It's Looking a Lot Like Christmas Around Here

The kids all went "shopping" in my room today for goodies for each other in preparation for Three Kings' Day and now there's quite a pile of goodies under the tree waiting for Sunday. This is fun! Little ones sneaking around with bags of goodies and finding a place to secretly wrap them (and using way too much paper and tape of course!) is just making my week.

I decided with certainty that buying things ahead of time (I scour after Christmas sales and St. Vinnie's for goodies so that everyone can give a present to everyone) is much easier than shopping with the kids. For a lot of reasons. Not that I never take the kids shopping (believe me, I do!) but deliberate shopping with each child during this season would completely do me in.

Besides the Christmas fun with the kids, I'm working on Christmas cards. Really! I've been uploading batches of pictures to Walgreens.com so that I can include a family photo with each card (totally gave up on the Christmas letter idea) as well as some extra photos for those we've visited this year or things like that. I think some of these Christmas cards will also turn out to be thank you cards of sorts for the wonderful hospitality we've received over the year - particularly during our trip to California. Running through photos is a delightful way to finish out the year.

Funny how much of a photo year it's been this year. This is partly because of the new camera we bought this year. (I'm SO happy we decided to do that.) The other reason it's been a photo year is the quantity of celebrations that have involved photos. We're definitely photo people and tend to get involved with anything involving photos - like the photo boards for my in-laws' anniversary (which I also made into a blurb.com book for them and recently put together smaller versions as KK gifts for John's siblings).

I may have some more end of year wrap-up posting over the next few days, but in the meantime, Happy New Year!

Dog and Girl on a Snowy Christmas Eve

DSC_1565, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

Kate had a great time with Charlotte in the snow. One of Charlotte's very favorite things is to try to catch snowballs with her mouth.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

Hope you are all enjoying a blessed Christmas. We've been too busy here to do much blogging. We sang for the Christmas Eve Mass as usual and headed to my in-laws for the family gathering. John took the older four (by request) to midnight Mass so most of us were up REALLY late. Christmas morning was just right. Christmas afternoon we had over 40 people at our house for a casual, but fun Christmas party. Life is good! :)

Thankful Mondays: Cold Weather Edition

DSC_1451, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

Today I'm feeling grateful for:

New back tires on the van.

Anti-lock brakes.

Thinsulate.

Scarves and hats and gloves.

Hot tea and hot cocoa.

Four-kid-powered snow shoveling (with some help from the adults too).

House insulation and central heat.

The Department of Public Works.

Weather's been alternating here between zeroish with heavy winds and quite a bit warmer (20s and 30s) with snow. We're expecting snow to fall starting tomorrow morning at 5 am and not stop until sometime the night of Christmas Eve. Ah, arouind here we're not *dreaming* of a white Christmas!

Too Funny!

Our black lab mix loves the snow in just this sort of way, though I've never seen her in snow that goes over her head...



hat-tip Ten Kids and a Dog

Decorating the Tree

DSC_1400, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

We've been working on the tree on and off since Sunday night and it's just about done. The kids love to help!

Remind me next year to not get a long-needled Christmas tree. You need gloves to work on anything but the outer-most ornaments - the needles are REALLY sharp!

Frankly Speaking

"Mommy, can we have some egg noggin after dinner?"

More Playing with Cameras in the Snow (at Midnight)

I thought this contrast in photo settings was sort of interesting (again, it was really hard to see well enough to focus). I love that you can see some stars in some of the shots - particularly the one that looks like daytime:

First with a flash, just to get the idea:



With a quick exposure, no flash (probably the "truest" shot):



This one was with the regular no flash setting (a really long exposure - and the sky came out way too light):

Midnight Shadows

Midnight Shadows on the Snow, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

One night last week I was up late fussing on the computer after everyone else had gone to bed. I finally started heading up when I looked out the front window and suddenly wished that I knew how to paint. It was a clear night with a beautiful ground-covering of snow and a full moon! The land and everything on it looked almost as if it was daytime (though the sky was much darker), you could see everything perfectly and there were perfect shadows everywhere.

I had to bundle up and try my hand at the camera outside. It was pretty difficult to capture pictures because it was too dark for the camera to handle auto-focus and really too dark for me to see what I was trying to focus on. Naturally using the flash would ruin all of the beautiful shadows and subtlety.

This was probably the best shot I got of tree shadows on the snowy ground.

Please Pray for the Lorang Family

They were in a serious car accident a few days ago. The 17 year old daughter was killed and the mother is still too confused (from a head injury) to be told what has happened. The younger children were uninjured, but are certainly suffering a great deal.

Details on their aunt's blog here.