Christmas day

Here are several photos of the scene on Christmas morning and then a few in the day. I feel like they really capture the general spirit of things. It was a happy day! I'm sooooo so so happy I got to spend it with my nieces so I could watch their enthusiasm over the gifts. :) :) Let's do it over again!

I don't know if you can tell, but she's into Minnie.

I just realized this might be the only photo of my sister's dog, Asher! Huh. Unless he snuck in some others. I probably should've made an effort to get a better picture. Also featuring K's zebra PJs!

E and her mama.

And my mom! Who hopefully doesn't mind I'm picturing her in her robe. I feel like this picture is so very Christmas morningy.

E couldn't wait to wear her "homet" for her new scooter.

K, looking at a photo of her new bike waiting at home.

I got E this Sophia (sp?) wooden "paper" doll. Really my mom helped pick it out--I had no idea who Sophia was.

Dad, just taking it all in with Rocky staying out of the way.

Later in the day we did a lot of quiet relaxing.

I was glad to have my laptop for some quiet game playing on some of the days.

Meanwhile, E played with stuffed animals in the entry way.

I think my dad was showing my sister and her husband some trip photos. What looks like a dog and Barbie in Santa hats is on TV. :P Wth?

More playing. Some of these were dog toys.

E's cute while doing pretty much anything. Including drinking sparkling cider from a bottle.

It was just a small extra gift I got for each girl, but they seemed to like them!

I still find it so cute when kids play on the computer, even though it's normal for them.

But N's been practicing since she was 1 and a half! :) She used to hop up and pretend to do what she saw her mom and sisters do.

Hey, sorry I still need to catch up on comment responses! I appreciate the comments I've received, but I easily fall behind. Maybe tomorrow I can work on it. Later!

Dewy pictures I took at Christmas

One morning during Christmas break, we woke up to a lot of fog outside. After breakfast I decided to go outside with my camera, and some of my nieces joined me at various points to observe the dew on the plants around my parents' yard. It was a fun nature break!

One of just a couple of remaining roses.

I had N stand behind the rosebud on the right so I could have her pink shirt as a background.

A closer crop on this rose.

My main fog companion, N. She was so sweet as she helped me find things to photograph and seemed genuinely in awe of all the pretty little details we came across. She also found some walnuts that the crows had dropped.

The previous night, someone found a little snail, so K held it up for me.

These remind me of those outdoor strings of lights that they have at parties and restaurants.

I went a little photo crazy on this.

I also had L stand behind it so she could show up in the droplets.

Closeup on a windshield.

Thanks for looking!

Christmas pix

I feel so behind on posting photos here! At least I haven't really taken any in January (typically a very slow month, and sort of a photography break for me), it's just all of the Christmas ones that I have left to edit. If you're like me, you're ready for spring and not necessarily in the mood to look at Christmas pictures, even though it was only a few weeks ago (which seems impossible). BUT! Too bad so sad, I'm posting them anyway. Here is the first set of what I like to call Christmas Vacation Assortment.

And by "assortment" I mean randomness. I just took pictures when the mood struck, so there's variety here, but I also missed photographing certain activities because I was enjoying my nieces instead of holding the camera. So here are some Starbucks mugs my mom is apparently collecting. Or at least inadvertently collecting. I like them. Poor New Mexico only gets one for the entire state.

I think it was the first night my sister's family arrived when we sat around the fire pit for awhile.

Rocky joined us.

N loves her Hello Kitty sleeping mask!

There are definitely a lot more photos of little E than any of the other girls. She's 3...I can't help but take pictures of her all the time! The other girls had their moments of way more pictures back when they were about this age, too! (Like that time I took a thousand pictures of N, for instance.)

Anyway, E loved this little display right at a perfect height for her to admire, and even though we told her not to pick the stuff up, she couldn't help herself.

E being silly, dancing around to a musical stuffed animal.

More dancing.

My parents actually had a real tree again! We grew up always having real trees, but when I was an adult they bought a fake and had it for years. I guess they got rid of it so I was thrilled to have the real thing again. I know it's a hassle, but it's just better!

E wasn't as cooperative for this picture, but I loved that N was happily posing with her sister. Right afterwards, though, E wriggled away and N had hurt feelings.

We spent a lot of time in this "Christmas room" (the livingroom) because I looooove the couch in here and it was all nice and festive.

E, watching Polar Express in the trailer where some of us slept. She lays so cutely.

My parents got Shari's Berries!

And truffles. And I got to have one. :)

On Christmas Eve I didn't get a chance to do portraits with E (I did them with the other girls--photos to come), but I wanted to make sure and get a picture of her in her dress. She had already opened her Christmas Eve present of slippers, so I thought the combo outfit was cute. And then she's just putting on shoes in the other picture, and she put them on the right feet! Some kids are cute enough that even putting on shoes is photo-worthy.

I'll just keep posting these in sections until I'm done! I don't know how many posts it'll take. Check back for more tomorrow!

I also took a lot of video, because my new camera does video and I had to try it out. I don't know if you're interested in those, but I may post one or five later.