Holidays at home

I would have written a longer post about my visit to St. Louis and Herrin for the holidays, but at this point, I'm lucky to get the condensed version up.

St. Louis
I made a quick swing through St. Louis to eat some pad thai at Sen with the old lunch crew and then stopped in at the Post-Dispatch to share some peanut butter balls with my former co-workers. Then I met some friends at the best McGurk's, the best Irish pub, for some Boulevard beer and toasted ravioli. We sat in the enclosed, heated patio area. Beautiful!

Nolen pictures
I spent a good deal of my time in Herrin taking pictures of my 17-month-old nephew, Nolen. A few are in this post, but you can view more of them here.

Family time

I celebrated Christmas with my parents and Kevin, Jennifer and Nolen the evening of Christmas Day. Then, we drove to Breese for an extended-family celebration over the weekend. I enjoyed seeing everyone and spending time with family.

 

Good friends

I was also lucky enough to see quite a few high school friends while I was in Herrin. It made for a few late nights, but I had a chance to hang out and catch up with a wide range of people.

 

And I managed to fit almost all the Christmas presents in my suitcase for the trip home!