Last weekend, Molly and I got up bright and early for the 5.5 hour drive to Naples, NY. That’s where my aunts Ellen and Karen host the family Christmas party every year.

The weather wasn’t horrible, but the roads were a little slick in places. One benefit to the conditions was that there wasn’t any traffic, so I didn’t have to deal with that.

We arrived around 11:45 and had a great time visiting with everyone. It was nice to get to know my cousin Arthur’s girlfriend and to see uncle Bill after so long (could it have been 10 years?).

As always, the food was great and we got to bring a lot of goodies home with us. We got a nice calendar of elaborate tree-houses, which is great because Molly and I were sort of at a loss as to what kind of calendar to get for our kitchen this year. (Last year was easy, since we had been planning a trip to D.C.) I got a few gift cards. I also got a bunch of my grandmother’s genealogy papers. Aunt Karen had remembered that I was working on the family tree from last year and thoughtfully provided me with these valuable resources.

Molly and I stayed at a bed and breakfast called Bristol Views, which was a pleasant experience. The living room had a warm fire that was very comfortable to read beside. The bathroom attached to our room was large and everything was clean and cozy. Breakfast was blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, and fresh applesauce. The blueberries and syrup were from local sources, which was a nice touch.

After breakfast, we stopped by my aunts’ house and said our final goodbyes before heading back home. We made a stop in Cuba, NY and checked out their “famous” cheese shop. It was pretty cool and we ended up buying three different kinds of cheese. So far, we’ve discovered that Goat Milk Cheddar goes well on a ham sandwich, Irish Blarney is really good melted on crackers, and Switzerland Swiss Emmentaler (aged over 90 days) is good all by itself.