TOP TEN THINGS WE'VE ENJOYED MOST ABOUT BEING BACK IN THE STATES:
1. The Family. All 35 of them.
2. Movies in Movie Theaters. Popcorn. Uncomfortable seats. Surround sound. Noisy whisperers. Endless trailers. All that stuff. Pure bliss.
3. Snow.
4. Whole Foods.
5. Great Steak.
6. Soft sheets and a firm mattress.
7. Fast wireless.
8. New York, New York.
9. No mosquitoes. At least not this time of year.
10. Paved roads.


TOP TEN REASONS WE CAN'T WAIT TO GET BACK TO COSTA RICA:
1. Warm weather.
2. Sunny beaches.
3. Swimming every day.
4. Our friends (our family away from family)
5. Fajitas at El Castillo.
6. Getting back to work.
7. Riding our bikes.
8. Monkeys howling in the yard.
9. Reading in the hammock.
10. "Nanny time."

Happy New Year.  2008 will be hard to top, but we're gonna do it anyway.

Between packing, moving, shopping, traveling, and partaking in the holiday festivites, I plan on being a bad blogger for the next three weeks or so. But as soon as we return to Costa Rica we have some fun shoots planned and I look forward to posting those in January.  We will also be making an exciting announcement about the future of Comfort Studio sometime after the 12th, so stay tuned. 

We will be spending the holidays in New Jersey, hoping for snow, so Tully can discover the joys of sledding, snowball fights, and building real snowmen. Hopefully we will get into the holiday spirit once we arrive there on Monday, because it's pretty easy to forget it's even December here. Aside from the occasional strand of twinkling lights, there are very few reminders that Christmas is upon us. We don't watch a ton of tv, but it seems that even the over-the-top bombardment of Christmas commericals is at a minimum this year.  Plus we both grew up on the east coast and have come to associate holiday season with fuzzy hats and mittens and fires in the fireplace.  Not much of any of those things in these parts.

I hope everyone enjoys a lovely and cozy holiday season with friends and family.  Warmest Wishes from all of us at Comfort Studio.  I have a feeling 2009 is going to be the best year yet.

Part fair, part rodeo, and part dancy party, the small town fiestas that happen every weekend leading up to the holidays are pure Costa Rican enjoyment.  All the locals come out to celebrate, eat, mingle, sing karaoke, get down, and in the case of the men, show off their bull-dodging-while-intoxicated skills.  We were lucky enough not to witness any gorings, though we've heard tales...  As per usual, we had the camera in hand documenting all the local flavor.  The color images are Joe's, the black & whites mine.*










*This one color shot of Tully chowin' down on a caramel-stuffed churro is mine, too.  And yeah, it tastes as good as it sounds.

22 adults + 9 kids + 4 dogs + an $85 turkey + 2 football games + 40 beers + 1 birthday cake = a Costa Rican Thanksgiving.





Let me introduce you to Surfside's most eligible bachelors...


Catch 'em while you can, ladies...
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.