Scavenger Hunt Sunday 12.23.12

I've been so busy this week, I almost didn't make it for the Scavenger Hunt.  But I wanted to make sure to participate in the last hunt of 2012.

We are almost ready for Christmas.  Keira helped me get most of the wrapping done today.  One of the blessings of having a teenage daughter.  :)  Actually I thought I was done until I found a few more things in my office.  We plan to bake a few cookies tomorrow, enjoy a Christmas Eve candlelight service at our church, then relax with family at our house on Christmas Day.

Now onto the hunt ...

{joy}

Aside from the joy that comes from my Lord and Savior, Jesus, and the joy that my family brings (sometimes!), I am finding joy in the fact that I'm done painting my living room.  :)  These beige walls were a rusty red-orange color for the past four years.  I masked, primed, and painted the entire room all by myself ... finished up Friday afternoon.  The room seems so much bigger and brighter now!

{tangled}

This Woody ornament is tangled up every year when we take it out of its box.  It is one of Keira's ornaments.

{silver}

This reindeer ornament has a silverish tassel with a silver charm attached.

{guilty pleasure}

Have you tried these Candy Cane Hershey Kisses?  Oh.my.goodness!

{angel}

The kids performed in our church's Christmas program last Sunday night.  The lady in charge asked me to take a few snapshots before the kids performed.  They were dressed like angels, however they don't look all that angelic in this photo.  Well, maybe a few of them do.  :)

Scavenger Hunt Sunday is taking a break next week, but Ashley has a couple other things going on so be sure to head over and check them out!

Have a blessed Christmas!

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Week 49 in Pictures

I know I probably say this every week now but ... one week closer to the end of this year's Project 365!  WOOT!  :)  At this point in the year, I'm so ready to be done.  Even with all the pretty Christmas lights and decorations.  I'm sure I'll look back at my photo books one day and be glad I did this for three years in a row.  And, who knows, I might even decide to do it again another year down the road.  But for now, I'm excited to be almost done.  Have I said that already?  :)

This week was another busy one.  (When aren't they busy anymore?!)  Meetings, sick kids, doctor appointments, and birthday celebrations, just to name a few things I was busy with.  Doug was on vacation and we had planned to go shopping, but that didn't happen.  We're planning to try again on the 18th when he has the day off for Keira's Christmas concert.  Her concert is at 8:00 a.m. so we'll leave straight from there.  Unless, of course, I have all the shopping done by then.  Which is highly possible.  I'm more of an online shopper these days.  I can take my time and very often get better deals and free shipping.  Gotta love it when Christmas presents get delivered right to your door.  And I can shop in my jammies.  :)

Anyway, let's take a look at what last week looked like ...

{Sunday}

Keira made this sign in "shop" class and asked me to photograph it, along with a few other items she made.  She needed to make a display board documenting her time in class.  

{Monday}

I picked up this cute ornament at Target.

{Tuesday}

Tuesdays are one of the few days I'm up early enough to see the sun rise.

{Wednesday}

Alex turned 7 today!  Seven!  My baby!  I did a little tribute post to him.  You should go see it.  He was so stinkin' adorable when he was smaller.  He still is, but you know what I mean.  :)

{Thursday}

We had some cupcakes left over from Alex's birthday celebration at church Wednesday evening.  So I photographed them for the "colorful" prompt for the Scavenger Hunt.

{Friday}

When all else fails, photograph some bokeh.  :)

{Saturday}

We celebrated Alex's birthday with family today.  I made his cake again this year.  I didn't want to, but my cake-making friend was all booked up this weekend.  I need to remember to ask earlier.  Her cakes are incredible!  Although mine wasn't bad for whipping up on the fly.

This week is another busy one.  Fun stuff, but busy.  We already had our church's Christmas dinner, had a quick photo shoot yesterday, and Bible study this morning.  Coming up are: prepping for Wednesday night church (yes, I tend to wait until the last minute), painting my living room (I hope), craft night with the girls, my birthday, possibly a girls' movie night out if I can swing it, Praise & Coffee, and the Toby Mac concert with Keira and the youth group.  I think I might just sleep all next week.  :)

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Holiday Traditions ... Edited

I promised on Monday to post my edits of our Holiday Traditions today.  It has been a crazy, busy day, and I'm sick with bronchitis ... so I'm a little late.  You'd think I'd prepare my posts ahead of time, huh?  :)

Anyway here are my edits ... mouse over to see SOOC shots ...

I don't really remember what edits I did since I did them on Monday and didn't write anything down thinking I'd remember.  But then bronchitis hit and my brain turned to mush.  So suffice it to say that I edited them in ACR as usual.  :)

I know I adjusted the white balance on this one.  It was a bit blue for me.  I'm planning to sit down and really practice the whole white balance thing after the holidays.  I prefer to get it right in camera.

I don't think I mentioned on Monday how hard it was for me to get Nick to crack a smile.  And when he did smile, he would cover his mouth with his other hand.  I finally convinced him that we'd get done with taking his picture sooner if he'd cooperate and just smile already.  :)

We're almost done with a whole year of the Shoot & Edit challenge.  While I may have missed a week here and there along the way, I have really appreciated the way Jill and Ashley have so willingly shared their knowledge and pushed me to be a better photographer and editor.  Thank you, ladies! 

Be sure to stop over at Ashley's to see more great Holiday Tradition photos.

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Wild & Wonderful Wednesday #8

Hello!  And welcome!  This week's Wild & Wonderful Wednesday will be relatively short and sweet.  'Cuz it is late and I am tired.  And I have a cold.  Ick.

However, despite all that I had a pretty good day.  Alex and I got some last-minute Christmas shopping done this morning.  I was finally able to pick up my Christmas cards at Sam's Club.  (don't ask!)  And I got the envelopes all filled out ... just need stamps, return address labels, and sealed.  (When I have a bunch of envelopes to seal I always remember that Seinfeld episode when George's fiance died from licking all their wedding invitation envelopes.  Remember that one?  Makes me laugh every time.)  

Anyway, when I got home from running a few more errands this afternoon (without my little helper), my wonderful mail carrier had left a package for me on my front porch.  My new lens!  It is just a 50mm 1.8, but I was still so excited.  I ripped open the box, put the lens on my camera and ... had to wait about an hour before I could play because it was all fogged up from being out in the cold.  :)  But I did get to play.

Keira was her usual willing model.  I love the fact that I took this indoors without a flash at ISO 800.

This is Keira's ornament this year.  I'm so glad she enjoys the violin so much.  Thursday is her school concert that we are really looking forward to.  Except for the fact that it is at 8 o'clock in the morning.  What's up with that?  Oh, and she taught herself how to play another song today just by listening to it and figuring it out.  I wish I could remember which song.  All I can remember is that it is a Christmas song because that's the Pandora station I had playing.  :)

This is today's photo of the day.  Just because.  Look at all that delicious bokeh!  :)

And here's Nick's sweet little snowman he made last year in school out of a sock and rice.  I just love this little guy.  I wish we would get some snow so we can make a real snowman.


You'll notice I took all of these with the Christmas tree in the background.  I can't get this kind of bokeh with my other lenses.  Although this new lens is going to take some getting used to.  My other three lenses are all zoom lenses and since this one isn't, I need to get my distance right.  I'm sure I'll do a lot of playing over the kids' Christmas break.


Okay, so much for short and sweet, huh?  :)


Now it is your turn!  Link up your Wild & Wonderful photos below.  
Just a few things first ...

1.  Grab my button for your post and link up below (or at least use a text link) so others can find out about Wild & Wonderful Wednesday.  (I reserve the right to delete links that don't follow this one simple rule.  K?  Thanks.).

2.  Link up your post URL (or Flickr photo URL), not your blog URL.

3.  Photos must be yours please.

4.  Try to visit and comment on a few other linker uppers (mine too please!).  We know how much everyone loves comments!  

5.  You have until Saturday at midnight to link up!

Thank you for stopping by and linking up!  I would like to wish each of you a very Merry Christmas!




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Also linking up with these beautiful ladies:

               
Be sure to stop over at Jaymi's to see some beautiful bokeh photos!  You won't be disappointed!

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Holiday Traditions ... SOOC

This week's Shoot & Edit theme is Holiday Traditions.  We don't really have any traditions from our childhood, so we've been starting our own Christmas traditions over the years.  One is going to see the light display that I showed you last week.  Another is letting the kids each pick a new, special ornament for our tree.

This year Alex chose a train.  Surprise.  :)

And Nick, after much careful deliberation (i.e. doing "eeny meeny miney mo" in the store several times) finally decided on Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  (I have to look up how to spell his name every single time I type it).  :)

Keira chose a violin, but I didn't get a photo of her with it yet.  :)

But I did get a photo of her making sugar cookies, which is another tradition we do every year.

We have several other traditions that we haven't done yet.  Like the candlelight Christmas Eve service at our church.  And reading the Christmas story from the book of Luke.  And having a birthday cake for Jesus.  


Another thing we started a few years ago, although I'm not sure it qualifies as a tradition, is that we only get each child three gifts.  Just like the Magi gave Jesus three gifts.  That's actually been a hard thing to do because sometimes I see something that I know they will love, but I already have their three gifts purchased.  It does make wrapping a breeze though.  I wrapped everything in about 1.5 hours.  :)


Anyway, that's it from my little part of the world.  If you'd like to see what other's special traditions are, head over to Jill's.

And I'll see you back here on Thursday with my edits.

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Week 50 Summary

Another festive week.  Things are finally starting to slow down around here.  And I'm taking advantage of the time to chill with the kids and gets some things done that have been neglected.  Christmas shopping is almost complete ... just need to pick up a few last-minute items.  Will do a little baking this week, but not too much because I don't really want that much temptation in the house.  :)  Anyway, here's what this week looks like in pictures ...

11 - Decorated the bush in our front yard.

13 - Honey turned 3 on December 10 but I didn't get her photo until today.

12 - Beautiful sunrise.

14 - A Birthday rose from my husband.

15 - Nick's Troy Polamalu ornament.

17 - Finally bought a poinsettia.

16 - Our Christmas tree.

Linking up with:

     
On a separate note, one of the Flickr groups I'm included in called These Moments Challenge Group featured one of my photos on their blog today!  There is a different theme each week ... this week's theme is warmth.  And this is the photo I added to the photostream ...

I've had photos included in their weekly collage summary before but never featured by itself.  I just thought it was cool and I would share.  :)

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