Family, in the Finger Lakes

She'd wanted to ride a horse as long as she'd been able to say so. And then, when one showed up last weekend, it nearly scared her to tears.

And just as Mom and Dad figured Caroline would have to pass this ride up, their friend Jen Constantino took the bridle, conquered her own uneasiness in the saddle and away they went.


Jen's a teacher, a colleague of Mom, so the mount came pretty naturally.


Just one of the snapshots from a Sunday in the Finger Lakes where a family that's grown up always living "family" opened up its tradition again to friends .


The Constantinos bake cookies together. They play softball (they have their own diamond in the backyard, complete with backstop and base paths) and reinforce a family bond in so many creative ways. Fun ways. Rick and Jane's kids are all adults now, and their traditions may be evolving, but what remains the same is that they plan time together.

All the time, not just holidays.

And, they share their bond with others by welcoming friends and their children to an incredible home.


Not ostentatious, "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" incredible (though it is a most breathtaking property.) Incredible in that, while it has three hilltops, including one where you can spot Rochester, and a seven acre lake full of Canadian geese, it is first and foremost, a home.



The kind where you instantly feel comfortable.

Rick and Jane make sure it's that way. Jane's Mother's Day gift was a backyard pirate's ship Rick had custom made. Jane wanted it for the grandchildren (there only one, now.)



Rick drives the tractor that takes ten families on a wagon ride through the Constantino hillside. And when he asks for riders to sing a song from "The Sound of Music," my daughters, Caroline and Clare, and many of the other children on board didn't hesitate to break into Do-Ra-Me.




Clare got her turn on the horse too. And all of the guests revelled in picking the pumpkins and gourds Rick and Jane had planted at the base of one of their ridges.




How often are we fortunate enough to be warmly welcomed to take part in another family's tradition?



Sunday, on a hilltop in the Finger Lakes, my family did. And we're better for it.