Picture Perfect ... Almost!

I'm a day late in doing this post.  I left my camera at my in-laws yesterday and couldn't load my photos for my Project 365.  OOPS!!  Project 52, Week 27 - Sunrise D pointed out the beautiful colors one morning and I had to photograph it! Project 365 Day 52 - Cookie Making Day 53 - My favorite ornament Day 54 - Reading Day 55 - Christmas aftermath Day 56 - Playing together Day 57 - Playing with my new macro filters Day 58 - Christmas with Nana and Pop-pop (I love the storytelling aspect of this photo.) I'm still working on taking and editing photos inside.  Since the weather has been cold and/or rainy most of our time is spent indoors.  I'm happy to take any suggestions for continuing to improve my indoor photos.

The day after Christmas is for playing with new toys - and that's just what we did.  ALL.  DAY.  LONG.  We had nothing planned (except laundry) and just went with the flow of playing and enjoying the day together.  We watched Monsters University and Despicable Me 2.  The movies even gave B and I a chance to clean the house up. We also played with toys. My toys ... tripod and remote D's toys ... Lego Vet and Sydney Lee S's toys ... City Rescue Center and vehicles The kids got along wonderfully (for the most party).  There were smiles and laughters throughout the day.

We had a very Merry Christmas at our house!  The kids LOVED everything about the day and Santa brought just what each one wanted.  D got the ballerina she had "been longing for!"  S got the Imaginext Rescue City Center.  There were smiles all around by everyone.  B got a bluetooth and a red sweater from the kids.  I got several camera goodies (tripod, remote, macro filters) and a green shirt from the kids.   Stockings were opened before breakfast. Santa knew just what D and S wanted! Joy! We headed over to B's parents' in the afternoon for sandwiches and time with them.  Our big Christmas there is Saturday when everyone is here. I didn't take too many pictures because I wanted to be involved in the excitement and not just through the camera lens. Hope your Christmas was as magical as ours!

Our last Advent activity was celebrate Christmas Eve and get ready for Santa's visit. We decided to do gifts with my parents (just for the kids) on Christmas Eve this year.  We went the easy route and had sandwiches to eat after gifts.  Then they hung around a bit to play with the kids.  It gave us time to spend with just them before we do the bigger Christmas celebrations with B's family over the next week.  As usual the kids had a blast and D was beyond excited to get the Lego Dolphin Cruiser she's been longing for.  She opened gifts so fast I didn't get any pictures.  Here are a few of S doing his though. After Grandma and Grandpa left it was time to get ready for Santa. Blow out the Advent candle to be sure it's Christmas Eve.  (We actually burned it this year unlike most.) Take the final chocolate out of the calendar. Put Santa in the last calendar. The most important things ... spread reindeer food outside and gets cookies

What can you make with these supplies? Step 1 - Color the tree   Step 2 - Punch star holes in tree   Step 3 - Glue tissue paper on the back to cover stars   Step 4 - Admire your light up tree   Bonus step - Dump all 5000 tissue paper squares on the floor  

I've made cookies with my parents since I can remember.  D and S are lucky to be able to continue this tradition both with B and I at home, and with the grandparents.  Yesterday was our annual "destroy Grandma's kitchen" afternoon by making sugar cookies.  It just happened that the activity on our countdown calendar was also to make cookies. S's vocabulary is really improving.  While Grandma was making the dough he kept screaming "Spinning, Spinning, Spinning!" at the mixer.  It's funny because we have a video of D at about the same age saying the same thing.  And of course no Christmas cookie day is complete without using the force to move the rolling pin! What do you do you while waiting for the dough?  Play in the flour of course! Almost ready to cut the cookies! Choosing a cutter is always the hardest part. Once the dough came out S wanted nothing to do with the cookie part.  He just wanted to run around the house

Project 52, Week 25 - Lips D helped me with this by making what she's coined "duck lips." 365 Project, Days 45-51 I took a variety of shots this week - outside, inside, Christmas, random.  I'm trying to use the AI Serivio function on my Canon Rebel t3i.  I've read this can help catch action more clearly.  I didn't have a ton of opportunities to use it this week but plan on trying in the future.   Day 45 - Surveying the mud with Grandpa. Day 46 - Playing with snow overlay in PicMonkey Day 47 Day 48 - We had a hard freeze and I got this photo of the lights on our deck.  I added the swirled overlay to the background. Day 49 - Indoor snowball fight and playing with AI Servio Day 50 - Amazing sunrise with no edits! Day 51