I'm back in Brillion again; Kelli and I returned on Sunday. However, one of the Christmas gifts I received this year was an all-access subscription to Ancestry.com. As a result, I've been distracted by intensive family genealogy for the past couple days, and thus my return to blogging has been delayed a bit.

But I'm coming up for air. Time to get the blog moving again.

My Christmas break was good. Enjoyable. And a nice break from the ordinary. Kelli and I drove three hours southwest to Tomah to spend the Holidays with her family. It's a new thing for me to be part of an extended family that celebrates more than one Christmas get-together. In my family, we went to Church on Christmas Day, and then came home to open the presents under the tree. On Kelli's side of the family, there's a "mom's side" Christmas out at the family farm. There's a "dad's side" Christmas at the grandmother's house. And there's a gathering of just the immediate family at Kelli's married sister's house. That's three Christmas'! Busy, but fun!

Oh, yes, and then there's the traditional New Years Eve Day dinner. Kelli's dad is a Navy veteran, and his shipboard job was in the galley (aka, cook). So, every New Year's Eve, the last meal of the year is a special one. Kelli's dad cooks up a few lobsters, steaks, shrimp, mashed potatoes, vegetables, etc, serves some of his homemade wine, and we celebrate the close of another year.

Great food, family, loved ones. What better way to end a year!

There was one snags this year, though. Kelli was sick on Christmas Day, and unable to join me and the rest of the family out at the farm ("mom's side" Christmas). She stayed home -- in bed. As it turns out, her strep throat meds weren't agreeing with her, and it wasn't a strong case of the flu, as originally assumed. But, nonetheless, she had to miss Christmas. That pissed her off something fierce, but it was for the best. She was able to join us for the third and final gathering, though, as well as the New Year's celebration.

It was fun too, hanging out with our two little nephews. Christian is five years old; Alex is younger -- just starting to run around. Those two kids crack me up. At that age, everything is fascinating, be it the building blocks we gave Alex for Christmas, the LEGO Christian had me build (while insisting I follow the directions to the letter!), or the silly reactions both had to the gift opening. Christmas is always fun when seen through the eyes of a child!

All-in-all, it was a great Holiday break spent with family.

Now that I'm home again, and 2011 has sprung, it's time to get back to business as usual. There are more t-shirts to design, new projects to complete, and, thanks to my brother, plenty of family history to discover. It should be a good year. And hopefully, one as enjoyable as this year past.

Here's hoping all of you had a great break as well. Have a wonderful Thursday. Stay warm if you're near snow; dry if you're near rain. And until next time,

Your happily blogging friend,
-Jon
posted by Jon at 2:02 AM  I   I  0 comments