2012 Hill Family Update 2411 Greenwood Ave, Wilmette, Il, 60091

847.920.5659

Happy Holidays!

Navy Pier, Chicago

Wilmette Beach in November!

For those of you who eagerly await this holiday missive, rejoice! For those of you that wade through it just to see the pictures of the kids, well wade-on.

This year’s letter is coming to you live from Wilmette, Illinois, a

cheerful suburb of Chicago. Yep, we figured jolly old England was too old world, so we followed our ancestors to the land of opportunity. Actually, this year has been all

about opportunities lost and grabbed, and changes, changes and more changes.

So why are we now American? After a pretty painful job search spanning two continents and many countries, I finally

started a great job with Maple Leaf Foods in May. I wasn’t too good at being unemployed and I was massively relieved to finally land in such a good company (a big thanks to Ben…turns out my oldest network was the best!). Still,

nothing’s easy. In order to get here we had to manage an international move, pick a new town, new school, new house, new cars, furnish the new house and so on. And Lisa is

still with me after all this!!! If there was ever a barometer for measuring a successful marriage, this was it. However, the move was ok, the town is great, the school has been a

pleasant surprise, the house passed the test, the cars were expensive and the furniture should be here by Christmas.

Sheesh. Hopefully next year will be a little more relaxed.

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Lifetime baggage …. One piece of advice to would-be world explorers…when you move, throw out everything you can’t carry. When we moved (temporarily) to the UK, we put half our stuff into storage and

there it sat for 8 years. Imagine our excitement to see the container arrive with our 8 year old crap. Turns out even charities don’t want our stuff. The worst items from storage? The 300-pound “brand new” Sony console TV. The best items from storage? Some old photos and my power tools.

Liam … 11 years Had a great final year at school and dealt with all the change like a trooper. He left behind some really good friends (but that just means he has friends all over the world now). He’s a good

cub scout and ready to graduate to a proper boy scout. Liam continues to love the outdoors – camping, quad-bikes and cars are his favourite things. He is active in baseball and basketball.

Believe it or not, he is actually playing ice hockey now that we are back in North America. We are totally proud of him for picking up this sport even though he did not have the opportunity to play in the UK. Not sure if he’s NHL-bound, but

maybe they will never play again, anyway! Liam’s other new thing is he plays bass guitar in a band. After he and his mom were groupies for the rock band Blink-182, something rubbed off

on him. A little music in the house is nice…just glad it’s not the drums.

Daniel … 23 months Is a wild-man! He generally sleeps through the night now (but not always, so it keeps us on our toes). He has been walking for almost a year. Then running. Then falling down. Then breaking things. It’s a good thing that Liam

can run some interference or Daniel would have wiped out Lisa and I by now. DJ is a bit of a terror, but he has a good heart. He likes to give the nicest hugs to Liam before

he goes to bed (these make up for the wild punches he levels at his older brother when he is not looking!).

And smart? Wow. He has figured out how to help himself to snacks in the fridge and can operate the

TV remote. His computer programming skills are also noteworthy (well expensive anyways, as we have to replace the keyboard on Lisa’s computer). He has nailed a couple words. He got “Mommy”, “Daddy” and “Wium” (Liam) pretty quickly. More recently he has mastered “egg”, so you can be

sure a Rhodes scholarship cannot be too far away. A bit more unusual is that he calls wine and beer bottles “Daddy”. Not sure if I should be concerned about that, but it is heartwarming to seeing him shouting “Daddeeee, Daddeeee!” in the grocery store liquor aisle.

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Travels … Even though the year was pretty stressful with all the

uncertainty and change, we managed to get in a great trip to Spain (saw the Catholic Easter processions) and got a photo speeding ticket that keeps following us around (we have tried to pay it, but can’t figure out how…theoretically

we are now banned from entering the country). We also managed a week in southern Italy; a great send-off from Europe. It got under our skins in a big way, so I am sure we will be back!

Marathons… Somewhere in all this, Lisa and I both managed to do some proper running. Lisa turned in a PB (that’s personal best for you couch potatoes) on a girl’s trip to the Lisbon (Portugal) half

marathon. I was able to parlay my free time into some training and ran the London marathon in April. I lost so much weight training that I could wear the jeans I wore in college again (a good thing when our storage container arrived…). However

after 2 months living as a bachelor in America (can you say McDonalds?), I was ready for a new weight loss program so I ran the Chicago marathon in October. Lisa will not be outdone,

and has got a spot in the London marathon next spring. So another trip back to the old country which brings us back to where this year started.

Traditions continue Lots of change this year; but Lisa is baking Christmas cookies and I am looking at our tree (beautifully

decorated except for where DJ already took a swipe at it). It’s nice to be home…wherever that is this year!

So from our home to yours, we wish you a wonderful holiday season and hope the next year brings you love and health and happy times!

Brett, Lisa, Liam & Daniel

Puglia, Italia – July 2012

Brett’s London Marathon success !

London – June 2012