What a crazy whirlwind year 2008 has been. I am just as excited with the start of the new year with new beginnings.

With that in mind, I wanted to share Brian’s masterpiece, our tree. Every year this is his big project…and I love how the lights warm the house and are just as important as the ornaments on our tree. It’s a bit of a monster tree. The tree itself is 9 feet, but combined with the star and the space below it, it comes out to around 12 feet. Thank goodness for high ceilings!:

And this year on a bit of impulse, we toured some tacky light houses in the Chesterfield/Richmond area and I think this will have to become an annual tradition with a bit more planning next time. The owners said their decorating took them about 7 weeks of hard work!:

I hope you and yours are having a wonderful holiday season.

One of my favorite things to do is travel. I love seeing new places, eating different foods and learning new cultures and interests. We definitely had a full year of travels and we concluded our 2008 travels with a trip to New Orleans. This was the first visit for both of us and it is a truly fascinating city.

We had to start our vacation with a visit to Cafe Du Monde in the Frencch Quarter. Everyone mentioned that we needed to try their beignets and cafe au lait. I think if I could, I would live on this stuff. It was so good, but messy! Thankfully Brian and I were able to indulge on their food because the place where we were staying was conveniently located between the Cafe Du Monde in the French Quarter and at Riverwalk, a shopping mall/center.

This was taken across the street from Cafe Du Monde:

And a photo of me enjoying my beignet (the first of many!):

We also headed out to the Garden District and wandered through their lovely neighborhoods. I love all the ironwork we saw, which was really ornate and intricate:

And visiting The Saint Louis Cathedral was really humbling when you think of the history and such beautiful art and glass:

Because we were there for a full week, we had lots of time to visit other museums and places of interest, including the Audubon Aquarium and Insectarium, perfect for us to be indoors on a rainy day. When we were at the aquarium, we saw some really unique sea creatures…like these seahorses:

And samples from the insectarium to try:

I think one of my favorite places to visit was the World War II Museum. We stayed until the museum closed, learning about the war from different perspectives. It was truly touching and educational. It was the perfect accompaniment to the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C. which we visited during the summer.

One of the amusing highlights of our trip was that it snowed! This was the view from one of the windows when we woke up in the morning. It was really funny because when we stepped out for breakfast, there were people outside taking pictures of the snow!

It was a fun week, but I am just as glad to be home and getting ready for Christmas!