The Last Day of the Year

As I sit here this morning reflecting on this past year

I love what I'm reflecting back upon. I've done what

I've set out to do, nearly completed my degree, I've spent

as much time as possible with family and friends and

I now have one more year of sobriety, 9 years in total now

and that's reason right there to celebrate!  

Christmas Eve, my family came over and we

had a feast, Princess Elyssa opened tons

of gifts and we all had such a good time. This year

I gave each of my children a short video from their

youth, I found one old 8mm tape and converted it 

onto a disc and we all laughed, me until I had laughter

tears running down my face! What a beautiful way to 

spend Christmas! 

A few photos from our family Christmas...

Elyssa and Abbie patiently waiting for dinner.

My oldest son on the left, holding our princess Elyssa, Elyssa's

Mommy, then me holding my Abbie girl. Behind me is my gorgeous

daughter and behind her is my middle child, we tease him about

being the problem middle child!  I am extremely blessed, I'm surrounded

by love and laughter! 

 A blast from the past, Derek, my middle child, used to dote on his sister

when she was a wee girl.  As you can see from the photo on the right this

love is still shared and what a joy it is to see! 

Moving forward to how I spent Christmas day, 

first a feast, then karaoke. Fun was had by all! 

This was/is hilarious!! 

And now comes time to get organized, literally! I've

installed this closet organizer, not sure where I'm going to

put everything I took out of here, but it's the year of decluttering

in the upcoming year... I just got a bit of a head start on it is all. 

Finally one spot for all of my camera gear! 

Whatever you have done or might want to do,

 wherever you may be, it's time to start a new chapter, 

one which we get to choose the words we write. 

Don't worry about spell check, we don't have to write

perfectly, just write it from your heart and allow your

heart to dance! 

Wishing you a blessed and a very Happy New Year! 

It's late but...

It's going on 2am and I'm getting tired but not too tired to 

squeeze in one quick post.  This past few days have been busy

once again, but what a fun busy!  It started on Thursday night, 

I shot photos of at least 100 children with Santa and this one

is my favorite! 

Friday night was an evening out, then off to 

a friends to sing karaoke and we danced the night away. 

It was a late, or early morning by the time I finally

called it a night... 4am before my head hit the pillow, 

but what an amazing time! 

Saturday I had a visitor spend the night, actually two house guests.

A friend came in from out of town and her dog stayed at my place

for two nights. Elyssa LOVED having two puppies

to play with! 

We got creative and made some gifts...

These are so cool, what we did was paint Elyssa's hand, 

then she held a Christmas ball which left her hand print 

on the ball.  Then we decorated the balls and this is

what they look like...

These are a priceless keepsake which I fully

intend to do with Elyssa every year, til she's at

least 30! ;-)

Right and the joys of being a photographer,

Christmas gifts are getting much easier to 

put together...

I should be back before Christmas, if you don't hear

from me I would like to take this time to wish each

and everyone of you a very Merry Christmas!  I hope

all of your dreams and wishes come true, okay maybe

most of your wishes..only the 'good' ones! lol 

Yup, Santa laughed at what I wanted and I 

laughed because I shocked myself by actually

telling Santa what I want! ;-)

Cheers. 

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

Hmm where to start?  I'm done my Christmas baking 

...if I quit giving it away this is.  Here's just a few photos of some 

of it to tantalize taste buds, I've done way more

than this, but to post it all would be overdoing it. 

 These shortbread cookies literally melt in your mouth, my new

favorite Christmas goodie! 

 I've been to two Christmas parties, the first being the family

Christmas party and the other was this past weekend

at a good friends house. I've been having the time of my life!

This is a dear friend and I'm on the right... even got my hair 

done for this party! 

I've got my outdoor lights up, not all that I wanted to but such is life. 

I volunteered at one special event held not too far from home,

and one that hits home with me.  It was taking photos for the

monthly Aboriginal Family Night and there was an awesome turnout.

They had a couple of traditional dancers as well as two drummers,
 here's one of my shots of one of the dancers. 

I have another function to shoot photos at, more volunteerism and

this next one will be the children with Santa... one event I LOVE doing! 

Oh, and last night I went to visit a dear friend, he'd called me and

asked me to come over but wouldn't tell me why. So I went over

and WOW!  He bought me a gift and wanted me to open

it early, he said he figured I could use it before Christmas...

I am so excited to start working with these lights, and he's

so right. With the photo shoot coming up on Thursday, 

you bet I'll be setting these up!  I'm so excited, I've been

playing with them and tonight the only model I had available...

yup, poor Abbie! lol 

So as you can see, even though I'm finished with my studies

for this year, I've still been extremely busy. Tis the season to

get out and be active, be involved and to give back within 

community. It's a time for me to spend time with friends and

family and to experience the true joys of Christmas. 

My hope is that you're all doing the same... 

taking the time to make new memories. :-) 

Family Christmas

This past weekend we had our annual family Christmas party, 

and what a party it was!  I love getting together with family 
I haven't seen in some time, and the laughter we share, priceless.  
Here's the crew who could make it this year...

Right, I guess this is where I should mention that

we do a theme each year, this year as you can

probably guess it was a pajama party.

We play games and one of the games this year involved

a team of 3, each team was given white and red tissue

paper, one black garbage bag and a roll of tape.  We

had 5 minutes to turn one of the team members into

Santa.  Here's how this one turned out... 

 It was hilarious! I'm on the left, turned out my

oldest son standing next to me was one of the

Santa's, and my other son, who is on the far right

also turned into a Santa. 

A princess showed up at the party as well, I asked

her what she did with my granddaughter and she

told me "She's under the dress!" 

And for those who have been following my blog for

some time now will be familiar with Awesome Austin, 
he is doing amazing!  Our miracle boy without a doubt. 

And back at the ranch, it's time to get my home decorated

for the holidays.  I had a helper tonight and the work isn't 

quite done, but there's always tomorrow and with this
kind of help we'll get it done. 

The Festival of Trees

Yesterday I went with my oldest son, his wife, and my granddaughter

to the Festival of Trees.  I sure enjoyed myself, the decorations were 

amazing and naturally I was toting my camera.  Here's just a few shots

from this event...

There were tons of beautifully decorated trees

 yet I chose to go after the close ups to avoid taking

photos with people in them. There was a super high

attendance and at times it was even difficult to get

the close up shots, but I managed. 

I adore this next one...

The thing which I absolutely love about this 

Festival is that there's plenty for the children to do,

and Elyssa sure enjoyed herself.

She first of all got to ride the train, the LRT, to the Festival.

After we arrived she decorated a tree, 

took some shots at a net, listened to stories,

got to see tons of amazing gingerbread houses,

and she even got to write and mail her letter to Santa.

The big surprise was Santa was there and she was more

than excited to sit on his lap! 

The joy for me, I got to shoot her Santa 

photos for her this year... now that's a treat for me!