This and That

Finally (maybe?) getting back into the swing of things after the holidays. This post will be disjointed and stream of consciousness, so what else is new, right?

(here, I'll even number it, so it will give the impression of being organized.)

1. We had a great Christmas. One of the best ones we've ever had, if not THE best one. We set up a new gift giving system and it worked so well, that's what we'll be doing from here on out. Our new system was that each of the six of us gave ONE gift to everyone else. The kids loved it. They each got to go shopping for everyone else, and they got to help wrap the gifts they were giving. They finally understood the concept of "Better to give than to receive." After they checked out what Santa brought, we did gifts by gift giver. E.g.- Ryan passed out his gifts to everyone else, and we all opened them together while he got to watch and enjoy the reactions. Then there were thank yous and hugs all around, and then it was the next person's turn to pass out what they were giving. It just. . .worked. The awesome side effect? The presents weren't just a huge pile that got torn through in five minutes flat, AND for the first year ever, not a single one of the children asked "Is that all?" Even though they each only opened 4 presents from our immediate family, it was enough. (They only really opened 4, because my gift was one for the whole family. A ginormous telescope!)

2.) New Year's turned out to go just as well. We did our usual of gorging on snack foods for dinner and drinking sparkling cider. Then we lit fireworks and sparklers outside until they were all used up and we were frozen. Everyone came in, warmed up with hot cocoa, and hung out until it was close to midnight. We all sat around the computer as a family and rang in the new year watching the live webcast from Times Square.

3.) The hubby stunned me this Christmas. There is a lens I have been pining for, for a really long time. It's an expensive one, though, so I told him to not even think about it. The lens was a macro lens. I've been trying to emulate macro photography with the lenses I had, because I think as a photographer, it's one of the places my heart really lies. Like I said though, macro lenses are $$$$. I opened one Christmas morning. I looked at my husband annoyed that he had spent money I specifically told him not to. That's when I opened another little gift he had wrapped up. It turned out to be a little tin containing a great deal of money. I looked at him, astonished and trying to get some answers. The answer left me shocked. The money in the tin was because he had sold his trombone. The hubby actually owns a few trombones, but this was THE trombone, the one he'd had forever and was his main horn for most of that time. I tried to tell him I couldn't accept it, that it was just TOO big of a gesture, but he waved me off. He says that he had outgrown that horn and didn't like it anymore, and one of his friends has a teenager who is getting serious about playing trombone, and they needed something for him. I'm still not quite over it, but I'm learning to accept it.

4.) Macro photography turns out, really IS my calling. Check out my Flickr set to see. New Macro Lens Set I've gotten quite a lot of buzz about those snowflake ones, and I've been pretty tickled by it.

5.) As you can see from those snowflake photos in my Flickr set, it snowed here in Georgia. Twice.

6.) I am now a ball of stress and will be for the next few weeks. We have to get our house "Company ready". I didn't find out this company was coming until this past weekend, and they will be here in 2 weeks or something like that. So, I am currently covered in paint and spackle, and probably will be for a while.

7.) Some stray cats are choosing to battle it out in our back yard and I'm pretty sure one of them is now under our house.

8.) I think it maybe time for a blog revamp. Maybe I'll even finally change the URL too. I'll have to keep you all posted on that. I think I'm finally ready to move away from the black, though.