And it starts...

Last night I stayed home to work on some Christmas projects

and started the marathon of watching my favorite holiday movies:

"Smiling's my favorite!"

I could watch this movie every day of my life

"Aunt Clara had for years labored under the delusion that

I was not only perpetually 4 years old, but also a girl."

~ Ralphie as an adult referring to his bunny pajamas

So great, I love Christmas time!

I’ll Take Coal! Just Let Me GO!

It's that time of year for holiday cheer, pretty lights and....

Sketchy Santas!!

These guys put the "NO in Noel"...

Jingle Bells aka. Fast Bellz

So Charlie is learning how to use the Video editing software he bought earlier this year. After we finished decorating the Christmas tree, we decided to have some fun with it...

France Never Invades Anywhere

Charlie and I ate lunch at our current favorite burger joint.

 On our last visit we had the pleasure of overhearing a converstation between an interestingly/strange lady and her husband.

The whole time we were there she was blabbering on about all things French.

So when we sat down today Charlie began to talk about France since she wasn't there to do it this time.

It took me a second to catch on... 

Charlie: Did you hear that France reestablished their monarchy last night and they invaded Sicily this morning?

Me: WHAT?!? Who's their king?

Charlie: Jean Reno (as in Steve Martin's sidekick in Pink Panther, pictured below).

Me: Well now I know you're kidding.

Charlie: Yea the French don't invade anything, they get invaded.

LOL

Creepy Neighbor

Charlie: Jonathan looks a little different since we got back.

Me:  Different...as in a woman?

Charlie: No, as in his head's a different shape

Here's to starting the month off with a smile!

{via}

Pura Vida - Thanks and Gig 'Em

We hit the beach EARLY this morning so we could have a full last day in CR.

I teased Charlie that the "surf wax" that came with his board rental was just a huge block of bubbalicious gum.

Here's our little Yaris rental all loaded up.

There was a whole lotta this going down today and I am happy as a clam!

Bodies in the sand...

Tropical drinks melting in your hand...

{via Beach Boys}

{pedicure, it make look nice, it's so sexy, it's better for you}
These two macaws flew out of a palm tree right next to me. 

Aren’t they beautiful?

So crazy to see these animals in the wild and not just at the zoo.

After "beachin'" it up we came back home to watch the sunset from our balcony.

Not a bad spot to be blogging at!

We finished off the night with our usual ice cream stop.

Here is our lovely "helado barista" Monica who is originally from Washington D.C.
She runs the TCBY here in Jaco and is awesome!
We love making new friends!

Adios Costa Rica, Pura Vida!

or as we Texas Aggies say, Thanks and Gig 'Em!

Flying in the rainforest and chillin' at Hermosa

Our canopy zip line tour of the rainforest was fantastic…and a little scary.
Apparently the zip lines (how you get from tree to tree on the wire) could be up to 300 feet in the air.
 

I tried not to think about that part.

Notice the high tech green matresses they have set up to keep us from crashing into the trees at 60 mph.
More on that later...

  The guides had fun telling us how it was their first day on the job, etc.

 I guess people who work in possibly dangerous professions think it’s funny to freak out their clientele.

Luckily I’d heard that song and dance from the skydive instruction before and that was a significantly more frightening experience.

Remember those green mattresses?  Check out what likes to live behind them…

Our guides said their names are Lupita, Wilson and Mike.  There are over 100 species of bats in Costa Rica and 3 of them are the vampire kind.

This is a fruit loving white-nosed coati from the raccoon family. 
The staff at the zip line place leave fruit rines to lure him out and work the tourist crowds.Sweet lookin’ but most of them have rabies L

We wrapped up the day watching the surfers and the sunset at our favorite place, The Backyard Bar.

On our way to dinner (which turned into us just getting groceries and eating at the condo since the place we wanted to go was closed on Sunday) we saw this big tortoise crossing the road.  
He must have been in a hurry because I’ve never seen a turtle move that fast!  Well relatively speaking…I was worried that he might get hit out in the road like that but he turned himself around and made his way back to the beach.