Snowshoe and good friends at Elk Lake

On December 27th, our last day of vacation, we headed out to the Goetz's home on Elk Lake for some time with family and friends. My grandma's both joined as well as my parent's, the Stilwill's and the whole Goetz clan. Great fun was had by all. We enjoyed a snowshoe on the Goetz's Elk Lake property, snacks, wine and good company!

Kate, Amy, and Laura

Justin (Amy's husband) and Mike

We had a great day and can't wait to get together with our long time Elk Lake friends again soon....

Christmas 2009 in Traverse City...

Mike and Bee (Christine and Todd's dog), on Christmas Eve/Christine's B-day. We spent Christmas Eve at the Elsenheimer farm, it was great fun to get to know the whole Elsenheimer family better! Mike and I attended church at TC Presby, and it was great to see familiar faces in the congregation where we were married.

Sibs in front of the Elsenheimer Tree

Christine and I with Bee, the poodle...

Mike and Avery, coloring one of her many Christmas gifts on Christmas Day!

The following day, Dec 26th, we celebrated Christmas with the extended Nichols clan...my dad's siblings and all of their kids....

My parent's beautiful tree...

I wish we had more pictures to share, next year we must get some group shots!

Oh Christmas Tree....

Christmas 09 came upon us before we knew it...and unfortunately since Mike and I had three weeks of work without any of the same days off, we didn't make it out to cut down a tree. Instead, we headed to a tree lot that boasted trees from Northern MI, which make getting it off a lot seem a little better. It was a mere 5 degrees the night we picked our tree...freezing!

It turned out really beautiful, and despite that fact that it was hand picked in a lot, not a forrest, we love it! Not nearly as fat as previous years :)

Internal Medicine Holiday Party 2009

Our holiday party was a great success again this year! Unfortunately I was on call until 8pm, so couldn't host the usual pre-party at our place......hopefully next year!

Nina, Meaghan, Laura and Alicia

All the girls :)

Connecticut Thanksgiving

Toby was sure glad to see us when we got home to Connecticut for Thanksgiving!

We were very happy to be able to have enough time to travel out to CT to spend Thanksgiving with the Howes! We had 4 days of relaxation and enjoyed exploring the cute little towns of CT.

The whole family on our last night.