Home for the Holidays

For Thanksgiving, I visited the folks in Western PA, the land of roadkill, shotgun shells, skunk smell and the Steelers. I swear the first song i heard driving across the PA border was "The Pennsylvania Polka". And it was already snowing. The snow's definitely better when you don't have to drive in it. My roadtrip companion loved it tho.


Guess I'm a total city boy now, because one of things I love most about going home is their frontier spirit, so I try to revert a little...


But maybe that has something to do with having neither cell phone signals or wireless access. The highlight of each day was walking the dogs to the woods with my mom or dad...


...Then warming up, all cozy like, with home cooking and bourbon!


And then getting crazy with my niece and nephew. Emma's a consummate performer, whether at dance class...


...or goofing around at home.


And eventho Bailey's a hockey player, he celebrated his 10th birthday with a high-jump salute, inching a little farther up the wall each year.