Jeff and I caught a Saturday afternoon train from Chicago to Michigan for a little post-Christmas Christmas party with the family. I think we counted 75.5 family members in all this year (this includes 2 Grandparents, 8 children, a bunch of grandchildren and great grandchildren and 3 on the way, each counting for .5)

45(ish, I keep losing count) of the 75(ish) of the family who could make it out

I think the highlight of the trip for me was walking through the old house where my dad grew up with his seven siblings—it was on the market, so we took to the opportunity to check it out.

Three of the eight kids with Grandma and Grandpa

A bit of the Romulus mess I came home to

The culprit

Side Effect #1
Then come the side effects of traveling to Michigan to reunite with family. First, I came home on the train around 11:00 on Monday night while Jeff stayed in Michigan to have jaw surgery. It was the first time we had left Romulus alone for more than a night, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say he threw a little party of his own while we were out—so I had some cleaning up to do before going to bed.

Side Effect #2
It seems that when one encounters a room of 45 individuals, and when one of those individuals is contageous with the stomach flu, many others have a large possibility of catching it as well. I was one among them.