The Christmas Spirit....

it's totally within me.

i'm so excited to go home and put the lights on our tree tonight

hang out, and enjoy our weekend memories.

we thought it would be fun to make our blog festive this year.

we are almost done with our christmas shopping!

yes i may be crazy, but i hate fighting the crowds + picked over selections.

i haven't gone so far as to put up christmas music on the blog,

but just you wait ;)

Boston

We have been on so many incredible travels this year that it's hard to pick our favorites,
but this has to be at the top of the list. Boston is so amazing, as we knew it would be!!
It was also really very fun to share our memories with Bunny, Papa, Mama & Al.

You can't get much better than that.

The first day we walked the Freedom Trail-
a 2.5 mile red painted trail leading to 16 nationally significant historic sites.
That was really fun. We saw all of the sites of significance in the founding our country.
The first schoolhouse in the nation, the place where the Constitution was read for the first time to the public, the boston tea party site, the graveyard where prominent U.S. leaders are buried, Paul Revere's home, the Church that Paul Revere road to warn the people how the British were approaching (1 if by land, 2 if by sea), etc. It is an incredible city + so cool to experience the history that made our country what it is today. We are big history nerds so we really enjoyed that--and we got quite a workout walking all over the city of Boston! The next day we toured Fenway Park. This was probably a big highlight for both of us-another incredible landmark in the history of baseball & a really cool experience. We got to go inside the press box, the green monster & all over the ballpark. I know Jay loved this part too. We also visited Harvard...what a beautiful campus! we lucked out with really nice warm weather and it was the perfect time to be in Boston during the fall. Jay had his first experience on a subway and was really impressed.

It's so fun to experience things for the first time together and I'm glad neither of us had been there yet. We went to the markets for shopping, ate delicious fresh seafood (yes, even Jay had some!!) and had fun together. We stayed at the Back Bay Hotel....and would highly recommend it. It's a 5 star hotel right in the heart of Downtown. It was formerly the police station/headquarters that was rennovated into a hotel so the architexture and history was really cool. If you visit Boston-eat at the Atlantic Fish Company. So delicious! On our last day there we watched the filming of Knight and Day with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. I met Tom Cruise.

we are easily entertained.

I found a Twilight store.

steps of the Harvard library.

I'm proud of myself for already getting these up here-usually I put it off and they are either late or I never post them (Osceola, oops!!) I'm trying to get better at posting right away while the memories are fresh in our minds so we can share better with you. =)

Thoughts on Thursdays

I know it's late but it's still Thursday =)

Here are my thoughts on marriage today.

Sometimes it's ok to shut the world out.

It's nice to take time away from the hustle+bustle and just be alone once in awhile.

people give me a hard time when i don't answer my phone at night.

i rarely ever do. it's not you.

there's a reason+ method to my madness. when i'm home i want to be "there"

and spend time with my husband. i don't want to spend it on the phone.

in fact most days i wish i didn't even have a cell phone.

i'm very old-fashioned in the way that i like face to face contact.

amidst the busy-ness of our lives we find it amazing to turn off our phones,

grab a bottle of wine and lay on the floor and watch a movie together.

we love to hibernate.

It's ok to shut the world out.

Here we are.

tonight we're watching game 6 of the world series. we hope the yankees don't win.

i'm smelling the yummy goodness from our christmas pine candle.

we ran errands + got jay some nice clothes for boston.

i'm editing + blogging + my boys are keeping me company.

what else. big game tomorrow. al's in the championship game for the state title.

we're leaving on a jet plane friday. which means thursday is my friday!

darn yankees.

xx abbey

Different

people always say you feel the same after you marry then before.

that marriage just makes you official on a piece of paper.

i feel different.

we live in the same house, and work the same jobs.

we are the same people.

but we're not.

i feel butterflies.

i love being introduced as a wife.

there's just something special about it.

i feel different and i like it very much.

{life}

dear life,

I promise to return to you soon.

lately I've been busy with all the responsibility that comes along with adulthood.

but this weekend, you + me baby. it's on.

let's laugh with bunny and share secrets with papa.

let's cherish time with mama + al.

let's sneak glances + hand squeezes with jay.

we'll catch up with you.

and get to know each other again.

and it will be beautiful.

we'll see you in Boston.

xx abbey.

Big week.

So this weekend didn't turn out exactly as planned because I got sick, so we had some changes of plans but overall it was a really good weekend. We ended up staying around home and had Monica and Chris over to watch the Gator game and we played cribbage. I really just wanted to rest up so it was a perfect day! On Halloween we headed to a low key party at Becca and Brent's. There were about 10-15 people there so it was perfect. We dressed up as Bella and Edward from Twilight! It was fun =) We painted Jay's face pale and doused him in glitter! I wore a brown wig and frumpy clothes a la Bella Swan. We were very dramatic in these images. It's really hard to take serious pictures when you are dressed up so funny! It definetly took us a couple of tired with the neck-sniffing picture ;)
I couldn't kick my germs though and Sunday I paid for it. We watched the Vikes game like usual at my Moms and then we came home and put up our Christmas tree! Yep, you heard me right. We had so much fun!! We are going to be out of town the next two weekends, & we usually put it up mid-November....so we decided last night would be a good time unless we wanted to wait until the weekend before Thanksgiving. We LOVE the Christmas season so we are the early decorators. Plus we don't really have any "Thanksgiving" decorations, & we don't usually celebrate Thanksgiving at our house so it's not usually a problem to have Christmas decorations up. Now the house is so cheery and colorful and fun. We listened to Christmas music and watched the World Serious game. We went to bed early around 9:30 to get ready for our week...hopefully a few soccer games at the dome, some photography, and then Boston on Friday! Our travel adventures continue =) Oh, & check this out.