Little House in the Big Woods!

Yesterday, our last free day of Christmas vacation, Claire and I went to my sister Hope's new place where she lives with her husband Donny and their 2 dogs. And lots of trees.
Lots and lots of trees.
It is gorgeous.
It is also far from town. And the road leading to their house is only plowed to their driveway. It used to be a seasonal road and closed from November1 - April 1 but now that they are moved in, the town agreed to plow them.
So...Dave and Courtney (who is getting over a cold) stayed here in North Colonie to get stuff done and Claire and I took the Apples to Apples game and the 2 snow saucers out to the Central NY area. We had loads of fun and a yummy homemade turkey soup lunch that my sister made for us.

I had to park across the drive from this pic
since I drive a Nissan Sentra
and it doesn't have 4-wheel drive.
That van is my sister's and
from there we had to hike
up their driveway to their house.
I call it "the little house in the big woods".





Claire loved standing in the snow...
it was up to her waist!
Uncle Donny owns 50 acres of wooded land
in the central part of NYS,
north of the Mohawk River
and still in Fulton County.
They are not far from the foothills of the southern
part of the Adirondacks and the Caroga Lake area
is just a 15 min drive from their house.
They are further from us now, but depending on
which way we go, we can be to their house in about 1 hour.




Aunt Hope, Uncle Donny, and Claire
get ready to prepare the slope for sledding.
Their dog (German Shepherd), Maggie
is behind them.
Maggie and their other dog, Mona
enjoy playing in the snow.




Claire had loads of fun sledding
although the snow wasn't packed down enough
for it to be great.

And the temps were bitter cold.
Out there in that part of NYS it was only 19 degrees with a strong wind. So...after a time of frolicking in the snow, we headed back up the long drive and had hot tea and cocoa with yummy dessert cookies from a bakery.
A fun way to end our Christmas vacation.
Thanks, Aunt Hope and Uncle Donny!

When we got back home, I made grilled cheese sandwiches for a quick, light supper and Dave headed out to a youth group leadership meeting at church. The girls and I enjoyed another "family movie nite". Dave made it back to watch the ending with us!
Today was church with awesome worship (as usual!) and a new sermon series our pastor has begun about finances and managing money in tight times. It was excellent and he had many good reminders for us as a family.

So.....around our house.....

Tomorrow we head back to work/school and our normal schooldays routine will begin again. We made lots of nice family memories, had lots of downtime, lots of books were finished, games were played, time with the Lord renewed our spirits and we begin the new year renewed in all areas of our lives.

Also coming tomorrow: the Marriage Monday series for January...come back and check it out!