The next stops on our world tour were Wisconsin and Ohio (required in any world tour, of course). Picking up a rental car at the Columbus Ohio airport, we drove to my Dad and his partner Libby’s house. We feasted, got a tour of their new barn, gave the cats and Rusty lots of love, and slept like logs. Constantly moving, especially on vacation, is exhausting!

Rustoliam the super pooch

Blurry but handsome Dad

The next day we drove to Madison, Wisconsin and arrived at my cousins’ in the evening. They have a new house and it was great to finally see where they were living. During our two day stay we saw our awesome friend Anne, went to lunch with Ruth (one of my idols), spent lots of great time with my cousins, and experienced a 16 inch snow and ice blizzard. The only disappointment was not getting to see the rest of our friends due to the bad weather.

Ruth

After the storm damage was cleaned up we headed back to Ohio picking up my brother in Chicago on the way. We spent another night with my Dad where we opened presents and dined at a local Chinese/Thai restaurant. Oxford is in a very picturesque part of Ohio, and it was very peaceful walking around their yard.

The boys modeling their handmade mittens from Libby

Our last stop in Ohio was at my mom’s house. We went to a big band Christmas concert at the local OSU branch, decorated the Christmas tree, got to visit with more cousins and friends, and laid around like slugs. It was nice to not do anything for a few days. On Christmas my grandma joined us for gifts and lunch, and in the evening Frank came down. As always our time together was too short.

Mom showing off the art quilt we gave her.

Grandma opening the quilt mom made her.