Christmas

 

Hope you're ready for a big one.... Mostly consisting of pictures, but a lot of story time too :)

Christmas was a bit of a crazy day here in the Tensmeyer household. I wanted to be like my mom on Christmas morning so I invited the Elders over for breakfast (cinnamon rolls, eggs, bacon, the works) to be my children. After they left we opened our presents, so much fun doing that. The Tensmeyers are so awesome and gave me a sewing machine. I will post future projects of course. Becca gave  Dave and I matching running shirts and my parents gave me boots and Dave running shoes! Woot!






Then later a couple of the Elders came over to Skype. Then the sisters came over to eat dinner and Skype. Then the other Elders came over and Skyped! And I got to skype my own Elder Gifford in Denmark! We also Skyped the Tensmeyers and Giffords. It was a skyping party day. After we packed....for FRANCE!

The 26th started out in a whirlwind. Dave's alarm didn't go off when it was supposed to so we were an hour behind schedule leaving for our trip. It ended up fine and we picked up our lovely rental car and hit the road!

Liege, Belgium

 The excitement began when we hit Belgium and saw HILLS. It has been approx. six months since we've seen hills and how I love them! We were just snapping pictures left and right with excitement at seeing new places. We continued driving through Belgium and Luxemburg until we reached France! Our first night was spent in Nancy.

Excited Dave driving!

Earlier that day I started to notice I was getting an infection. I skyped my mom to ask her about it and she said to go to the doctor ASAP.
Nancy: What an adventure. The next day we decided to keep traveling until we got to a big town to find a doctor. At one of the castles my infection became worse and said I had to go to the doctor NOW or I was going to kill someone. So our search began. Thankfully we were in a rental car not a train or that would have been a nightmare. Eventually we found a GP and the system was just so interesting. So we entered the office and there was no receptionist. About 10 people were just sitting in a room. I didn't know what to do so I just sat there, following their example. Eventually the Dr. came in and whoever was there first went in with him. And then they left and the next person and then the next. After waiting about an hour it was my turn. The doctor didn't speak a whole lot of English, thankfully Dave speaks a LOT more French than I did. We were able to understand each other well enough and the doctor was so nice. Oh the doctor's room was different too. It was like a business office and we just sat in chairs on the other side of his desk. In the adjoining room he had a bed and all the 'normal' doctor stuff, so it wasn't too weird, but we never went in there, he never checked me out or anything. At the end he gave us a prescription and then we asked about paying, and he would not let us pay. Dave tried to insist but the doctor just wouldn't let us. It was the craziest thing!! Nicest guy in the world. We'll be sending him a fruit basket or something.

Street of my birthday! The French sure do love me

Future home???

Strasbourg: We woke up to a towed car. Adventure number 2! Dave took care of this one completely. The receptionist was the NICEST guy. He told Dave where he had to go, explained everything to him and then even lent him his bike! He was just a sweet heart to Dave. Really. Our trip really convinced me that the stereotype of French people is wrong. At least in the part of the country we were in. They were the most helpful and kind people. We were so blessed.

I thoroughly enjoyed driving through the Black Forest. It had to be one of my favorite parts. Part of it felt like I was back home in Utah driving the Alpine loop with Michelle. I love going on drives through the mountains, Love it!! The other part felt like we were Hansel and Gretel. It was just such a cool place.

Beginning of Black Forest

Driving through the wintry Black Forest

Awesome pavilion

Castle!!

Frankfurt!!!

My handsome dude