Walking in a winter wonderland...

Since Bryan and Candy had an early flight we decided to spend their final night with us in Boston. Since we had such a big night last night, none of us were moving very fast so unfortunately by the time we drove up there and checked in it was already dark. Fortunately that didn't stop us from walking around. What started off as a brief history tour led us to walking pretty much the entire Freedom Trail in the snow. Afterwards we stopped at Mikes Pastries (a Coyer visit staple) for lots of yummy chocolate treats. Hey the diet will start tomorrow right?

hello!

Walking toward Faneuil Hall

walk, walk, walk

me and Candy at the site of the Boston Massacre

Where everyone knows your name!

Bunker Hill monument. It was closed, thank goodness, I was in no mood to climb it...again.

Yum!

Cute hubs

The next day we had to say goodbye to our friends, we miss you guys so much already! Thanks for an awesome week!

Bringin' in 2010 in style...

For New Year's our dear dear friends Bryan and Candy came to visit. Todd and Bryan go way back to when they were Drill Instructors at MCRD San Diego and Candy and I pretty much became instant friends the minute we met. Throughout these last 6 years they have become family and I can't put into words how much fun we had this visit. We really know some of the coolest people. As per the usual there was a lot of sightseeing, drinks, laughs, food, drinks and more laughs.

The highlight of our weekend was by far New Years. A couple months ago we realized that one of the mansions had a gala on New Years and figured why not? First of all, as previously stated, I will get dressed up ANYTIME and seriously how often do you get to party in a mansion? Ya, we were sold. Belcourt castle had a 20 piece orchestra, appetizers, drinks, dancing, it really was something to check off your list of things to do one day. We ended up having probably the best New Years I have ever had, it was really cool.

Belcourt Castle (obviously in a warmer season)

All dressed up and ready to go!

Candy enjoying a glass of champagne while waiting for our cab

The handsome boys

Bryan and Candy in front of Belcourt

The ladies in the lobby

Candy and Maribel

Toasting to the New Year

cute friends

While the boys ran off to the restroom this gentleman asked Candy to dance. It was so sweet!

Balloons that fell from the ceiling at midnight

The fireplace in the hall

The ladies

The bathrooms weren't marked very well so on our mission we found this room. The mansion was beautiful.

The Fullers


me and Maribel

The Group!

Happy New Year! I think 2010 is going to be a great year!

Merry Christmas!

This Christmas could not have been more perfect. Snow. check. My sweet Todd was home. check. good friends. check. lots of gifts. check. check. check.

Christmas eve we decided to carry on my family's tradition of going to the movies and dinner out and when we got home we opened up our PJs for Christmas morning (a new Coyer tradition) and then off to bed we went in hopes that Santa might pay us a visit and by Christmas morning we were far from disappointed!

Since we couldn't go home this year we decided to go big on gifts for each other and I think we may have gone just a smidge too big, there were presents everywhere. All our families spoiled us rotten and we spoiled each other rotten. The best part is we got to skype with both our families so we at least got to *see* them on Christmas which I think made us feel a bit more homesick than usual. We would have loved to be with them. Besides that we had a wonderful and relaxing day. We woke up early, opened gift after gift after gift, had a delicious breakfast and spent the rest of the day playing with all our fun gadgets and toys. In the evening we went over to our friends Robert and Nikki's house for a casual Christmas dinner. Their family tradition is everyone stays in their pajamas all day and not being ones to fight tradition that's pretty much what we did!

We hope everyone had a wonderful day!

Thunder and her new friend, Lola. Lola is my cousin's cute kitty that decided to spend the holidays with us. :)

Todd with a new poster for what we call his 'I love me' room. Its pretty much all Marine Corps goodies. :) How cute are his reindeer pants?

Trying on my new Ugg boots

more gifts!

many hours and many gifts later

Maribel getting the food ready at Nikki's

The fattest Christmas tree I've ever seen. The set up in Nikki and Roberts dining room.

Hanging out in our pajamas.

Merry Christmas!!

The Blizzard of '09

Last night we went to sleep with a few flakes and woke up with this! It's so pretty and even prettier now that we aren't trying to travel in it! In total we got over 20 inches of snow...yowzer!

Our front porch

Our back yard. Those things poking out of the ground are actually our lawn chairs.

hello!

Our poor civic

Todd trying to dig the civic out.

Shan supervising Todd :)

We are so lucky someone came and shoveled our sidewalks!

Todd taking a break from shoveling

Shan just taking a break

We hope this snow sticks til Christmas!

Thunder Cat: Santa's 10th Reindeer.

What are the holidays for if you can't harass your pets?

Cat reindeer costume: $4 at Target

Time spent getting cat in the reindeer costume: 2 minutes

Making lots of holiday memories: Priceless

A very unhappy reindeer

Unfortunately her paws were too big to complete the costume.

Todd liberating our sweet kitty.

She forgave us an hour later but if she sees you pick up those antlers she doesn't stick around too much longer. Poor thing!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It may still be November but its after Thanksgiving so our Christmas stuff is going up! I am also pretty sad to report we are one of the last houses to decorate in our neighborhood. ::ugh its still November people!:: Oh well. I am so lucky to have a husband that enjoys decorating for the holiday as much as I do (or at least pretends to), aww I love him. We opened ourselves up a nice bottle of wine, put on some holiday tunes and revamped our house. I love this time of year!

See ya later fall decorations!

Todd constructing our tree.

Yes we have a fakey. When we moved here it was just a few days before Christmas and we had no idea how to leave our neighborhood let alone how to find a tree farm. Walmart saved the day and its been our tree ever since.

Fanning out the branches is an art form.

Cute hubs

Thunder was pretty thrilled to have a new place to hang out

All done!

Merry Christmas!