Hey it's good to be back home again...

(cookies Suzanne made...)
...Sometimes this old farm feels like a long lost friend, yes, and hey, it's good to be back home again...(John Denver)

I cannot BELIEVE how good it is to be home again! I was content and thankful and totally loved my time in Salem, and am super thankful I got to meet little Achilles. Being overjoyed at being home can't take away from the good time I had there.

But. I am home.

Jonathan and I had a good trip home.

Chicago airport...
We hadn't eaten much on Friday, me because I didn't want to eat the pizza (I had some chicken wings), so we thought we would have some dinner at the airport before the long trip home. Well, that didn't work out. The concourse our gate was at didn't have anything but a pricey sit down restaurant, and a bar. There was a little store that had four dollar bags of chips, so we just split a Quest bar and had some water. I gave Jon my snacks on the plane, I do not eat Stroopwafel nor pretzels. So Saturday morning, we got home...and I left again, after a nice hot shower and hugs from my little girls, Paul and the dogs. I went to a Christmas gathering at my aunt's house.

My aunt is one of three surviving siblings of my dad. There were 12 children in the family. Now my Aunt Barb is 77 years old, and neither of the two other siblings is close by. So she gets lonely. It wasn't a convenient time to get together, but I had committed to going, I wanted to.

Bob, Casey, Cheryl, me, and Tom. My brother Joe didn't show up, and Billy passed away. With my parents gone now, it's more rare for us to get together, and it was nice to see them all.

Then in the evening, Paul and I went over to our friends' place for a couples' gathering. It was hard to leave here, because Margaret and little Wulf came over, then Abigail and Mirielle, and Evelyn was here, as well as of course Charlotte Claire and Camille. Margaret made a whole dinner and brought it, pulled pineapple chicken, and all the fixings for burritos/wraps.

The girls were still here when we got home, which was nice.




Baby spam! Love this new little guy!


...and then there's Wulf with his "goggles". That's what he calls glasses. It's way too cute.

I made cookie dough today for cut out sugar cookies that I have no intention of eating, ha. I love making them though. I have stacks of presents to sort and wrap, and more shopping to do, and and and. What a wonderful time of the year!