Our family winter gathering has come and gone; we tested, we laughed, we cried and, generally had a great time. We had planned a VRBO trip until the landlord tried to screw us. VRBO did nothing, but AMEX came in and saved the day. Amex refunded my first trip and through Air BNB we found a mansion to stay in with a heating system that sang and clanged us to sleep. Unlike our first rental, when a storm was predicted, the Air BNB landlord offered us another night for free! Enough said.

We spent a frigid day walking around the sculptures in Storm King, played Go Fish countless times and marveled at how funny 3-8 year old could be playing charades.

We returned home to a foot of snow that had to be cleared to pull into the driveway. Sub zero temperatures have settled in.

Always scary when the ice starts to creep inside.

But we have been able to ski out our door and the snow is beautiful.

Here’s to an almost normal holiday season.