Into the Woods

I hope everyone had a great holiday week. I spend most of the time at my brother's house in the Adirondacks. His house is located on a privately owned park. Apparently, the land use to be owned by the Kennedys and the Rockefellers. The land is now leased out for various reasons (logging, farming, fish hatchery, etc) and the houses inside the park are occupied by employees or are vacation homes of the owners and their families. It takes about an hour round trip to go into Saranac Lake, which is really the closest place to get groceries. My brother's house is the last one on his road so the plow stops just after his driveway. The road that is left alone then serves as a perfect place for snowshoeing, cross country skiing, or just walking. We got a ton of snow on Tuesday night so on Christmas Eve morning, my father and I took Harley to explore.

This is basically what it looks like for miles and miles.

It was nice to see my brother and his family. We are lucky if we see each other once a year. For all of you nonbelievers who insist my brother is not real, he's the guy behind the presents. All of those are for Sofi by the way...

And speaking of my adorable niece:

She's rocking a lovely Christmas dress accented by black sparkly Converse :)

For Christmas I received a new digital camera! No more will strangers in bars mock the gigantic size of my camera. Although I lovingly referred to it as the Zack Morris cell phone of cameras (remember the size of that thing?!), it was time for a smaller, updated model. My dad picked one out and gave one to both my brother and me. It even has a setting to take pictures of food!! Could it be any more perfect? On Friday, I made pnutty noodles with chicken for the family dinner and then used my new toy to capture my beautiful creation.

I actually think I prefer tofu over chicken in this dish, but dad I think is scared of it and my sister in-law says she can't tolerate soy. Anyways, everyone seemed to enjoy it.

As great as it was to see my family, it's great to be home again. It's not something I really forget, but each time I go out of town, it just reaffirms my love for living here.