Wisconsin Christmas
I flew to Wisconsin this year for Christmas and was able to spend time with lots of lovely people for the holidays. I traveled all day on Christmas Eve which ended up being one of the worst travel days I've ever had (first I missed my flight and then the car rental place overbooked and gave my reservation away...) but in the end, it all worked out.Adam celebrated Christmas with his parents and then flew out to Wisconsin a few days later, so sadly he missed out on seeing a lot of my friends. It's always hard taking time off to go home, mainly because everyone has to go back to work a few days after Christmas, so I'm not able to make plans with anyone until after 5pm or so when they're out of work. I also don't have many friends who still live in Racine (where I'm from), so Adam and I did a lot of driving this trip (to Milwaukee and Chicago) to make sure we could see everyone. There were still quite a few people we missed, but hopefully we'll be back soon!
My grandma got these amazing Packers shoes from my aunt. She's a big fan and wanted to put them on immediately. Haha, they're so great!
My aunt Kathy is a Cubs fan (and a Bears fan... Booooo!) so my parents got her this flag for the World Series win. She was pretty excited about it!
The day after Christmas, I went to Wauwatosa for "Brunchmas" with my friends. I've been friends with these guys forever, some of them since preschool. We've stayed close over the years and I'm so grateful to still have them in my life, even after how many times I've left Wisconsin.
Kyle and Ashley had a baby this year, so this was my first time meeting little Leo. He is just the cutest and I'm so in love!
A "Breathe Right" strip did Eric in. Something like this would only happen to Eric... I miss this guy so much.
We played "Telestrations" which is my new favorite game. It's basically telephone pictionary. Have you heard of it? It had us laughing for hours.
My friend Shaun works at Google and always seems to have all of the latest tech toys. He was showing us some awesome VR games. I had no idea what was going on around me while playing one of them...
On our way in from picking Adam up at the airport, we saw advertisements for McDonald's showing cheese curds and brats. We were pretty curious about it, so we stopped by the one in town and tried the cheese curds. They weren't amazing, but I thought it was cool McDonald's offered them. The curds down below are legit Wisconsin cheese curds. We got them at a bar in Racine which is where you can usually find the tastiest ones.
Adam got my dad a Packers blanket, but wrapped inside was a framed photo of Richard Sherman, my dad's least favorite Seahawks player, haha. Adam is a Seahawks fan, so my family likes to give him a hard time when they play the Packers. This was his revenge - my dad approved.
We brought my little brother to Noodles & Company which is a tradition for us. Noodles was a place I frequented often when I live in the Midwest, but sadly they're hard to find on this side of the country.
I only cried a little bit when we said goodbye... I tried hard not to, but I can't help it. Living far away is always hard, and something I feel guilty about often. But being able to come home once or twice a year is nice and makes each second spent with loved ones that much sweeter. Until next time, Wisconsin. Thanks for the memories. xo