Every night that we've turned the lights on our Christmas tree this year, I can't help but smile. Our gracious and thoughtful friends and families have gifted us with several new ornaments this year, and they remind me of what a wonderful year 2014 has been thus far.

We've had happy times with our friends, finally met our newborn nephew, traveled, and we got married too -- all in a year!

I devoted the early months of 2014 prepping for our wedding -- DIY projects, contacting vendors, arranging and participating in events with our bridal party, etc. etc. These were hectic, yet rewarding months. 

By the half-way mark of 2014, we officially became husband and wife! We had a blast on our wedding day and hope all of our attendees did too! #BestDayEver

So thankful for everyone's love and support, seriously. 

My bridal party was with with me every step of the way -- from start to finish. 

Our wonderful and talented photographer, Jennifer Fujikawa, captured all of the special moments....and then she went above and beyond and gifted us a special ornament yesterday!! Such a sweet and thoughtful gesture. My hubby and I smiled when we opened her gift because the photo inside the ornament frame turned out to be one of the photos we love most from that day (& have a larger version already framed)! We're all on the same page here. 

My in-laws have always welcomed me as family, and now it is official :) My mom-in-law gifted us with this "best dog ever" ornament this year {she gifts us an ornament each year} for Louie. It's in the shape of a treat jar with small dog biscuits inside.

In the fall, we went on our dream honeymoon to Europe :) We navigated through two countries and attempted our best to speak their languages {at least the bare minimum}. Parlez-vous anglais?

Now onto winter, we've finally started getting used to being referred to as "Mr & Mrs," and I've legally changed my last name. What a process that was {those that have gone through the name changing process -- my hats off to you}!

Out of all the different types of weather, rain brings back a lot of memories and feelings for me.

Back in grade school, I looked forward to rainy days because that meant we were able to play "Heads up, Seven-up" as a class. When I was given the chance to press down on someone's thumb, I always chose an acquaintance -- someone I was not quite friends with -- just to make the guessing part more difficult. Looking back, I remember most kids chose their close friends or their crushes. It just seemed too obvious when that happened, and it wasn't much fun in my book. Have you played this game, and if so, did you enjoy it? 

In middle school, I remember an incident when my childhood best friend and I were waiting for her grandmother to pick us up after school, but she didn't come after 30 minutes of waiting. It started drizzling. We decided to take a chance and walked to her grandmother's home together. Midway through the walk, it started pouring. We decided to stop by a fast food joint and pooled our coins to share fries inside and talked until the rain started to clear up. That was one of my most memorable times with her, even though all we did was talk about the things we did all the time, which was: "which boy do you think is cute/funny/smart?" and "if you could be anyone from tv, which character would you want to be?"

Then there was this one time in high school when I lost by a point on a tie-breaker in a tennis match against our rival school and it was sprinkling. I shed a few tears in frustration as soon as my ball hit the net {on my side}, because I knew my team was counting on me to win. I guess it didn't help that I was mentally and physically exhausted by then. I sniffled my tears away and tried to convince my teammates that my tears were being mistaken by the rain -- they didn't buy it for one second. Smart girls.

Now as an adult, I enjoy the rain for the most part. I find the gentle sound of the rain hitting the window panes to be soothing. The only thing I do not like is when Louie shakes all over the house after she's gone outside to do her business and splatters water all over me. Oh, and driving to and from work in the rain. That's always a drag and adds a good 30 extra minutes on my commute.

Do you have any memories that are triggered by the rain?

Louie is so pleased with these items, which makes me very happy {her favorite is the cornucopia toy}! We plan to feed her the beef stew tomorrow, so she can have a special dinner like the rest of us. Thank you Louie, for just being you.

I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving, and hope you are able to spend time with your loved ones :)

Halloween is only five days away! Do you have any fun plans or are you enjoying the festivities quietly in the comfort of your home like my hubby and I are? We really enjoy the Halloween ambiance and decor (but don't care too much about going wild with adult costume parties and the like. I know, B-O-R-I-N-G. But I love seeing kids and pets in their costumes, and we've managed to get a few shots of Louie in her costumes this year).

Speaking of Halloween decor, as some of you may already know, we are big fans of museum quality skeletons. We only have a handful that we've managed to collect over the past few years (as a side note: we only collect oddities that have been sourced ethically -- from animals that were already found dead, usually via natural death or via road kill -- and the legal ones). I am very squeamish when it comes to blood and flesh (one of the fundamental reasons I could never be a professional in the health field and why I faint every time I have to have my blood drawn!), but I find that skeletons offer the purest form, and you can learn so much about the animal from it (e.g. what types of food they ate, decay from illness, etc.).

Which brings us to today's post -- our experience from the Paris Catacombs. The Paris Catacombs is an underground ossuary which holds the remains of nearly six million individuals. In the 18th century, the city was experiencing an overcrowding in cemeteries and came up with a solution to transfer the bones to the catacombs.

The tunnel is nearly 20 meters beneath the city -- 130 steps to go down on a spiral staircase and 83 steps to go up. Only a small portion of the catacombs (2km) is open to the public, but there are dozens of secret entrances around Paris (it's illegal to travel in these secret passages).

I apologize for the blurry photos; once you are inside the ossuary there are no flashes allowed and the camera we took on this trip is not stellar in the dark. Which brings me to share another fun tidbit-- the tunnel is still dim today, but at least there are several lights that are hung up. Until the 80s, visitors had to carry around candles as a source of light! Which begs the question...Can you imagine how difficult (and spooky) it must have been for the building crew in the 18th century to transport and arrange bones in the dark?!

Visiting the catacombs was definitely a treat for us, but I wouldn't say it's for everyone -- especially if you suffer from claustrophobia. If you plan to visit, try to get there as early as possible and be prepared to wait in line for at least an hour to two hours -- the catacombs only allows up to 200 people to visit at once. We decided to pay a little bit more and purchased a group tour in advance. The advantage of traveling in a group tour is that your tour guides will wait in line for you while you walk around the neighborhood and grab a cup of coffee (or whatever you fancy), and they will give you the low-down on the history and provide interesting facts, and will also try to answer most questions you may have. If you decide to go through a group tour, you'll need to plan ahead as they tend to book up far in advance.

In the Trianon garden, Marie Antoinette requested that a fake peasant village (hamlet) be constructed. Although the hamlet itself was fake, a real, functional farm was tended to here by a family named Brussard (as a side note -- we saw animals ranging from goats to peacocks to muskrats here). Although it struck the wrong chord with the general public for the Queen to spend state funds to build an elaborate and fake hamlet in the comfort of her Estate, it was seen by some as an attempt for Marie Antoinette to get in touch with with a simpler life -- something she may actually have preferred to compared to the extravagant lifestyle as a royal in the Palace of Versailles.

The ground was a lot to cover in a day, but well worth it! Again, so much history in Europe! :)