now it is christmas

 my momma made this for me. she carved the wood and painted and everything! wish i had a little of her in me...

we put up our tree last night and when tanner walked out of our bedroom this morning he said, "now it feels like christmas." tanner initially was being a little scroogie-like and didn't want a tree since we won't be home on christmas, so i was glad that his reaction was a good one today. thank goodness my mother in law had an extra one ;) we had fun buying a few decorations and now we get to add a few more every year.

well, we're counting down the days to thailand! we will be visiting cambodia and vietnam as well. this year has been a blessing of travels and it won't stop until february.. i think. everytime i think we're about to stay put, we go somewhere else. we have two days to be home from thailand and then we're off to canada and then vegas a couple weeks after that. it has been so much fun and we have had awesome experiences. i also can't wait to settle and start a little family :) that will be an experience in itself i am sure!

zeneggen, switzerland

is "the hills are alive, with the sound of music" song running through your head? if not, i don't know what's wrong with you ;) say hello to zeneggen, switzerland, my fantasy homeland. i may have said this about most of the places we visited while in europe, but can't you see how peaceful and perfect this place was? we arrived super early in the morning after spending two nights in train stations (not an ideal place for sleep fyi) and needless to say we were poooooped. we crashed in the cutest cottage nestled high up in the alps. we slept for a few hours then went in our backyard for a picnic lunch. and then we slept some more outside. we explored around the hills and just enjoyed ourselves and took it easy. this was the perfect pit stop for being on the constant go. we had a chance to unwind and be with mother nature. if you know me, you know i am crazy about switzerland. i don't know if i've ever been more content in my life. i have always imagined what it would be like there and even my best dreams didn't compare. and you bet i've pestered tanner ever since this magical place to move there. i would relocate in a heartbeat if the opportunity presented itself. i could just see our little kiddos running around the mountains playing with the mountain goats, like heidi. 

haha, and i'm being serious.

temple square

tanner and i went home to utah for thanksgiving. i can't get over how much i enjoyed our weekend there. usually we're there for a day or less and feel really rushed. this time, we got to take it easy and do what we wanted to. my mom put together an awesome thanksgiving spread and everything tasted perfect. i hope to one day get to her level with cooking. before dinner, we all went to the park and played basketball and threw the football around. i hadn't done that in a long time and had a lot of fun. that night we went to my cousins house and i got to catch up with relatives that i haven't seen in years. it's strange how fast time flies. on friday we did some black friday shopping.. not necessarily for the top deals, but we did find some great discounted items, including a vacuum. hallelujah! after three years of marriage we finally own a vacuum! i even got a sewing machine.. just need to re-learn how to use it :) on saturday we went to park city where i had lunch with some high school girlfriends. although we're all married and some have kids, we can always catch up from where we left off.  we will always be best friends and i will always love that. that night we met with my brothers and sister to have dinner at the spaghetti factory then went to temple square to see the lights. again, i truly enjoyed every moment. we walked over to the city creek mall and i too, like everyone else, was shocked at how incredible it is. insane! well, i wasn't planning on writing anything and now i've made this really long. and now i feel like i do when i write in my personal journal. i start to write to it like it's a person. i even tell my journal goodnight or good morning. well, goodnight blog.

berlin, germany

 i love carbs and that's all we ate on this trip

 we just HAD to get the dessert sample platter

piece of the berlin wall still standing

 the holocaust memorial

 where the berlin wall stood

the main thing that brought us to europe this past summer was the bread and butter trade show in berlin, germany. proof had a booth there so we spent four days in the city. we were happy with how the show went and hopefully (fingers crossed) they'll want to do it again. i got to watch my first real fashion show which i thought was pretty neat. and interesting.. 

berlin was an awesome city with SO MUCH FASHION! i couldn't believe how stylish nearly every person was. there were lots of great shopping areas and great places to eat.

we each took turns leaving the show so we could go explore the city and learn about the history. of course it's known for the holocaust and we got to experience a few things that tugged at my heart. it's so repulsive that it doesn't seem like it really could have happened. but it did, and of course it won't be forgotten. it was crazy to learn that the berlin wall was literally built over night. families were split, lovers were seperated, and there was nothing they could do about it. the wall was built based on your area code so your neighbor across the street could all of a sudden be living on the other side of a wall. it was nearly impossible to get through or over as well. i'm grateful i got to experience this part of europe and really feel for what these people went through. there is still a ton of construction and building of the city since those awful times. if anyone ever goes through europe, make berlin a priority because it's a true eye opener.

prague, czech republic

prague was an unexpected delight. 

we only had a day to spend there and if we would have done our research, i'm sure we would've stayed a day or ten more. i have nothing but good memories of prague. it was the neatest mid-evil city that had so much history and architecture. no one really knew what it had to offer so we had no expectations, which may have been why we all loved it. the girls spent the morning eating the best french toast we've ever had while the boys had a meeting with some potential proof distributors. afterward we took a tour around the city and learned a lot about it. we were bummed we didn't have time to try more food there, but hopefully we'll go back one day ;)

aw prague, i love you.