For the third year in a row, I’ve traveled with my daughter Zoey and her good friend Livi to Wisconsin during Cranfest. Our official business is biking the Elroy-Sparta Trail, but Anita, the innkeeper at Amil’s Inn, always manages to bake a lot of cranberries into our trip.

It's 8 a.m. and the girls are still fast asleep. Joe is in bed reading and I make a plan -- to bake some Sour Cream Cherry Scones and surprise everyone on Saturday morning! Ever so nonchalantly, I go downstairs without saying a word...

Christmas morning...It's probably one of the happiest mornings our family shares every year.  Presents aside, it's always a great feeling to wake up in a warm home filled with people you love.  That's enough for me.  No presents needed.

True confessions: I have a weakness for lattes. In any other form, I avoid caffeine - I don't drink soda or energy drinks - but put a nice, hot vanilla latte in front of me and I can't say "No".