Well, it is too overwhelming to think about blogging about our wedding. You will have to visit Facebook for that. I may muster up the courage to sift through the millions of photos and post an entry, but for now, I will focus on the holidays. I will say that we had a phenomenal day on September 25th, 2010 for our wedding. So we are now husband and wife and thoroughly enjoying married life!
The Holidays started out in November when my parents (& Lola) drove down to VA for Thanksgiving
We took lots of walks on the beach
We made Thanksgiving dinner in our tiny apartment kitchen!
A quaint little Thanksgiving meal.
After we finished up our very busy and crazy Fall semester, we headed down to Miami. We drove 18 hours and stayed overnight at our friends Jack & Jessica's house. This is their new baby, Nicolas! We had a great time visiting with them before they dropped us off to our Port to catch a Cruise on Norwegian Cruise Line for our delayed Honeymoon.
Setting Sail on our 5-day cruise! The cold front moved in this evening, and we awoke in the middle of the night to 15' swells rocking the boat. Because of the weather we could not make it to Grand Caymen our supposed first stop.
The Mexican Flag
We were able to stop in Cozumel and we hopped a ferry to the mainland (Playa del Carmen) and hired a taxi with another family we met on the cruise. The taxi took us straight to Tulum. The family we met were so much fun to hang out with! We swapped traveling stories and hope to keep in touch. If you are reading this - we had a great time with you Nancy, Victor, Alex, & Tori!
The beautiful Mayan ruins overlook the ocean!
We took a quick dip in the beach below - the water was beautiful!
We took our taxi driver out to lunch in Tulum, Mexico where we had a scrumptious meal
The streets of Playa del Carmen
Playa del Carmen
A Happy Hour Margarita after some tough holiday shopping!
Cozumel just before we had to get back on the ship.
Breakfast in bed!
Last night on the cruise, messing around on the ship - it was a beautiful night!
Who is that girl Tony is flirting with!
It was a beautiful Honeymoon cruise, though we wish we could have gone snorkeling in Grand Caymen. We did enjoy the food on the ship though...we ate our faces off! haha
On our drive home, we stopped in Clearwater, FL to visit my Aunt Chris & Uncle Tom. It was great to catch up with them!
We got to meet my cousins Joe & Theresa's son Steele for the first time
And here is their daughter Madison too.
We got back to VA for three days worth of work and then hopped right back into the car to drive up to CT for Christmas.
We got to see my God-daughter, Caitlyn and her parents Jen & Matt, for a fun, but brief visit on Christmas Eve. Caitlyn was much more interested in Tony than in me - she loved high-fiving with him!
She loved her gifts :)
This is the one photo I have from Christmas Eve at my cousin Dana's house. Susie - Erik's girlfriend drinking Aunt Theresa's home-made egg nog.
This picture is hilarious - so many subtitles I could write here... how about "Tony & Erik enjoying some quality time at the Holidays" ahaha
Christmas morning... Santa came for Lola too
Susie was so excited to get this coat - no more freezing her booty off in Boston
We met up with the other CT Benson's at the nursing home visiting Nana on the day after Chrismas. We had a great time hanging out with them for most of the day!
The snow started falling and we decided to head to our house for some leftover Turkey dinner after we tucked Nana into bed. We had a great afternoon visiting with Aunt Helen, Uncle George & Sara
Later that evening we celebrated Christmas with the Wallaces, for once EVERYONE was there! All the kids and their spouses. It was a great time exchanging gifts.
Meg, Jessica & Nicolas
Meg & Pete's daughter Ellie having fun playing with all of her new toys!
Lola enjoyed sleeping with Tony over vacation, often pushing me out of the bed in the morning!
We got to get up to the Cape at the end of the vacation and got to see the Massachusetts Bensons and Aunt Patty & Uncle Peter, too. I did not do a good job with the camera towards the end of the trip, but we had fun in the cozy cottage.
On our drive home we also stopped in New York City and were able to visit with Karen, Brian, Jim, Elizabeth & Juliette. The city was still reeling from the snow storm, piles of snow everywhere! After 13 hours of driving on Dec. 30th we arrived home in VA. Tony has been working at the Restaurant trying to make a few bucks more before he leaves that job in a week or so to fully focus on school and job search. We start back to school soon - this will be my final semester! Tony has a bit more coursework to do and then it is dissertation time.
All in all it was a fantastic & busy holiday. We are two very lucky people to have such wonderful friends and family. While we didn't get to see any of the Stafford's this holiday, we spoke to almost all of them. We'll see you all next year in Ohio!
We hope everyone had a very Merry Holiday and we wish all of you a healthy & happy New Year!
