As part of my assignment over here, I'm allowed one "networking trip", which is essentially a trip back to Dallas to meet with people and 1) talk about my experience working over here, 2) talk about what I might work on when I return, and most importantly 3) simply remind people that I exist and what I look like. We were able to work it out to fit this in around Thanksgiving, so I was able to essentially come home for free, which was very nice.
It ended up being a bit of a whirlwind (that really started in Istanbul, and to be honest hasn't stopped yet - which is why our posts are so far behind). We got back from Istanbul in the late afternoon of the Monday before Thanksgiving. This gave us just enough time to catch up on laundry (and go to work for a day) before heading to the States on Wednesday morning.
Apologies that all of the pictures are of the kiddos. Guess we didn't think to take pictures of anything else all week!!!
Stop #1 - Chicago
Jenna's extended family usually gets together to celebrate in the Chicago area, so our first stop was there, where we arrived Wednesday afternoon. The real big festivities didn't start until Thursday, so we spent the day in Chicago with the immediate family - Larry and Rhonda, Hesse and Cobi, and Krissa, JJ, and little Kale (who I got to meet for the first time). My sister and her two roommates (who go to school near Chicago) also met up with us for a while.
We could barely contain our excitement as we sat on the train from the airport into the city. Jenna was anxious to see her family again, and this was my first trip back to the States in over 14 months. On top of all that, Chicago is one of our favorite cities, so we were couldn't wait to experience it again.
We spent the evening hanging out (and dolling out many kisses on Kale), then wandered around the city for a while before grabbing some amazing pizza at one of our favorites - Giordano's. It was really great to spend some quality time with the immediate family. We were really glad that everyone was able to be be together at once - something that hasn't happened in several years, since everyone is spread out throughout the country (and I guess now the world!!). 
On Thursday we headed down to dreaded Bourbonnais - home of Chicago Bears training camp, Olivet Nazarene University (where we spent 4 years), Jenna's aunt Carole and family, and little else. It was nice to see our alma mater again - our first return since graduation - and it was great to have the big Thanksgiving celebration with the family. People came in from all over (although we won the prize for farthest travelled), and it was good to see some of the extended family that we don't get to see too often, we figured it had been 5 years since the 2 of us had been able to celebrate Thanksgiving with this big extended family. Almost as important as the family, though, was of course the dinner! It was sooooo good to sit down with a plate packed full of turkey, potatoes, corn, and all the rest, and 20 minutes later see that plate completely empty! Oh America and your wonderful tasty food!!!
Friday we spent the morning doing some Black Friday shopping (getting up at 3am is easy when you're jet-lagged), had some scrumptious leftovers for lunch, and sadly had to say our goodbye's and head for the airport in the afternoon. 
Stop #2 - Kansas City
We arrived in KC late on Friday night for my family's Thanksgiving celebration. It really works out perfectly, because due to a few family members' work schedules, we usually celebrate on Saturday. This has allowed us, in most years, to attend both Jenna and my family Thanksgivings - and partake in two enormous meals! We headed over to my Aunt Jeannie's on Saturday around noon, and stopped eating sometime just before 10pm when we left. It was glorious. The food was amazing, and we had a fun time playing games and seeing all of the family once again. The big treat was my getting to finally meet my niece Morgan, who was born right after we left so I've never been able to see. She is already walking and jabbering like crazy, and we had a lot of fun spending some time with her and Hailey (and of course the rest of the family).
Sunday we went to our old home Church for a great First Sunday of Advent service - wonderful music and a good sermon. The afternoon was spent back at Jeannie's with more games and left-overs. Then on Sunday night we headed over to Janet's for some time with my immediate family. Sarah had decided to spend the holiday with her roommates in Wisconsin, so it was just Mom, Jason, Laura, and the kiddos, but we had a lot of fun. We ordered some KC barbecue - which really hit the spot - and just hung out around the house and played with the girls and talked with the adults. It was a really good family time and we were happy to be able to all be together.
Stop #3 - Dallas
On Monday morning, I had to catch an early flight to Dallas to start the business part of this trip. Since Jenna didn't need to be there for anything in particular, she stayed in KC with her folks for a few extra days. They did a little shopping and general hanging out, and also went to see "A Christmas Story" on stage. She had fun spending that time with her family, and then came down to meet me in Dallas on Wednesday night.
My days were definitely not worth much mention (I am an accountant, you know). In the evenings, though, I was able to see some of our good friends from church that we've been missing desperately since we came over. It is crazy how much has changed in the short time we've been gone. The Mitchell's now have a beautiful 4 month old daughter (who thankfully is starting to look less like her dad and more like Keri). the Luthye's - who were our one last stronghold in deciding to have fun instead of children - are now just a few months away from their first. The Dermer's whose daughter was a smiley baby when we left now is chatting up a storm and singing the ABC's and counting to 10! There have also been a lot of exciting changes to our church and the neighborhood around our house that were surprising to see.
It was very weird that the place that had been our home for so long felt in many ways so foreign, but at the same time it was exciting to know that when we come back for good, there will be so many new things to discover.
The end of the week was mostly spent scrambling around the city between doctors and dentists and restaurants that we'd been missing so much (Chick-fil-a for breakfast; Baker Brothers for lunch; Napoli's for dinner). We were able to see our friends a few times for dinners throughout the week, and got a lot of essential American grocery shopping done as well (I think we should be mostly set on the essentials to get us through the rest of my assignment). Finally on Saturday our crazy 11 day trip home came to and end, and we made our way back to our temporary home in London.
This trip home really made us realize what we've had to give up to be here. On the one hand it has been great to be here in the UK to travel and see so much of Europe (and Asia and Africa...stay tuned). It is an opportunity that we are so grateful for and would never change. On the other hand, it is hard to know that we're missing out on a lot of family gatherings, seeing our nieces and nephews grow up, and experiencing so much with our friends in Dallas. It will definitely be hard to leave Europe in a few months, but it is nice to know that we have such amazing families and friends to go home to.
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