Christmas Travels!

Hello again all! I've talked to a lot of you that read my blog (ok, maybe just a few of you), and you expressed your enjoyment at reading my blogs and keeping up on how I'm doing. So one of my new year resolutions (other than getting back down to 200 lbs) is to be a bit more consistant with my blogging. So I thought I would start by telling you about my trip home for Christmas! To begin any travelling story during the winter months (especially near the holiday), I was delayed a whole lot on my trip home. Supposed to end up in Milwaukee at 1730 on Friday (that 5:30 pm for those non-military types), but ended up getting into Chicago (O'Hare) at 0200 on Saturday. Luckily for me, my parents and brother were nice enough to come pick me up. And surprising enough, O'Hare airport was a parking lot at that time in the morning...the cars were literally at a standstill getting into the airport. Nuts! But finally I made it home and headed to bed around 2 in the morning, only to be woken up by my most adorable niece at about 7. She was so cute....up until the point she realized that I wasn't her daddy. Then for the rest of the week I think she was a bit frightened of me :-(

(and I just have to throw in this picture of her because she is so cute!) Later that day we headed off to my Aunt's house for our famed "Hohs Family Christmas." It was quite the blast. All of my aunts and uncles on my mom's side of the family got together, along with all my cousins. (And I actually think they were all there!) It was a ton of fun because I got to reconnect with a bunch of my cousins and to talk catch up with my aunts and uncles, and then, of course, it is always awesome to see my grandparents again. After the party ended, we went back to my sister's house to pack up, and then Mike and I headed down to my parent's house to spend the night there. We did that, because on Sunday, we went downtown to Soldier Field to watch the Bears kick the Packers' ASS!! WOOHOO!!! BEST GAME EVER!!! Although I do have to admit, it was rediculously cold that day, with the blowing snow and all. Brrrrr. The rest of the week almost turned into a blur after that. Although there are some things I do remember. I got to see my dad on Monday night when he came to my sister's for X-Mas Eve dinner with Mike's family. Then X-mas morning my parents showed up and we got to open presents with the family there. It was so much fun watching Jessica open her presents. She was so distracted by all the new toys that she didn't know what to do :-) (oh, and did I mention she is SOOO spoiled, hehehe). Christmas night we ended up going to my Step-Grandma's house for dinner, and met up with the Kent's. As always, it was great to see them again too. Oh, and since I know you'll probably be reading this Bonnie...tell Art he got me hooked on Nintedo DS. I ended up getting one before the week ended and I still can't put it down! Friday we finally got some snow, but it still wasn't enough to go boarding. So it turned out I brought my board for no reason. Oh well. Hopefully one of these days though, Mike will be able to come out to visit and I can bring him up to the mountain and teach him how to board. Then on Saturday, we had a farewell dinner where a bunch of friends came over. Including the newly engaged Mike and Jess....I'm so happy for them! I know they will have an amazing life together for a long long time. B & K were also there with Sean, which was really nice. Definately fun to watch Sean and Jessica interact. That was pretty much the end of it. I ended up flying home the following day, getting back to my house (again) at 2 in the morning. If there is one thing I missed while I was home, it was getting together with my other friends, the ones I don't talk to all the time, but miss all the same. Hopefully the next time I get home I'll be able to see them too. Some of you might think this weird, but I did do two things that I wanted to (other than see the family). Eat some good ole Chicago Style Pizza, and get a brocolli and chedder in a bread bowl from Panera. I know, kinda weird, but I miss that stuff when I'm out here on the West Coast. Well, I think thats about long enough for now. I don't know why I insist on writing a ton all the time. But for my next blog, I'm going to put some pictures up from my recent Coast Guard adventure :-) Have a great day!