The most wonderful time of the year

A lot of my last few weekends have been spent trying to photograph Charlotte, to get something cute for Christmas cards. We got AWESOME Christmas shots last year at JC Penney portrait studio, but since we just had some studio type shots from the daycare (and paid over $100 for them), I didn't want to do it again.

I saw the "twinkle lights" photographs all over the internet and thought I'd try my hand. I got a pretty good bokeh by stringing white lights with white cords on the wall of the living room (the walls are kind of a light warm beige). But to do this, we had to move all the furniture around because the only wall big enough has a sofa on it. Anyway, these are the (better) results.

Still, I wasn't thrilled by the harsh overhead lighting. Our living room is a cave, so I aimed 2 lamps toward the middle on the floor, but I still had to use the overhead light. Which produced the harsh shadows.

So, we decided to go to Opryland Hotel and walk around. MISTAKE! It was actually Thanksgiving evening and a bazillion people were there. Charlotte was completely overstimulated very quickly, and would.not.pose.for.a.picture.to.save.my.life! We didn't actually even get to go to the main gallery with all the Christmas trees; we just left to save our Thanksgiving lol. This picture is kind of cute; not cheery per se, but still style-y, in a way.

So, on to Plan C. Blowing fake snow. These pictures came out pretty well considering they were outside the house with too many phone poles and cars and things in the background.

I think my problem is that, as I get a little better at photography, not great but not bad anymore in general, my expectations are going up, and I get disappointed when I get decent but not great results. I really hope to take some classes soon.

Anyway, we mostly went with the snow blowing for the Christmas cards, with the silly hat bokeh one and some vacation pics (I got a tri-fold card with lots of spots for pictures). I'm reasonably happy with them.

Also, please note that the snow blowing pics showcase Char's lovely black eye. :( Poor kiddo! We went to Knoxville to visit my mother-in-law for her birthday on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It was just a day trip. Poor Charlie fell from a stool onto a tile floor and landed on her face. Her poor eye turned black instantly, and she got a big blood blister swell up on her eyelid. We decided to go to the ER since it was on her eye, and it was so swollen. It drained on the way there and wasn't too bad looking anymore, and by the end of the 3 hour emergency room visit, I felt pretty stupid for going. But it all checked out and she's fine, just still has some blackness on her lid.

And speaking of Charlotte, she is SO looking forward to Christmas, Santa Claus, Baby Jesus, etc. We put our Christmas tree up on Sunday, and the first words out of her mouth on Monday morning were, "Is it Christmas?"

(And I'll let you in on a little secret. I'm pretty excited, too!)