home safely: but what day/time is it?

hi everyone! we are home safe and sound in seattle and thoroughly happy to be back. don't get me wrong - the trip was fantastic! but it's always so nice to return home to your own bed after a few weeks away!

paris by night was fun. i say "by night" because we didn't see it by day at all... on 12/31, we both spent all day in the hotel room--feeling unwell. i stepped out a couple times to pick up some staples from the boulangerie (ie, baguettes and chocolate pastries!), and also bought a bottle of champagne for NYE (actually, it was prosecco...i come all the way to paris and can only find an italian deli from which to buy sparkling wine).



staying in all day was smart, though, because we had to save our energy for new year's eve! we headed out around 8 pm to meet our friends seth & cara to ring in 2008. walked to the champs elysees, the tree-lined street alit with gorgeous purple 'raindrop' lights; then made our way to a bridge on the seine, looking off to the eiffel tower. this is where we welcomed 2008, passing around a couple bottles of champagne and a huge bag of candy that nate spent way too much on (but it was yummy). made our way back to the PACKED metro -- we let 2 full trains pass us by before squeezing on to the next -- and headed back to our hotel.


the alarm went off much too early at 8, and i was not feeling so well (too much bubbly, too little food -- a classic combo), but we made it to the airport and had relatively uneventful flights home. again, i use my words judiciously: "relatively uneventful" because when we were waiting to board the flight in paris, we had to quickly evacuate the loading area when the workers discovered some unattended baggage. turned out to be nothing, but we were feeling grateful that the concern was taken seriously enough to move all of us, just in case.

i've been downloading pictures off the camera all morning (500!), and intend to send a link to the lot of them at some future point. for now, i'm attaching a few highlights here to encapsulate the trip! (also just posted another posting of pictures-only!)

big love to you all, and thanks for following this while we were abroad!
xo,
*A & N