This is Me

I needed to take a photo of myself for a little project I'm working on. Wow. It was really much harder than I thought it would be. I ended up with a lot of 'half of me' shots.

I liked some of those much better, because I only had to pick them half apart. :)

Anyway, mission accomplished...

McChristmas

I'm not promoting McDonalds this holiday season, but I think Griffin may secretly work for the company. I'm starting to notice a pattern...

First, just as I feared, but completely expected, he likes to knock the tree over. He's really only done it twice so far (both times right after I had filled the stand with water), so maybe it won't be a regular occurrence, but I'm too afraid to hang up our breakable or very special, handmade ornaments.

So, other than our limited supply of soft ornaments, what was my brilliant alternative?...Happy Meal toys!

It works! I think he would be more inclined to pull the real ornaments off of the tree anyway...so far, he has left the toys alone. :)

The biggest clue, though,that he has some sort of in with the golden arches franchise, is that he calls this entire holiday, Grimace! Remember him? That's when I knew for sure there was something going on...

...but this part is actually okay with me, in fact, I LOVE IT!! I love that he calls it Grimace. I love that he calls it anything at all. Last year at this time, he had just turned three years old, and probably only said 10 - 15 words total.

He has come a long way in just one years time, and I am so, so grateful. I remember how much I couldn't wait for him to just put two words together. He now says too many words to count, he tells knock knock jokes, and "love you more" is probably the best three words strung together that I have ever heard.

So, even though I'm not promoting McDonalds, I am definitely getting into the Grimace spirit this year.

AND, keeping with the same theme (and because I can't help myself), let these birds be a reminder to lay off of the fries. :)

Our Winter Wonderland

YESTERDAY

TODAY

What a difference a day makes, huh? It was like falling asleep, and waking up this morning in a whole new world. The kids didn't have school today, and they, most likely, won't have it tomorrow either. It's snowing like crazy here, and it's wonderful to be trapped at home where it's warm and cozy. I only wish I didn't have a list a mile long of things to do before Christmas. It will get done...somehow. I'm not going to stress about it...or am I? Wait, I think I am. Aaahh!

“One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. Which road do I take? she asked. Where do you want to go? was his response. I don't know, Alice answered. Then, said the cat, it doesn't matter.” - Lewis Carroll

My Good Habit

It's official! I am on day 71 of this photographic journey...hoping to reach day 365. According to the article I mentioned here, I am past the 66 day mark, which means I officially have a good habit. Hooray! I'm sure I have other good habits...they just elude me right now. :)

I am pretty confident I can make it to the end, even though it's still a looong way away. I have made it through good days, bad days, sick days, busy days, rainy days, holidays, etc... I have some personal goals to reach now before I get to the end of this journey...

I would still like to know more about the manual workings of my camera, and I would also like to learn to take better shots of people. I'm not really confident photographing people. I've even started to scrutinize casual shots of my kids. Poor kids. They went from running away and calling me the paparazzi, to just dramatically rolling their eyes at me now. They'll get used to it, right?

Birds are my current obsession. Hopefully, I'll be an expert when spring migration comes around. Oh spring, please hurry! I can't wait to see you through my lens.

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I Heard a Bird Sing

I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A magical thing
And sweet to remember:
"We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,"
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.

- Oliver Herford

The Bucket or The Star?

Four years ago, the star for the top of our Christmas tree bit the dust. It was old...really, really old. So, that year we made do, and put a cone-shaped Santa that one of the kids had created in school on the top of our tree.

Santa must have known how much we missed our star, because that year he gave our family a beautiful golden star as a gift (wink).

The follow year, we moved from our house to our little barn apartment (yes, we live in a barn). The only logical place to put our tree is in an alcove in the living room, where the ceiling drops to about seven feet. So, with our six foot tree in it's stand, there is no room for a star.

The first year we put the tree up and noticed the lack of space, I grabbed a little galvanized metal bucket off of the television, and, jokingly, placed it on top of the tree. It was perfect, and funny, and appropriate...a new family tradition was born, but one kid still wanted the star...

For the past three years, it's been the same...the same size tree placed in the same place, with the same argument about what we put on top of it. One wants the bucket, and one wants the star. The bucket always wins, simply because it has to. The girls have already discussed who will inherit which tree topper somewhere down the road, and thankfully they are in total agreement.

It peaks my curiosity to see how or why people choose the things they choose to love...how value means something different to each individual. So, just out of curiosity, which tree topper would you choose to inherit...the beautiful gold star that was a gift from Santa, but has never been out of the package, or the junky metal bucket that tops your family's tree every year?