pulled up to the base, it was 10 am here.. where as in utah it was 2:00 am so we were freaking jet lagged. Unfortunately the best way for us to beat jet lag is to immediately adjust our sleep cycles to match the time zone which ment figuring out how brock and i were supposed to stay up until 9 p.m. this time. it was so hard! first we had to go and get military id cards so that we could get on and off of the base.. and that took FOR FREAKING EVER! then we came back and brock and i finally got to shower! huzzah! that was really nice. after ms nancy made us pho (vietnamese food in germany.. it makes sense?) haha jake, joe and adam decided to drag us downtown to the christmas market to try and keep us up. so after walking through the freezing cold, HUMID weather, we took the train downtown and walked through the booths and stuff. it was cold, everyone was really loud, there were the cutest little things, cider, lights, wonderful smells, it was so fun! it was like fairdays times a trillion!
SO the next day we got up and drove to southern germany to this small little town.. very touristy. i loved it, we stayed in this little bed and breakfast ran by this old couple, i played the piano and what not. We went out and walked around the market and had snichtzel and stuff (its actally really really really good!) i have a new favorite food... schneeballen (it means snow ball?) its yummy you dip it in hot chocolate (schoko) and its wonderful. we went through the medieval criminal museum (brady lee i thought of you the entire time and took a million pictures!) it was pretty sweet... and so the first full day past.
We got up the next morning and drove to nuschwiensien castle (its the one that disney fashioned cinderella's castle after) it was gorgeous! we toured the lower hunting lodge before taking a horse drawn carridge up the mountain to the castle. it was amazing. everything was so decorative and elaborate, though it was freezing! after we toured the castle we drove to the next little lodge.. Hauss Lilli it was run by this tiny old bavarian woman and she fed us a lot and we just kind of ran around. lol at like 11 at night brock and i were craving chocolate so we ran down the road to the gas station and were praying that the lady there spoke english. though she did, when we got back we were locked out! we set off the bells and it was just a huge mess. lol it was so funny.. me and brock.. unsupervised in germany... hahaha
Ok so today we woke up and drove to Austria to tour a little bit! The alps are wondeful! the ski lodges were so amazing and i wanted to hit the slopes sooo bad! hahahaa i'm so jealous of how much snow utah has right now, they don't have nearly as much.. maybe a foot. lammmmee. ok so after that we drove to Dachau (duckow).. it was the first concetration camp in germany. When you get to the gate you see a sign in german and it means Free Labor... the people who were sent there were told that it was a work camp, that they were taken there to make money. after i walked in my breath was immediately taken away, not in a good way. I was staring across an empty plane, there were guard towers all around and the temperature dropped as you walked in. The entire place felt evil. It felt that it was crushing your hope and draining the life just being there... it was so hard to breath. We walked around the barracks and it was horrible........ i dont know how to describe it. The entire thing was draining. the worst part was approaching the "red building" it was horrible.... i walked toward the building and my head started hurting... when i walked across the threshold my breath caught. We first walked through the room they stored dead bodies in.... next into the room with all of the ovens...... through the gas chambers.... another body room... and finally back outside. it was horrible. everyone was shaking and white as a sheet.... you walk through the rooms and you can imagine what happened and its completely sicking.... it pulls into perspective what humanity is really capable of. reading about it and seeing the actual place was completely different.
Ok so now we're finally home... I miss you all and I can't wait to get home. Happy Christmas!!! I love you all and you're always in my thoughts. Write back!

hugs and kisses,
Erin Jo