My parents awesome Christmas tree. We have the best tradition where we get a new ornament every year that symbolizes something we did that year. Mine was the Eiffel Tower and Kit's was a pair of running shoes for the 1/2 marathon. It is one of my favorite tradition looking for my new ornament.
Our sweet dog Bosky
He loved his Christmas present
My brother opening up his beer making kit. Doesn't he look great in his suit.
(he just got out of work)
Kit opening up his present.
The weather was so mild that we went for a lot of hikes while we were home.
My dad and mom
Us and Bosky
Christmas at Kit's Aunts house. We always have a sing along. So much fun!
Kit's cousin's baby Jolene, she is so cute and so sweet!
Kit's Aunt and Uncle live outside of Madison WI, so on the 26th we explored some of our old stomping grounds ( we lived there for over a year).
The Capital Building
Every year they put a huge Christmas tree in the capital building and decorate it with ornaments students made in Wisconsin schools.
the Elams
Madison is built on a isthmus which is a piece of land in between to bodies of water. There are two huge lakes in Madison, Lake Mendota and Lake Monona.
Kit and and his brother Cody in front of Lake Mendota outside of the University of Wisconsin Campus
Wisconsin elected a bad governor and many people are trying to get him thrown out of office. There have been a lot of protests over this past year on decision he has made: banning unions, cutting teaching jobs, and a lot more.
It was nice to see some people protesting in the Capital building while we were there.
Wisconsin also went to a Conceal and Carry state, where you can carry your gun on you at all times. However many restaurants don't allow guns in there, this is a sign from one we ate at.
Kit's cousin Jordan with his with Patricia and their daughter Jolene
After being up North we drove down to Southern Illinois to stay with Kit's parents. Kit's parents live in Carbondale where I went to Undergrad and Kit got his PHD from Southern Illinois University. It was so nice to be back in the town we lived in for many years and to see so many friends and family. It was also nice to just spend some good quality time with Kit's family.
My grandma, aunt/uncles and alot of cousins live in Southern Illinois, so we went to my Grandmas for a dinner one day. My cousin Ashley(who lives in Chicago) and her parents came down for a visit also. It was so nice to see her and my cousin Sara, who I am very close with. Sara is three weeks older than me and Ashley is two years younger than us. They are like my sisters.
Ashley's daughter Addelyn in her Christmas Tutu
Ashley's son Grayden and Sara's son Dash
Sara's daughter Charlie
It was such a great visit, I missed my family so much these past two years we have been away.
While in Carbondale we went to some of our local bars we frequented when we lived there.
Kits brother ran into three guys where similar clothing at local dive bar PKs.
Kit and Cody had an arm wrestling competition, I ruled it a tie.
A couple nights spent at the Cellar with friends playing shuffle board
Eddie
We spent some time walking around campus lake
Hanging out with our fat cat Marcello
and going on some amazing hikes.
So. Illinois is so beautiful
our friend Jake drove up to Carbondale to spend the day hiking with us
We drank some yummy wine at the local wineries and saw some beautiful sunsets.
We also ate some great Wisconsin Cheese curds
On New Years Eve we went to a concert with Kit's parents. We saw two bands that are local to Carbondale and amazing. They play blue grass, rock-a-billy, honky tonk music and we had a great evening.
The Whistle Pigs
The Swamp Tigers
On the 1st of Jan. we headed back up to Northern Illinois to stay with my parents the rest of the time. We saw more friends and I forgot to take pictures of our time there. We had and amazing time there, eating yummy home cooked meals, shopping, going for walks, watching football, seeing friends, and just spending some good quality time with my parents and brother.
We also drove back up to Madison to see some friends we haven't seen in over 4 years. As usual I forgot to take pictures, but it was a great visit.
another amazing sunset we saw outside of Madison
In Madison they have these line of trees lit up with Christmas lights every year. So stopped to take pictures by it again, (it is a bit of a tradition if we there near Christmas)
One last picture of me and my parents right before we left to go back to the UK. Our flight was delayed so we were at the airport 3 hours early for our flight. My parents stayed and we had some drinks at a bar in the airport before we left. We all had a great time and it was an amazing end to an amazing trip!
Thank you to all of the friends and family we saw while at home, we appreciate the time we got to spend with you even if it was just a couple hours here and there.
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