home for the holidays means bouts of nostalgia and.... buying sausage from a garage?

I'm officially home for Christmas after taking the shortest flight ever from Chicago to Ohio. We were literally in the air for 38 minutes. It took me longer to get to O'Hare airport than it did to fly home.

Being home means getting to see family and catching up with my friends. I've been home for 24 hours and we've already packed in some emotional stuff and some weird stuff.

Last night we took some of my grandpa's ashes to the Greene outdoor mall. They have a giant Christmas tree there and for

the past couple of years we would somehow end up having dinner at the Greene the night of the Christmas tree lighting and my grandpa hated being there for it! If you knew my grandpa you would know he wasn't really a fan of crowds. However, he loved my sister and I, and if sticking around for a stupid Christmas tree lighting put a smile on our faces, he was going to do it. He would complain about it.. but he stuck around and that's all that mattered to me.

So, as a sort of joke (we thought he would find it funny) we brought some of his ashes with us last night. We enjoyed a nice dinner at Brio and then we spread some of his ashes by the tree. We all had a good laugh knowing that a piece of Grandpa will always be at the Christmas tree at the Greene.

This Monday is not going to be easy. Our first Christmas without him. Since he passed away we were

aware that it was going to be a year of firsts for all of us. First Christmas without him, first Father's day without him, first time we can't celebrate his birthday with him. It's weird not having him around for the big things and the little things. The holidays have been particularly rough. I've been thinking about him constantly and every little thing has been filling me with a feeling of nostalgia. Even seeing the tick marks from when Sara and I were little and we used to measure ourselves in the garage was enough to make my heart ache for the simpler days.

This morning I hung out with my grandma for a little while. I worry about her even though she shows no signs of being sad about this being our first Christmas without Grandpa. So when she asked me if I would go find the "sausage people" with her this morning I knew I couldn't say no.

We set out on a hunt for a white house with green shutters on Brandt Pike. The white house with green shutters has a garage where they sell sausage and, yes, it was just as creepy as it sounds. This place could have easily been the setting for a Criminal Minds episode with a serial killer who turns their victims into sausage links.

While I was fearing for my life, my grandma was thrilled that we found the sausage people and she got her three pounds of sweet Italian sausage. This was definitely not how I thought I would be spending a day of my Christmas break but it's definitely a day I won't forget.

To top things off I chopped my hair today. My hair was getting way too long. Plus I'm a big fan of change every once and while so I thought this would be a good way to mix things up. I'm conveniently wearing the same shirt in my side by side comparison picture.

Here's hoping the winter break boredom doesn't eat me alive and I can enjoy my time at home. I have a few photoshoots that I'm doing, a good book with me, I need to finish my January spread in my bullet journal, and I have a few people I need to catch up with. Hopefully that will be enough to keep me entertained.

Happy holidays everyone!

#christmas #winterbreak #nostalgia #backhome #homesweethome