Sorry for the hiatus guys- but life needed to happen!  Over the next few days I am going to throw some photos up here to keep sharing Christmas (a continuous celebration!  the best type!)- and I will try to make sure I take pictures of my food.  I failed so hard at this over the holiday- please forgive me!

Anyhow- A quick rundown- my cousin Karlis and his wife Krista came over last Sunday night (as in almost a week ago)- and we had meatballs with homemade pasta and marinara sauce, and a shaved fennel salad.  We stayed up wayyyy to late and didn’t take any pictures.  Classic!

Monday we worked and then got in the car asfastaswecould to get to Connecticut-  time to go to Mom’s house!  She has collected a ton of decorations over the years- and between she and my sister Emily- they have quite the eye for decor!  I took these on Christmas Morning before everyone got up  Not all of the presents were under the tree yet! A tree in the music room The oldest tree in the house- always in the dining room! Small trees everywhere!

Christmas Eve day my mom and I did a “new to me” run- instead of going through the woods and out towards Redding we hung a right out of her road and crossed the town line into Weston.  This section of road (a main road) is relatively narrow and winding- so we ran the first 2 miles pretty quickly!  For those interested- we went down Valley Forge Road to the Lyon’s Plain Rd intersection- but decided to run up Davis Hill Rd (skipping the aptly named Steep Hill Road option)- hooking back up with Valley Forge and then heading back the way we came- it ended up being 10.2 miles- some photos from that run included this gem:  Davis Hill Rd-  Weston, CT We had to stop and take a picture or 3- except that I am really awful at selfies and I just can’t post the pics I took of me and Mom-  not only do we look especially like trolls- we aren’t good at holding our arms out and making the right faces-  we need a lesson from my little sister.

In my brilliance I took photos of our feet- but none of Christmas Eve dinner and apps- beef tenderloin, porcini mushroom and sausage stuffing, horseradish cream, green beans, brie, piradzini, etc.

However, Christmas morning my mom and I were back out on the roads- this time in the other direction into Redding –We woke up to a white Christmas!  This is the backyard.                        Mom running in front, blazing the trail over the dusting of snow-                                                                            And then out onto the main road. It’s narrow and the dusting of snow had left it a little icy, so we were glad to have only seen 3 cars.  The water is all reservoir/protected land-  stunning, right?  I forget this is where I grew up sometimes.                           Mom ran us to a small park to show me some improvements made so that the public can access portions of the land- this overlooks the water.  The view my mom had when I was taking the pic of her was this:

Since I can’t leave well enough alone, and since we had only gone a couple of miles-  I suggested we run up Sherman Turnpike/Deer Hill Rd, pop out onto Great Hill Road (rt 107) then loop back again to 53 and run up the hill and through the woods home.  I am a hill seeking missile with a short memory for exactly how long and steep these roads are.

Sherman Turnpike, 8 AM Christmas morning-  approximately one person had driven the road.

Nothing beats a dirt back road in the middle of the woods on a quiet Christmas morning.

Nothing.

More to come later with some pics of the greatest prank pulled on ME and Christmas Day, and what to do with your LEFTOVERS

Hope you enjoyed mostly looking at pictures of where we went on our feet.