Considering I proposed the idea of this family blog, I suppose I ought to be the one who gets it set up in the first place.

Plus, the 2008 contest year has begun! and the MLK holiday weekend is fast approaching. I’m motivated to get this blog started in the (likely) event that I jump out to an early lead!

I hope that Sheryl, Eric, Mom, and I will all find it fun to contribute our adventures in quest of The Muffin to this blog. To anyone else reading this, bear with us as we fiddle around with its design and try to make it more aesthetically pleasing.

It is snowing here in Frederick, and when I see the snow-covered trees, it always makes me want to go for a drive in Catoctin Mountain National Park, which is about 15 miles north of me, in Thurmont, Maryland. Snow transforms the park into a winter wonderland, its beauty enhanced by the picturesque trout stream running alongside the road. It reminds me of our Christmas trip to Germany, back in 1995, when we were driving in the snowy forests of Bavaria. In Catoctin, however, I’m usually not afraid to drive after it has snowed, because the road access to Camp David is located in the park, and I suspect that the roads are kept pristinely clear for this reason, which means I can marvel at my snow-covered surroundings, instead of driving white-knuckled through the park with my eyes locked on the road.