Aaron discovered Chipotle restaurant several years back in Columbus, Ohio and has been pining for one to open locally every since. Just recently Aaron’s wish came true as a Chipotle opened in Medford. We went there a few weeks back for dinner with Peter and Maria. Basically, it’s fresh, quick and cheap burritos and soft tacos. I had never been there before and have to admit, it was quite good. Now we just need one to open up on the North Shore.

My dear friend Emily, who shares my love of reality television, gave me Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst for Christmas this year. For those of you who avoid that kind of television, a) you are crazy and b) this book probably will not be of interest to you, but I thought it was great! Towards the end I found myself trying to read less so that the book would last longer. It was a light, fun and very entertaining read – the perfect book travel book. It’s about the participants in a fictional television reality game show that is clearly modeled after The Amazing Race. There’s all sort of relationship drama, mixed in with silly stunts and travel stories. For me, it was a very enjoyable book.

Shortly after Christmas, Aaron and I flew to Amelia Island, Florida and met Rita there for a few days of relaxing by the beach. The three of us had done this once before a few years back, and had such a great time we decided to do it again. Amelia Island is just off the northeast coast of Florida. We lucked out weather wise and had several days of sunshine and mild to warm temperatures. We spent one entire day on Cumberland Island, which is just off the coast of Georgia. We took a ferry over to the island, enjoyed a picnic lunch and then spent the day exploring. We walked through forests to the ruins of Dungeness (A Carnegie Family Manor that burned in the 1950s) through salt-water marshes, sand dunes and out to the beach. The island is home to wild horses and armadillos, and we saw both. A funny story: When we came to Amelia Island two years ago the three of us went hiking in another park and while on a path, an armadillo came out of nowhere and almost walked into Rita. As you can see in the photo above, on this trip Rita had another opportunity to bond with an Armadillo while we were on Cumberland Island. For the rest of our time in Florida we walked on the beach, lounged and read, and ate some really delicious meals. Of particular note is Salt, which was in our hotel. We all had the tasting menu, which meant many small courses. They were even good enough to customize a tasting menu for me based on my “selective” eating habits. I think we all had a great time.

Click on the photo of Rita to see the album of photos from our trip.

With the addition of Justin, Christmas 2006 was quite the celebration. Aaron and I went home to my parent’s house on Christmas Eve and were joined by Amy, Joe and Justin, Peter and Maria and James. For the next day and a half we all partook in too much food, too many presents and not enough sleep. We were joined on Christmas night for dinner by my Uncle Ken and Aunt Martha. As usual, everyone was very generous and we all got lots of great stuff, but it won’t surprise you to hear I think Justin might have taken home the most loot. We had a very Merry Christmas and felt very fortunate to be together as a family to enjoy the season.

Click on the photo above to see the album of photos we took over Christmas. The two photos of Justin and I are Amy’s – thanks Amy.

So Aaron and I spent the days leading up to Christmas at home prepping for all the festivities. Aaron spent a fair amount of his time wrapping. Lucky for me, he wrapped most of our gifts. Although I was in charge of ribbon and labels and I managed to wrap all of his gifts myself. While Aaron was focusing on pretty paper and tape, I did some dessert baking. I made a batch of chocolate cupcakes and a pumpkin-cinnamon cake with cream cheese frosting to bring to Mom and Dad’s for Christmas dinner. And on the stereo throughout the day was John Denver and the Muppets, A Christmas Together. That’s nice.

So about a week after Amy’s family birthday party, Joe threw her a surprise party at their house. He had to trick her to get her out of the house, and as soon as they were gone, a small team of family and friends (who were parked in the local police station parking lot, anxiously awaiting the signal) rushed in to decorate, set up and heat up some snacks. It was the kind of scenario that probably would have played well on a sitcom, a lot of running around trying to get it all done, before Joe brought Amy back. To his credit though, Joe pulled it off and even left us (the team) a list of things to do, so that by the time they returned, we were all set up. The above photo was taken as Amy walked in the door. More friends showed up as the night went on and we all had a great time.

Hi all. Forgive me for the lack of new posts in the past few weeks. I’ve got plenty of new photos and material, I just haven’t had the time to sit and post it. I hope to put up a bunch of stuff this week – so expect a flurry of activity :)

First, several weeks ago the family got together to celebrate Amy’s 30th birthday. We all headed home to Mom and Dad’s for a casual – at home celebration, as none of us (myself included) want to do anything without Justin and he’s not really up to restaurant dinning just yet. We dined on take-out Chinese food and super rich Chaos Pie (from Alden Merrell). Make sure to click on the above photo to see the small album of photos from the party – in particular the one of Aaron, Dad and James – the celebration was so crazy the three of them fell asleep about half way through.