I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

Most of you know, but Taylor and I spent our first Christmas together in Innsbruck, Austria. Taylor did quite a bit of research into the area and looked up ski slopes and things to do in the city, but really when it comes down to it, there's only so much research you can do and then you jump in blind and hope for the best! ITT (Information, Tickets, and Travel) on base helped us book a hotel, I bought a map, we plugged the address into the GPS, and off we went!

Our main goal was to do some skiing and a little bit of sight seeing. We headed out on the 23rd and began the drive north to Austria. There isn't an interstate (autostrada/autobahn) that goes directly to Innsbruck from our area so we were on smaller roads the whole journey north until about 30 minutes outside the city. This made for a GORGEOUS drive through the Italian Alps and into the Austrian Alps. We drove through the Italian town of Cortina which held the Olympics in 1956. We drove right past the Olympic ski jump. As you're driving up the mountain there are ski lifts going over the roads, gondolas going up the mountain, and we literally drove through the parking lot of a ski slope as we were on the road. There was a TON of snow and it made for a beautiful drive.

The GPS calculated, four hour drive turned into a 5 hour drive due to small 1-2 lane, snow covered roads through the mountains. The drive home proved to be a bit longer due to even MORE snow, a lack of windshield wiper fluid, closed gas stations, and a few wrong turns...but hey...that's travel, right?

Anyway, on to the trip, we were very impressed with Innsbruck. It was such a neat city with gorgeous views, beautiful buildings, and Christmas decorated streets! My pictures are a bit out of order, as usual, but here goes.

Pictures of the city with the Alps in the background...

This is in the streets, you can see all the little booths set up. This was the Christkindl Markt 2009. The booths were all lit up and sold little trinkets, food, wine, spiced drinks, etc. If you click on the picture to enlarge it you will notice the buildings are exquisitely painted with all kinds of designs, they were beautiful!!

Another picture of the city...

This is in the square of the city. They had the big Christmas tree lit up (there are pictures below of this). And those are the Alps in the background with the clouds starting to overtake them...the sky was so bright and vivid against the white of the snow. If you notice the balcony behind the tree...it has a golden roof. It is one of the most famous sights in Innsbruck. It was built in the 1500s by Archduke Friedrich IV for his emperor to sit on and watch his subordinates below in the square. When we got there the night of the 23rd the balcony had a brass group playing Christmas carols...it was beautiful!

This is at the top of the mountain at the Axamer Lizum resort we went to on the 24th. http://www.axamer-lizum.at/winter/index.htm The views were BEAUTIFUL!!! The slopes were tough...it was no North Carolina, Sugar Mountain that's for sure!!! The blue (easiest) slopes were tough for me!!! Taylor is a better skiier than me and he handled them a lot better, but they wore him out as well! Our first day, they closed the tram up the mountain at Axamer Lizum because of high winds at the top of the mountain, so we had to wait for about 2 hours in the morning before they opened back up. Luckily they did open up and we got to ski the rest of the afternoon. We weren't overly impressed with the skiing at those slopes, it just wasn't quite what we expected for skiing in the Alps. The runs were very long, but there weren't a lot of options, the place just wasn't that big. There were a lot of runs closed because of the winds, but it still felt small! All of the following mountain pictures were taken from Axamer Lizum because the day was beautiful and the views were perfect.

This got stuck in there out of order...I attempted to get a few pictures of us together. When we're traveling with just the two of us, it's tough to get pictures. Taylor doesn't like to ask people to take pictures. For one, he doesn't like to interrupt. And for two, he doesn't like handing over his fancy camera to a stranger (understandable).

And back to the slopes. Funny story here. This picture is from Christmas afternoon, about 4:15 or so. On Christmas day we went to a different slope, Stubaital Gletscher ( http://www.stubaier-gletscher.com/en/winter/ ). We loved these slopes and they were more how we pictured "skiing in the Alps". The only down side was the lack of visibility! It snowed ALL day long and the mountain was so high it was in a cloud and it was SO SO difficult to see. You literally could hardly see in front of you, and it was so tough to see where the snow was piled up, where there were bumps, etc which was made it very difficult. But we really liked the place and it was a good size. When we arrived there in the morning, there was no snow in the parking lot, it was raining there when pulled up. Once we took the gondola up the mountain the rain had turned to snow. It did not even occur to us that it might start snowing at the bottom of the mountain. So when we arrived at our car we had QUITE a surprise!

It had snowed about a foot and a half while we were skiing that day. It was GREAT for skiing up on the mountain, but my poor Accord...she's just not used to this crazy weather! I was digging out a path in the snow to make it out of the parking lot. We had wheels spinning, we were pushing the car, and digging out the wheels, but we finally made it out of the parking lot. It was looking like it could be a long Christmas night!

This is back from the 24th and Axamer...proof that we were both there...and together :)

How GORGEOUS. It just takes my breath away.

Taylor calls me corny for pointing out things like this, but I swear when we were up on the mountain there was a hut there playing music and at one point it was playing Amazing Grace. How crazy? We are up on top of the Alps and hearing Amazing Grace being played...is this for real!?!?! I mean at other times the hut was playing Boyz 2 Men and Seal's "Kissed By a Rose"...but still :)

This was at the Christkindl Markt. We stopped at one of the booths so I could try some of the hot cider. Well it wasn't actually hot cider, I'm not sure what the name was, but it was red wine, orange juice, rum, and spices...delicious!

One of the bell towers lit up at night.

We found Santa shopping on the 23rd. This was on the streets in Innsbruck.

The alleys/streets all decorated for Christmas. They all had lights hung and Christmas trees all over. It was like a Christmas village!!

Here is the tree lit up with the Golden Roof lit up as well. Beautiful :)

This is the Triumphal Arch that was located directly in front of our hotel. Our hotel was on the right, just before the arch. Here is a bit of history on the arch, I looked it up online.

The south end of Innsbruck´s main artery, Maria-Theresien Street, is spanned by a Triumphal Arch, modeled after those in Rome. Empress Maria Theresa ordered it built in 1765 with a twofold purpose: To honor the marriage of her son, the Duke of Tuscany, later Emperor Leopold II, to Maria Ludovica from Spain, and to mourn the death of her beloved husband, Francis I Stephen of Lothringen, who died during the celebrations. The marble friezes were created by Balthasar Moll in 1744. One side of the Arch symbolizes the joyful aspect of the event, the other side the sadness.

Anyway...I'm not sure how to get my margins back to normal or the colors apparently. Look, I try to be all fancy and do a "block quote" and I screw up all the formatting!! Oh well, but the arch was just another beautiful aspect of this cool city. Needless to say we were very impressed with the city and it was a great way to spend Christmas. It actually hardly felt like Christmas because we were skiing all day. It helped staying busy all day because I wasn't sitting at home sad I wasn't with family! I did bring our new Night Before Christmas book that my parents sent us to read on Christmas Eve. It is a long standing tradition in my family for my dad to read The Night Before Christmas to us before we go to bed on Christmas Eve. So Taylor read it to me in the hotel on Christmas Eve. He's going to kill me for posting this...but I was very happy to have a little sense of home :)

Anyway, besides a few bruises on my legs we both survived our trip! Today has been a hugely lazy day...in fact it's almost 10pm and I never even changed out of my pajamas...that's my kind of day!!! Taylor has one more day off and then he goes into crazy work mode over New Years. He had Christmas off, so he'll be working a week straight over New Years.

It takes awhile to upload pictures to the blog and if I add too many it would make the post EVEN longer than it already is, but I made an album on Facebook from the trip where I picked out the highlights...I am posting a link to the album. You don't have to have a Facebook account to view the pictures, you should just be able to click on it and see the album. So if you choose, ENJOY! There are a few of our drive home and of the Olympic ski jump as well as a few others from the trip!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2403781&id=9402569&l=fc848766bc

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Hanukkah (that's for you Jason!!) And have a safe New Years!

Buon Natale!

We had the squadron Christmas party on Saturday night at the Officer's Club on base. I found out about the party on Thursday when Monique (one of the other wives) mentioned something about it. So when I asked Taylor what I should wear, he said he was told that people wear everything from jeans to prom dresses! And he was right. There were FOR SURE some prom dresses and straight up high school prom hair as well...and there were some guys in jeans! I wore a pair of red pants and a sweater and I was definitely underdressed for a girl...but I know for next year...a cocktail dress would be more appropriate! Oh well, it was a fun party, but the really fun party started AFTER the one on base.

The officers in the squadron went over to Monique's house for a poker/dance/stay up all night party! We were missing a few people though, Taylor had to work on Sunday at 4:30am so he went home to bed after the official party, Bill's wife, Anne, is back in the States for Christmas because they are PCSing in a few days, Jenni's husband, Mike, was home with a sick baby, and Monique's husband Brett is deployed.

Monique is quite the trooper, she just had her first little boy the weekend we arrived in Italy, so he is now about 2 months old and her husband deployed the week after Thanksgiving for 6 months and she's staying here sticking it out! Without a job and with a 2 month old, I think I'd for sure be home! I'm such a wimp! But she had a friend watching her son on Saturday night so we had a crazy night at her house!

Chris Porta and Monique. Chris's wife, Sharity, works at the Youth Center where I will be working...eventually when all my paperwork finally goes through!

Jessica (Monique's friend from California who is visiting for Christmas), Sharity (who works at the Youth Center), Jenni, and Chris.

Jenni Piernick and I! Jenni and her husband Mike were our sponsors when we arrived in Italy. They were a HUGE support to us and we were so lucky to have them as our sponsors!

Joe and Monique...up on the coffee table singing into microphones and remotes that were not plugged in, thankfully!

And the whole night was ALL caught on video...we stayed up until about 8am...yeah, haven't done that since college!! Definitely needed a nap the next day!

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And can I also say that we played a game of Texas Hold Em, but I opted out because I didn't know how to play. Then while Chris was up getting a drink he asked me to play his hand...I warned him that I didn't know what I was doing, but a few drinks gave him a lot of confidence in my lack of skills. So I played his hand and ended up with a Royal Flush...I wasn't sure what I had, but I thought it was pretty good. Without seeing my cards he said keep betting, keep betting, and I wasn't sure, but I agreed...and obviously as I learned later a Royal Flush is the top hand you can have in poker, and I won him about 50 bucks. So he gave me part of his pot and in the end I won $21!!! Pretty good for never playing before, it probably helped that my competition all had lots of drinks!! But I'll take it!

Our basement that is slowly coming together. We finally bought the couch and TV for downstairs. Much of our Christmas from family consisted of funds to help buy needed things around the house, we got things such as, the couch, tv, shelves, tv stand, a grill, and a rug...so a very big thank you for helping us put our home together... here is how it is shaping up. Please disregard the lack of decorations done...like the lamp without a shade...it's still in progress!

A close up :)

The couch...it looks different in pictures than in person...I think it looks nicer in person, but I guess you'll have to visit yourself to confirm that one :) Visitors...come one, come all!!!

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And below...some of you UT fans will recognize this!

...the coveted Sports Illustrated cover poster. The cover of SI College Edition in 2004 that named the Best College Football Weekends. And that's right my friends, the best college weekend goes to THE University of Tennessee. In the words of Papa (my grandpa) "Who don't know that?!?!" Only the greatest school in history, I love it, I miss it.

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This poster has a little story behind it. While we were in school we got a weekly edition of Sports Illustrated College Edition in our school paper and in 2004 SI named Tennessee as best college football weekend. Well I was working at our gym on campus at the time and the TRECS received a few copies of poster sized covers. They hung two in the gym and they were immediately stolen. There were about 3 other copies and somehow it came up when I was talking to my boss one time and I mentioned how much I LOVED the posters and how it would be so cool to have one. Well that day ended up being crazy with incidents and a TON of stuff going on at the gym and we were there extra late and as we were closing my boss came down and gave a copy of the poster to me and the other building manager working that day and thanked us for our hard work.

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I proudly hung that poster in our apartment all through college and I can't tell you how many offers I got to pay me for the poster! But I stood strong and refused to part with it. I believe Taylor offered me money for it in college too...needless to say, he paid the biggest price, as he'd tell you, he married me for that poster!!! I guess he wins since he offered the most!

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While Taylor was in Korea he mentioned that poster and said I should really get it framed, I said I would look for it and agreed to frame it. My mom and I took the poster to be framed (it had to be custom framed because it's a funny size) and my mom said she and dad would do it for Taylor's Christmas. (Was that grammar right, I can't ever remember. Mom?) Anyway, as she smartly pointed out, it's going to be hanging in my house for the rest of my life, so it should at least look nice! I decided it would be more fun to be a surprise, so a few days later I told Taylor that I couldn't find the poster anywhere, I had been looking all over. He couldn't believe I could lose something like that and that I should probably look harder because it HAD to be in the house somewhere. I said it was probably somewhere with my diplomas which I can't find either (and that's the truth...still haven't found those)...so he was VERY disappointed.

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Well I got the framed picture in with the shipment to Italy and it has been sitting in a box in our storage room since we moved into the house in November. He has brought up the picture a few times since we've been here mentioning how it would look great in the basement, and I really should have looked harder at home before I left. So it was a fun surprise when I brought the picture upstairs for him for Christmas...he was very happy to have the poster and know it was not lost after all. He said where did you keep it all this time?? I said, it was sitting in a box in the corner of the store room...he said what if I had looked down there...I said I knew there was no way you would open a box down there unless I forced you. And I was right. All the boxes left down there now are full of his junk he doesn't know what to do with, but we don't really need!

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Anyway, there you have it...

He resembles the poster, right? And please take note of his signed Peyton picture just to the right of his face...he was in between Tennessee greatness right there :)

Well, we celebrated our Christmas together tonight and opened all of our presents. We are so very blessed and lucky to have such great families who love and support us. We had a wonderful Christmas and are very thankful for our families who helped bring Christmas across the big pond to us and made it feel a little more like home. We are heading off tomorrow to Austria for our ski trip...I'll report back soon. Now it's off to bed so I can navigate tomorrow while Taylor drives...I'm going to be the GPS's helper :) And I bought a map for a back up! We're set!

Buon Natale!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

I woke up this morning to this beautiful and unexpected sight!

Above is our front yard and below is our street!

The AFN weather squadron does not do the greatest with predicting the weather...had no idea it was even supposed to snow today!! I had a few things on my list to do...looks like they won't get done! I started baking cookies yesterday...the dough is chilling in the fridge and I need some Andes mints to bake them. So my Christmas cookies are on hold til I can make it to base to buy them. Normally I would be excited about having dough chilling in the fridge...but I don't even like this dough until it's baked...what a bummer.

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I was also planning to find the Volvo dealership today to take a look at a car Taylor and I are interested in. Well, by interested in, I mean we're hopefully going to order on Monday. We have been looking at a few cars lately and Taylor has been doing countless hours of research on cars and I think we've made a decision. We are pretty set on the Volvo XC60 it is a brand new Crossover SUV, just a little smaller than their XC90, their regular SUV. We're trying to take a look at interiors and deciding between black or beige leather and what color to do the radio/control panels...silver or dark wood. The dark wood is $300 more so we're trying to go for the silver as long as it looks decent. We are buying it through military sales, but they only have one XC60 available to test drive and look at...so I was going to try to find a Volvo dealership to see if they had other XC60s with different interiors...to see how they look. The way it works is you pretty much custom order the car, so we get to pick all the colors and things we want. So hopefully if we go through with it on Monday, then we'll have the car around March. Exciting times here!

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We also finally got a couch and tv for downstairs...next we're looking for a coffee table and hopefully an end table or two! I'm working on getting the downstairs set up...or rather...helping Taylor set it up :) He's already hung a few pictures and set up his UT helmet and sacred signed Peyton Manning picture. When he was putting them up on the shelf downstairs, I pulled a couple orange colored books to add to the shelf. He was baffled as to why I would put those books there, I said, "because they're orange and they go with the stuff up there..." he said, "but they're not UT books!?!?" So he dug through his boxes to find his UT books to go on Peyton's shelf! I was attempting to use a little technique that my mom taught me to help bookshelves not look so cluttered. She said if you arrange the books by color and put other things that are of similar color together then it looks more organized. So that's what I was trying to do :) But I guess I was disgracing Peyton...don't worry, he is now surrounded with Tennessee books. I'm not sure how much decorating advice I'll be able to give, but I did move around the furniture down there yesterday, Taylor has yet to see it...but I'm sure after reading the blog he'll be looking!

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And finally, over Christmas Taylor and I are taking our first ski trip over here. Actually this will be our first ski trip together since high school youth group! We first started "liking each other" on our ski trip to North Carolina in February of 1998! And we first started dating on our ski trip in 1999...just the other day! So this will be fun...we are going to Innsbruck, Austria from December 23rd through the 26th. It's just Taylor and I, so we're celebrating our first Christmas together on the slopes! Since we have no family here, we thought we should take a trip instead! I'll post lots of pictures and let you know how it goes! We are driving...so that in itself will be an adventure...we inevitably take a few wrong turns everytime we rely on our GPS...but hopefully the predicted 4 hour 17 minute drive proves to be true!

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Anyway, hope everyone is enjoying the last few days before Christmas...some getting snow, I've heard about on the news...blizzard coming to the East Coast, residents snowed in and haven't finished their Christmas shopping, flights might be delayed...as always, nothing but cheery Christmas news :)

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Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

IKEA and House Pictures

We went shopping to IKEA yesterday. Taylor and I. Together. Taylor and I can hardly go grocery shopping together without arguing, let alone IKEA! We've discovered if we happen to go to the commisary together, a list is absolutely necessary to keep us speaking through the whole trip!

Our problem is we have very different shopping styles, Taylor says, you go in, get what you need and get out. Where as, I go in, get what I need, but as I'm walking up and down the aisles I see other things that I could use for meals, in the house (where ever I might be) that I didn't think of when I made my list!

So I made a wish list for IKEA...but I'm not sure if you've ever been there, the store is like a small city! You can hardly walk through the whole thing in less than an hour...let alone have to look at the items! So clearly Taylor's philosophy of walk in get what you need and get out, didn't pan out to well. He couldn't understand why I would need to look through all the areas to see what was available...you never know what you can use in different places in the house! I have been taught by my mom and Mama...with a little spray paint, or wood stain you can do wonders. So I'm always looking for options.

But finally after 2 1/2 hours in IKEA we decided on 2 shelves for downstairs and a matching tv stand. Luckily all of the items fit in my little Accord...that car can hold a lot thanks to the seats that fold down and opens up to the trunk! I have plans to go back down and add a few more things...but it's an hour + trip, so it will have to be another time.

And Taylor quickly found out why things are so cheap at IKEA after he put in 5-6 hours of labor putting the three pieces of furniture together! But he did it and they are up and running!

And I have included some pictures of the house that people have been asking for! I kept trying to wait until we got pictures hung, and I finally got some done today while Taylor was putting the shelves together! So, here we go...


The living room...

into the kitchen...

Other side of the living room...with the front door behind the chair. The steps to go upstairs are to the right of the door.

That door goes down to the basement and garage.

Our kitchen table, with the pretty poinsettia Monique and Brett brought us :)

Our cupboard and kitchen. I need some Christmas decorations for the top of the cupboard, I have greenery up there, but nothing to go in it!

Our 3rd bedroom that we turned into our closet.

The lovely wardrobes...

My bathroom :)

Our bedroom...I'm thinking it would look good green...but another project for another day!

The doors out to the balcony in our room.

Our sad guest bedroom...it needs a little work, a few pictures, and some visitors!

And here is our messy basement that is not put together yet, but it's getting there. Those are the shelves we bought at IKEA yesterday. We're still waiting on a couch and TV for down there.

And the back half of the basement with the desk and wardrobe...

So there you have it...there is the Reynold's house Via Toronto, San Quirino!

Ciao, ciao.

Misfit Toys and a Holiday Greeting

We got our (live) Christmas tree put up and decorated...hoooray! And I am very thankful because my grandma (Mama) passed down all kinds of Christmas decorations that she doesn't use anymore since she has downsized to her condo on Siesta Key. So I put up her greenery and decorations and she even gave me a whole Rubbermaid container of ornaments that she isn't using. Well Taylor and I both grew up with Christmas trees full of mismatched and homemade ornaments...you know...the kind of tree that gets hidden in the den while the pretty one is on display in the front window! So I was very thankful to have Mama's ornaments to put on a tree because Taylor and I currently have 5 of our own...and that would be a pretty sad tree!

So as I'm going through all the ornaments, I couldn't help but laugh at a few that she left behind and didn't take with her to use on her new, smaller tree at the condo. In fact, the description that comes to mind is the Misfit Toys from the 1964 (yes, I had to look that date up) claymation Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer movie! See below, remember??


I really got a kick out of a few of these and I thought you might too!! Mom, Aunt Janet, Aunt Joyce I would assume you would have to remember a few of these because it looks like they could have come from your time at home!! Mama, you know I'm very thankful for all the decorations...but these didn't make the cut for your tree, and a few of them didn't make ours either :)

Crazy clown missing one shoe, shaggy bearded elf in pink pajamas, and a girl with blue eye shadow sitting cross legged on a styrofoam mushroom...

Are they cupcakes or a creepy clown and an overgrown Santa?

An elf/gnome man with a creepy painted face!

Oh wait...there's MORE!!

A sparkle covered yellow bear, a red plaid foam bird, and a fluff ball that looks like it might be some kind of soldier or nutcracker...

All the sad ornaments going to the Island of Misfit Toys. Mama if there is anything in there of great sentimental value to you, tell me now and I'll save it!

Anyway, on to our beautiful, first Christmas tree :)

My little Accord didn't know what to think with that big tree on the roof...not to mention the Boy Scouts tied it on with a strand of kite string! I drove home from base going 30mph with my hazards on!! But I made it!

Aside from all the joking about a few of the ornaments...I love all the others Mama gave us to make it a family tree full of love, and I'm very grateful to have them!! And notice the tree skirt, it's just like the one my parents have at home, that makes me really happy...it's the small things!

And here we are in front of our first Christmas tree! I got all dressed up for the occasion!

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I had big plans of sending out a Christmas card this year with a cute Italian picture, but by the time I had it together enough to get started on it, they wouldn't make it out in time. I have to order them online and have them sent to me and then I'd still have to mail them out. I wasn't going to do a letter because after updating a blog a few times a week, a letter would be very repetitive...there's not much more I could even tell you...I tell all (well, most) on here! So anyway, in place of a card...I'm giving you this:
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My family discovered this a few years ago and I thought it was hysterical...they have now come out with new and improved versions...this one really made me laugh... (give it a minute to load...the red and white candy stripes might take 30 seconds or so)

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http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/RsbbML5chPlESsd3EdWG

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But this one is probably more our style!!

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http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/Ru0m85cgZj1XgnOwsNf5

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of our family and friends!!
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Buon Natale!