Wild & Wonderful Wednesday #9

Hello!  And welcome back to another Wild & Wonderful Wednesday ... Christmas style.  This week I'm just sharing a few snapshots of our Christmas celebrations.

Our tree on Christmas Eve once we put all the gifts out.  We have been following the tradition for the past few years of giving the kids each only three gifts at Christmas, which we did again this year.  But this year we also went a little smaller since we're saving up to go to Disney.  I gave the kids a choice of having a big Christmas or going smaller and using the rest to put towards our Disney trip and they all voted for Disney.


Christmas morning was tricky this year with it being on a Sunday.  We let the kids each open one gift in the morning, then we got ready and went to church.  We opened the rest of the gifts once we got home.  They surprisingly didn't mind doing this.  Of course, I didn't give them a choice.  :)

Nick is really into hunting this year, so Doug got him some hunting gear including this hat.  He also got a hunting coat and gloves and a BB gun.  Oh boy.  :)

Alex still loves trains so we found a caboose car for his Polar Express train.  He loves it!  He also got a new, bigger bike and a snow board.  He's been talking about learning how to ski, so Doug thought we'd try the snow board first.  Now if it would just snow!

Now that Keira is in 7th grade, we decided it was time for her to have a phone.  It is just a Tracfone, but it serves its purpose.  She also got a one-year card with minutes and an iTunes gift card.

We needed some new remotes for our Wii since the old ones stopped working a few months ago.  The kids were thrilled.  We also got a few new games.

Alex is anxious to try out his new bike.  We left the training wheels on until he gets used to the bigger bike, even though he didn't need them anymore on his old bike.



I kept trying to get a photo of Doug when he wasn't making a face at me, but I was unsuccessful.  :)

Honey got several new toys--including this snow man from Doug's sister in Florida--and a dog bed.  I'm hoping she'll stop sleeping on the couch/love seat now that she has her own bed.  Hasn't happened yet.  :)


(I let Keira use my old camera so that I could actually appear in some photos.  She did pretty well with it.)

Doug actually listened to my request this year and got some Amazon gift cards for me.  And he wrapped them in his own special way, which I will save for another post.  :)  I will be saving them to put towards the purchase of either a bounce flash or a new lens.

We enjoyed our afternoon with a visit from my mom and sister and Doug's parents.  Doug had to work afternoon shift, so once he left, we just relaxed and watched movies.  It was a very enjoyable day celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus.

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!

I wish you all a Happy New Year!

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Also linking up with these lovely ladies ...

               

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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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Wild & Wonderful Wednesday #7

Welcome back to another Wild & Wonderful Wednesday!  I'm glad you are here!

One of our family traditions during the Christmas season is to visit the Hartwood Acres light display.  We were able to go last Thursday, which turned out to be a great night to go.  It wasn't busy at all, which is great with three not-so-patient kids and one not-so-patient husband.  :)

Usually Doug drives but this year he still wasn't feeling well (getting over bronchitis) so he asked me to drive.  I wondered how I was going to be able to photograph the lights and drive, but it worked out pretty well.  I just stopped when I wanted to photograph something.  And my pictures turned out better this year than in previous years when Doug was driving.  I think because I waited until I was completely done clicking before driving away.  :)  Here are some of the displays ...

Of course, I had to photograph the train for Alex.  Another train was my photo of the day on December 8.

Since this is a drive-thru display and you are not allowed to get out of your car (except for an emergency restroom stop), I couldn't get very creative with my photos.  Except to capture a little light bokeh.

These candy canes are right before The Twelve Days of Christmas display.  So we always have to sing the song on the way through.  Which then makes the kids have to sing the song for several days afterward.  Which then makes mom have to look for some earplugs.  :)

Last year or maybe the year before when we went to see the lights I had such a nasty headache that this tunnel made me want to vomit.  I had to cover my eyes until we were through it.  The kids had a good time reminding me of that fact.  How they remember stuff like that I'll never know.  :)

This globe was a new display this year.  I wish I had gotten a better photo of it but we had a bus full of senior citizens behind us so I couldn't stop for too long.

This tunnel is at the end of the park.

And I know I shared this photo for Scavenger Hunt Sunday but I really like it.  This mansion is always so pretty all lit up.  As I was looking through my photos for the hunt, I thought this would look cool with one of my moon photos in the sky.  All I did was add it as a layer and place it where I wanted it.  Since both photos had a black background, it blended right in.  Too bad the moon wasn't really right there in the sky that night.  :)


Okay, 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!

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Also linking up with these beautiful ladies:

            

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Wild & Wonderful Wednesday #6

Welcome back to another edition of Wild & Wonderful Wednesday!  The photos I chose for this week are so much fun!  Not great technical photos ... in fact, they are all snapshots.  But they are from our Girls' Night on Friday when we had sooooo much fun.  We laughed so much that several of us talked of having "laughter hangovers" the next day (as no alcohol was involved in our fun).

The reason for the Girls' Night this time was Melissa from Baton Rouge.

Our friend, Laura, made arrangements for Mel to fly up here and stay with her for the week.  I won't go into all the details of their friendship and how this all came about, but if you'd like to read about them, Laura's blog is A Hearty Overflow and Mel's blog is Little Mrs. Married.  Go check them out!  And you'll probably see more pics of our fun while you're there!  :)

Here are a few more of the ladies that were at GNO.  But first, let me explain something.  Laura asks us to bring games that we can play together as a group.  As the mother of a 13YO, an 8YO, and a 6YO my games aren't really geared towards adults and/or larger groups.  So while out shopping with Alex on Friday, we stopped in at the local dollar store where we came across these great silly glasses.  So I scooped up 6 different pairs and brought them along.  What a hit!  We had a blast with them.  And with several photographers in the group, we took LOTS of pics of our craziness.  It was the best six bucks I ever spent!  :)

Kim

Melissa

Vicki and Karen

Me - You can't really see all that well out of some of the glasses, so I was looking over the top to see what was happening and someone snapped this photo of me.  I'm not even sure who had my camera at this point.  :)  But I'm glad they took my picture, since I'm not usually in any ... I'm always behind the camera.

Laura, the hostess of GNO.

Laura and Jen



Laura and Beth - Beth is the cutest pregnant woman ever!  :)

Me, Laura, Mel, and Rainey - the four bloggers.  Rainey blogs at Sunshine on Rainey Days.  (I wish I had a cool name that I could incorporate into my blog name).  :)  Go check out her blog too!


Rainey and I "met" Mel through her blog and she through ours.  So it was really cool to get to meet her in person.  We're planning to go visit her in Baton Rouge the next time!


I didn't get photos of all the girls that night.  I'll do better next time.  :)  But if you go to Laura's or Mel's blog, I'll bet you'll see the few that I missed.


I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into our fun.  We seriously laughed so much that it was like having a great ab workout.  My abs hurt the next day!  :)


Okay, 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!

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Also linking up with these beautiful ladies:

            

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