Friday, January 11, 2013

Christmas at home and away

I apologize in advance for how long the post is.  This is the most photos I have ever put in one post.  Yikes!



































































We spent Christmas here at our home and then a few days later, after a tremendous snow storm here in Ontario delayed our departure, we headed to my parent's home in Pennsylvania where we woke up to a full day of non-stop snow.  It was wonderful!
The sledding and shoveling photos are from around their property.  The outdoor photos including a pond by the road, a log covered stream, a barn converted into a home, a tree fort and woodpile are all my parent's neighbors and places I lived, played and grew up around.

The barn has a special place in my heart as a second home as a child and even a third home as newlyweds as Shane and I lived in the bottom part where the horse stall doors are, the summer we were married before moving back to Canada.  The house to the left of the woodpile picture was the house I lived in as a newborn until I was about eleven or twelve.  In 1988, we built and moved into a new home behind that farmhouse up on the hill.  I would have taken a separate photo of that old house but I didn't want to alarm the current homeowners who might be wondering what I was doing.

The house seen in the distance beyond the tree fort and tire swing now belongs to the dear family friends who used to live in the barn.  (Oh my, I hope this isn't getting complicated or too tedious!) They bought and expanded the brick home that used to be owned by an elderly couple who served as an third set of grandparents for my younger brother and I.  So their property feels like home too as I spent much time playing and visiting there as a child.

And the goose came with the new owners of the barn who was strangely silent while I was there taking pictures, but whose honking can be heard often from my parents' home and others.  Rumors of someone having a Christmas goose for dinner were heard but I think the prospects of tough, well exercised meat were decided against.

All in all, it was a lovely holiday and we enjoyed ourselves both here at home and with my family.

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