Illinois 2014 | Tragic Comedy

Kelly and I are home after a week on the road visiting family and friends in Illinois. I wish that we had more time to see more people, but I'm also glad that we got out of town before the sub-freezing temperatures returned. It was important to us to spend time with Kelly's father and brother since this was the first Christmas after her mother passed away, and most of the trip was spent just being a family.

The good:

- Having a boisterous Christmas with family moving about the house, cookies baking in the oven, a fire going in the fireplace, lots of gifts being torn open, and varied conversations about loved ones past and present. Hardie Christmases tend to be quiet and semi-formal, so it was refreshing to have a more active Lee Christmas this year. Next year, we hope to lure them to Florida to soak up the sun.

- The Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield. With what must be a far bigger budget than any other presidential library, this facility utilizes Disney-grade special effects in their presentations to make Lincoln's life story come alive. Illinois loves Lincoln and they built a lavish space to memorialize him. Afterwards: Horseshoe sandwiches! Yum.

- Playing board games with Kelly and her father, even if that photo is not kind about my thinning hair. My favorite answer combination in Cards Against Humanity: "We never did find Â consensual sexÂ , but along the way, we sure did learn a lot about Â a jury of our peersÂ ."

- Exploring our home town with old friend Matthew. We walked through the nearly-empty mall that was booming in our teen years, tracked down the schools that we used to attend, shared some new life stories and some old memories, and of course, ate Chinese food, because that is what we do.

The not so good:

- A light show at the Morton Arboretum was underwhelming. Very few of the interactive displays behaved as described, and the rest were sort of meh. I didn't mind sharing a trail with five thousand other people, but the crowd bothered Kelly.

- We listened to several audiobooks on the road and most were fine, but man was Redshirts a letdown. It got off to a very funny start with a clever premise, but dragged in the middle when it ran out of ideas, and then it went on and on and on for hours with superfluous codas that added zero value. We forced ourselves to listen through to the very end, but we shouldn't have.

It was a fun trip, but it's also good to be home. Here's looking forward to ringing in 2015.

Logical Operator

The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »

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