Our New Year’s in Pretty River Valley

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Every year for the past seven years, we have been spending our New Year’s Eves in Pretty River Valley in rural Ontario. As you can see, it’s in what’s called the ‘snow belt’ of Ontario. We snowshoe and visit the reindeer, horses and chickens, help make the appetizers, spend the evening playing Balderdash, and then ring in the new year with a round of champagne.

During our stay, we sometimes go out to the nearby town of Collingwood. This year we needed to run some errands in town, so we also visited Dags and Willow, a fine cheese and gourmet food shop. We drooled over the black truffles, beautiful wooden cutting boards, and the array of cheeses from Ontario, Quebec, Spain, France, and England. Tomiko and I also visited the consignment store Love Me 2 Times, which was full of treasures and scooped up some gorgeous dishes and serving bowls and a beautiful red wool coat for $10.

Other times we go to the Village at Blue Mountain where we eat maple syrup on ice, beavertails, poutine, and once a New Years Day brunch at Oliver Bonacini Cafe Grill. We are not a family of skiers, so we walk around the village and then head back to the Pretty River Valley Country Inn, where we stay with our oldest family friends.