New Traditions are Wonderful Traditions! Cranberry-Mint Mojitos with the KCO to Celebrate a Semester (and Families)

For the 2nd year, I've stopped by Kelly Chandler-Olcott's while visiting CNY family to be greeted with rum, cranberries, mint and cookies. It's a wonderful treat and celebration (so much so that Chitunga requested it this year).

The drink this year was extra delicious and was a perfect way to spend an afternoon...

...after cleaning an oven for 3 hours in the morning, going for a run and taking the ol' dog for a walk on a balmy, excessively hot CNY winter day (it was 45 degrees and everyone was stripped down to tank tops and shorts).

A few people got their lawn chairs out and I swear I heard a lawn mower.

Actually, while at the Olcott's, Lucy spotted a mother fox running along the creek and we all looked out to see the beautiful animal, who kept looking up at the house. It was wonderful and a beautiful scene (before all the snow melts during this heat wave of the week).

And today is technically the last day to do the holiday shopping and I need to be committed to the goal of getting it done. Yesterday, it thrilled me to deliver an original print to Kelly - a piece of art that we used for our LRA presentation and that captured our iterative collaborations (a joyous gift that I was lucky to find online)

A vacation Monday is much more fun that one that begins a work week. They should all be this way.