After three days of Christmas parties, extended family, and leaving our cat behind, we were happy to be home on Monday. (And happy to have the day off work!) Here is one final Christmas photo of the year.
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I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Mine was great; we spent lots of time with extended family. I never realized I had a male-dominated family until I started going through these Christmas photos full of little boys. Here are my favorites from our three Christmas celebrations on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
I took the day off yesterday to meet up with some good friends that I don’t get to see very often. Of course, 8-month-old Leah was the star of the show, as it should be! This little girl is already pulling herself up and walking around holding on to things. I predict her to be a child prodigy in a few years.
Yesterday I had the privilege of shooting portraits for a family who was reunited after seven years. I loved getting to know the three generations of George’s and the rest of the family!
I’m one of “those people.” I believe that you don’t need all white lights and red ornaments to have a pretty Christmas tree. I love our “fat little tree,” as my husband calls it, with all its colorful lights and mismatched ornaments. For those of you who don’t like colored lights, I’ve also included a black and white image.
This weekend we experienced both ends of the spectrum when it came to holiday parties – from the bar scene to church, and from the young to the old. Friday evening Jerod and I went to his work holiday party at Howl at the Moon Piano Bar. Bright and early Saturday morning we made the drive to his parents’ house to celebrate four Christmases. (Gift opening with immediate family, Christmas with Grandma, a Christmas concert, and a celebration with extended family.) Here are my favorite photos from each day.
Today marks 10 years since my Grandma H. passed away. Sometimes I’m surprised at how much you can miss someone when they have been gone so long. One of my most cherished memories was the last time I saw her in the nursing home. I crawled into bed next to her, and she stroked my hair and told me how much she loved me. This little glass butterfly was a gift from me to her while she was in the nursing home. Now it is a part of my home and my memories.
(I will post this weekend’s photos tomorrow.)
Every once in a while I do a food post, which may give you the impression that I can cook or bake. Sorry to disappoint – but I can’t. I always want to make something new when I go to parties, but usually it doesn’t turn out quite right. I try to make it a little healthier, I fail at substituting ingredients, or I over cook it. So for Christmas at my in-laws’ this weekend, I decided to stick with the basics and make my mother-in-law’s favorite: no bake cookies. For some reason when I’ve made them in the past, they’ve failed to set up. Every. Single. Time. So she gave me her fail-safe recipe and told me to follow it exactly. I followed it to a T: I used real oats and high fat margarine, and I let it boil for 2 minutes. They didn’t set up. Again.
While I retreated to the other room to scream in a pillow, my husband peeled them off the waxed paper and threw the gooey mess in the fridge. After about 30 minutes, they hardened into little mushy clumps.
So after wasting about an hour, I had no choice but to make something new with ingredients I had on hand. I decided to try this pumpkin chip cookie recipe. Since I’d already ate too much batter I didn’t try one of these cookies last night, but they look like they might have turned out. (Although looks can be deceiving.) I suppose this time I should have stuck with the new recipe rather than try something old. But … ya never win.
I’ve been taking a lot of pictures of Christmas lights lately, so I decided to shoot a different kind of light. Since yesterday brought unseasonably warm temperatures, it was the perfect opportunity to set up the tripod and photograph lights at night. These neon signs light up the front of the Quaff Bar & Grill in downtown Kansas City.
I know, I know. The title isn’t very creative. But these are two semi-random crafty/holiday photos that don’t really have a story behind them, except that I shot these photos on Monday and Tuesday. Enjoy!
Photographic Rhodes 