Goodbye, 2007!

2007 ended with a bang (well, lots of 'bangs' called fireworks). My parents and I spent Christmas morning at home, had brunch with the best aunt in the world, and then headed to Lake Placid. It was really neat to be at my parents' new home on Christmas Day. I love that place. My Cuban grandparents and my sister came with. My grandmother had fun picking oranges from our trees.The next morning we hit the road for North Carolina. It was about time my parents saw this school I've been talking so much about.

They loved it (they say) and even though everything was dead and brown, it felt like home.
I had sweet tea 'til my heart's content. At one place, they brought my glass, and then gave me a whole pitcher of tea! That was amazing!!! I drank out of the pitcher, as you can see. And at the SuperTarget nearby, which is actually SUPER, I found the most awesome groceries of all time. They had an entire section of Asian sauces. Just Asian sauces. Do you know what this means? I can cook there, all the things I cook here, without subsitituting ingredients. (Target gift cards are deeply appreciated when I move away).

We visited the Old English Tea Room, which is such a neat place. It's actually a tea room, and I had never to been to anything like it. They bring water with tea stuff floating around, and you pour your little kettle over a little strainer into the tea cup. It is the cutest thing. And when my family walked into that place, they looked at me like, "Are you serious?" I'm not gonna lie, it looked over-the-top, fruity-tooty. But when we walked out of there, they were won over.


So it felt like home. Well, like a new home. Nothing feels like real home. It's nice to come home. To leave vacation behind (especially when it's a road trip) and go back to normal.

Last night, in one of the most riveting New Year's Eve's of all time, I baked these really neat Caramel Cookie Bars. They are made with chocolate chip cookie mix, but my dad doesn't eat chocolate, so I had to sift out all the chocolate chips. (Trust me, sugar cookie mix is not the same as non-chocolate, chocolate chip cookie mix). It came out pretty good. It was hard getting dad to wait for it to cool. But when you don't let it cool, you end up with a gooey mess.

We also indulged in sidra and 13 grapes. Not my favorite tradition to ring in the new year, but still good.