Merry Christmas from England

Home with the Henrys

The whole group, together again

Even though if feels like a long time ago now, I am finally getting around to writing about our time at home with my family.  Like Katie, home has always carried a number of meanings (and locations) for me.  After being away for as long as we were, it was great to have such an unusually long length of time to spend with family.  As much as we have changed in the first year living abroad, it didn’t take long for us to feel like we never left Wisconsin.

As most Henry family gathering begin, we started our weekend meeting at Piggy’s in La Crosse on Friday afternoon for lunch.  It’s become sort of a tradition over the years and the only thing that seems to change is how many chairs, highchairs and booster seats we need.  It had been well over a year since I had seen my brother and sister, both who have had a new baby in the year that we were away.  As a result, we spent the majority of our time catching up, meeting new babies and enjoying the entertainment that comes with having 5 kids under the age of 3 under one roof for the weekend.  We spent the entire weekend doing what we love doing the most—going for walks, eating amazing food, and watching the Badgers and Packers both win. 

Henry's Baptism

Katie and I were both honored to be our new nephew Henry’s Godparents, so we were thrilled that it worked out to have his Baptism on the Sunday that we were all together in West Salem.  To top things off, my Grandma Henry even made the trip and it was so great to see her any my uncle Rick and spend time catching up with both of them. 

Our last week in the States was spent making the rounds to see more family and friends.  We had a great few days in Madison spending time with Kevin and KJ and meeting the lovely Sophia as well as seeing Kelly Mohr (& Lucas) and spending some time with Emily and Adam and meeting little Turner.  It was brilliant seeing so many great people in such a short amount of time, but we could have easily spent a week catching up with each person.

Our last day in the States was spent in Minneapolis, the city that we called home for 5 years before moving over here.   Katie was able to spend the day catching up with a good friend and colleague and I was able to spend the day with my third set of Grandparents (Marlene & Terry) as well as meet up with a group of my friends from work.  Again, we could have spent weeks catching up with all of them. 

One of many amazing meals around that table

As we prepared to come back to the UK, we were sad to say goodbye to family, friends and some of the American comforts that we have grown up with.  Some of this was made easier by the suitcase filled with American food that was loaded onto the plane with us.  It was bittersweet saying goodbye this time, but somehow it felt different.  It was amazing spending as much time as we did together, but knowing that we would all see each other again in the spring made it much easier.

I know that I have said this before, but this trip was a reminder of how precious time is.  The weeks leading up to our trip back home felt like they dragged on forever, but once it finally arrived we wished we could have slowed down each moment to take it all in.   Yet, even as I sit here writing this now, we remind ourselves, almost every day, that this experience for us will soon come to an end and all we can do is wake up each morning and be thankful for what we are doing right now, while remembering how lucky we are to have such an amazing life waiting for us back home. 

Go Badgers !!!

I Feel Home.....

Dinner with the fam at Dad and Rhonda's

I have been fortunate enough to live a life where home has always been a safe and welcoming word.  It is something I’ve known over the years, but never put a lot of thought into.  And through this year of being in another country and away from home, I have found an invaluable (and unexpected) opportunity to have time to gain further perspective on what home means to me.  Through my trip back to the States, I have realized that home is not necessarily a physical structure of a specific house or even a specific town.  But it is a feeling.  It is comfort in people you know and love, familiarity of places and doing.  It is the general day-to-day, being 100% yourself, connection to others and most of all, love.  So I was humbled and beyond excited to be able to have an entire week devoted to these things.  So in that week of being back with my family in Wisconsin, here are some highlights of what makes home truly home to me:

Making bread at Grandpa's with Aunt Jane

-  First and foremost, seeing my family

- Spending a day at Grandpa’s Skroch’s house cleaning hats, eating comfort food and getting a 93 year old man set up on skype

- The cabin, a physical structure that represents home. Waking up to the most beautiful colors over Sand Lake in the early morning.  Standing on the dock looking out over the lake.  Heaven.

- Making Grandma (and Mom’s) homemade bread with Aunt Jane

- Spending a day enjoying every second of being an aunt and uncle to Adrian and Amaia – that includes lunch at McDonald’s, lots of sword fighting and doing underdogs on the playset

Uncle John with Adrian and Amaia

- Being able to meet, play with, and put to bed Sophia while in Madison

- Spending a day at home while it’s snowing outside with my bestie Emily and her baby Turner

- Spending Halloween with The Mohr’s eating the most amazing chicken dumpling soup

- Dinner with the family at Dad and Rhonda’s house – always more than enough food

- A couple hours of hot chocolate and catch-up time with my fellow K. Mohr 

- Breakfast pizza at Main Street Café, lots of cheescurds and Bloomer Bakery

- Going to the Bloomer Rec Center to take a Zumba class Mary rocked at teaching

- Staying up way too late, hanging out and chatting (done multiple times throughout the trip with multiple people!)

Ahhhhh......the cabin!

After spending more than a year away from what I know as home, I was lucky enough to get the chance to go back and visit.  And to be honest, it was the best week home I’ve ever had.  

Aunt Katie putting Sophia to bed

Spending the day with Em and Turner

Can't do a home blog without cheesecurds :-)