THE JOY OF LOVE, DAY 12

Willette Photography & More is offering a free, online photography class this February, called The Joy of Love. There's still time to sign up, if you're interested!

Lesson 12 - THE EYES. Weeb has great eyes. Again, Cannon PowerShot SD1000 point and shoot camera, limited options. But for late afternoon, indoors with little light, I did what I could. I used a tripod (which she kicked almost continuously), my camera's battery was dying (which prompted her to dilly dally and wiggle about as a result of my spazzy urge to hurry up and sit still), I was losing the natural light (and man, I hate high ISO with this camera - the noise is some kind of horrible!). I cannot wait for the weather to get nicer so I can photograph outside. Seems that outdoor photography and digital macro are quite good with this camera. I mean, it couldn't possibly be that the photographer needs to do a tad more learning. Right? Yeah, shush!

The lower photo is a much better shot of her face, but the photo came out really noisy in the edit and was too blurry, otherwise. Need to sharpen my sharpening skills. HA!

Wow, looking at these again online, they are REALLY grainy. I had an ISO of 400, too. I think it was just that they were a bit blurry (kid will not sit still!) and the sharpening has this effect. I need to learn some new techniques and possibly just try again with more light.

Edit to add: I'm adding this photo that I took the other day. Honestly, it captures the eyes much better and edited better than the two previously posted.

THE JOY OF LOVE, DAY 11

Willette Photography & More is offering a free, online photography class this February, called The Joy of Love. There's still time to sign up, if you're interested!

Lesson 11 - DREAMS. I guess there could be a lot of different interpretations in regards to this topic, so I will post two that strike my fancy.

Weeb has a rainbow charm in her bedroom. I told her it will put rainbows in her dreams. It was difficult to get a clear shot of the whole thing, so I stopped trying. I like the shot, though I wish the crop offered a bit more space around the edges.

I have always loved to color. I dreamed of having someone in my life who loved to color as much as I do. My husband, though awesome in many ways, he is not one to sit down with a coloring book and some Crayolas. Weeb came along and now I have a little coloring partner.

THE JOY OF LOVE, DAY 10

Willette Photography & More is offering a free, online photography class this February, called The Joy of Love. There's still time to sign up, if you're interested!

Lesson 10 - SPACE, WHERE THEY ARE MOST COMFORTABLE. There is nobody in our house more comfortable, more often, than Tibbs, our cat. Since our older cat, Hobbit, passed away at the end of October, Tibboh has taken up residence as Alpha-pet and with it, Hobbit's old spot on the back of the couch, behind me. I thought I would try a few shots today. Two of the three shots were using the digital macro.

NO ARTIFICIAL COLORS

I bought some Smarties for Weeb's class for Valentine's Day. They are nut safe which is a HUGE selling point, for me and my family, and I wouldn't have bought them, otherwise.

So as Weeb and I tested a couple of boxes today (I use the word 'tested' and the word 'couple' rather loosely here), I notice the box of red and pink candy coated chocolatey goodness says: NO ARTIFICIAL COLORS.

Really?

There is NOTHING artificial in the bright red and pink candy coloring?

The side of the box says *NON-ARTIFICIAL COLORS ARE PREPARED FROM NATURAL SOURCES. FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT WWW.SMARTIES.CA.

So I did.

And they weren't kidding.

Not that I'm THAT concerned about natural vs. unnatural. Obviously the more natural the better, but if I were THAT concerned, I probably wouldn't be reaching for a little box or two (again, a loose translation of the chocolate slaughter that occurred) of candy coated chocolate.

I really wanted to make fun of the idea that something this bright and red / pink could be made from anything, naturally. But since I can't, I'm going to just say thanks for making these little gems nut safe and thanks for using the nut safe label on the package! Now, could you please also put the nut safe label on the little boxes so when my daughter gets Valentine / Halloween treats, I don't have to toss them due to uncertainty. Happy nibbling!

DEAR RECYCLING PICK UP GUYS

Dear Recycling Pick Up Guys,

When we put out our blue recycling bin, you're supposed to throw the paper in the recycling bag into the paper recycling area of your truck before throwing in the rest of the stuff and LEAVING both the blue recycle bin AND the blue and/or yellow recycle bag/s.

Please stop throwing everything, including our recycling bag, into the truck at the same time.

We've been through DOZENS of recycling bags since we moved here. I know some are nabbed by idiot neighbors in our townhouse complex, but not today.

I do not have kind words to say about you people - idiot neighbors OR the idiot recycling pick up guys on our route. You have all earned a boot to the head.

THE JOY OF LOVE, DAY 9

Willette Photography & More is offering a free, online photography class this February, called The Joy of Love. There's still time to sign up, if you're interested!

Lesson 09 - THEIR HOBBIES / PASSIONS. I'm jumping ahead with this one. And it's another one focused on Wonko. Wonko is a computer geek. I tried to get some shots of him working at the laptop or using his weird, glowing mouse, but the photos weren't turning out the way I wanted them to. He suggested taking the shot from another angle. When I moved, I got this awesome shot of his keyboard. Yeah, completely cliché shot, I'm sure, but I think it looks wicked, dust and all!

THE JOY OF LOVE, DAY 8

Willette Photography & More is offering a free, online photography class this February, called The Joy of Love. There's still time to sign up, if you're interested!

Lesson 08 - GIFT FROM THE HEART. Today's photo was supposed to focus on something a loved one has said, promised, done or given to us. I wanted to take a photo of a wonderful picture that Weeb drew for me today. But as I sat on the couch with Wonko, trying to decide what to do for this project, I decided that the best promise HE ever gave me was that we'd be friends for ever. Plus he holds my hand. How cute is that?

We have very little light in our living room and I tried to compensate with the ISO settings and the exposure settings, but the photo still came out dark and grainy. Plus, I was holding my camera with one hand. Professional, eh? I still like how it turned out.

I don't know why I've started doing squared photos. Just seemed to work.

THE JOY OF LOVE, DAY 7

Willette Photography & More is offering a free, online photography class this February, called The Joy of Love. There's still time to sign up, if you're interested!

Lesson 07 - GENERATIONS.

I suppose I should have taken a few shots of Weeb with her grandparents today. Poor Weeb is pretty sick of me and my camera, so we're back to the toys. She has several 'generations' of monkey toys. Okay, they probably aren't actually generations. I fiddled with a few other ideas and then figured forget it, the monkeys LOOK like several generations and there are several different generations of wear on them, so they won.

I was playing with metering, ISO and various other stuff while I was taking these pictures. I now realise how difficult it is to get a decent light balance when you're taking picture of a dark object AND a light object.

THE JOY OF LOVE, DAY 6

Willette Photography & More is offering a free, online photography class this February, called The Joy of Love. There's still time to sign up, if you're interested!

Lesson 06 - WHO THEY LOVE. Again, today's assignment is pretty self explanatory.

I love Weeb and Weeb loves Little Weeb (bunny) and Captain Huggy Face (monkey).

I'll admit, this photo is from my bathroom 'photoshoot' for Chinese New Year. But Weeb is pretty sick of me and my camera, so I'm giving her a couple of days off from the Mommarazzi.

THE JOY OF LOVE, DAY 5

Willette Photography & More is offering a free, online photography class this February, called The Joy of Love. There's still time to sign up, if you're interested!

Lesson 05 - WHAT YOU LOVE TO HATE. My husband and daughter drive me nuts making noises. There is a noise they make with their hands that drives me around the bend and they LOVE to do it. Besides the driving me crazy part, I thought it would just be a cute picture to see them with their hands together. This photo comes from my second attempt at the photograph. I just couldn't get a sharp enough picture and that annoyed me. However, the second set of photos were better than the first and I did manage to adjust for fluorescent lighting and adjusted my exposure right on my camera. This photo has been tweaked a bit in Photoshop. I really need to read up more on focus.

Willette Photography's tip of the day was:

Selective focal points and metering: I recommend learning how to use your camera’s selective focal points. You need to read in your camera manual how to do this. Even point and shoot cameras have this ability. Using the selective focal points is more accurate than focusing and recomposing because you are positioning the focal point OVER the exact spot you wish to focus on.

I also recommend using spot metering for portraits. Combined with the selective focal point, you will have the winning combination for a great exposure since the spot metering will be metering off of your subject’s skin and face.

The other metering options your camera may have are: spot, matrix (or evaluative,) and center weighted. There are times when matrix/evaluative metering is necessary….for instance, when you want to make sure the sky is not “blown out” or overly white, when you want to have EVERYTHING in the frame well-exposed, when you have the subject wearing all white and you don’t want to overexpose the skin, or when you are photographing people of different skin tones.

I'm still 'digesting' all this information. I'll get it yet...

THE JOY OF LOVE, DAY 4, METERING

Willette Photography & More is offering a free, online photography class this February, called The Joy of Love. There's still time to sign up, if you're interested!

Lesson 04 - WHAT THEY WEAR focused on what our loved ones wear. Willette Photography also suggested that we read up about metering for our camera and try taking a photo of the same thing with different metering. So I did. But I won't lie, I don't quite understand metering and I had no idea how to adjust it on my Canon PowerShot SD1000 point and shoot camera. So I read up about it and did some experimenting.

The first set is some of Weeb's toys, front lit with a dark background, no flash. I didn't see much difference between the Pattern, Center and Spot metering. Blogger made these images smaller than I intended so you can't see as much detail as I would have liked to have shown here.

According to my camera's manual, Pattern / Evaluative metering divides images into several zones, evaluating complex lighting conditions, like the position of the subject, the brightness, direct light and backlighting and adjusts the settings to the correct exposure for the main subject.

The second set is back lit, no flash, and I really noticed the differences there, though I still don't quite understand why.

Center Weighted Average metering averages the light metered from the entire frame, but gives greater weight to the subject matter at the center.

Spot metering meters the area within the spot AE (auto exposure) point at the center of the LCD monitor and is used when you want to set the exposure on the subject in the center of the monitor. Yeah... I still don't quite get it.

The third set is Weeb, who was not delighted about being photographed or my annoying with her for not being able to sit still. She was facing the window, no flash.

Well, I may not exactly understand this, but at least I know how to manually change the settings for metering on this camera. The more I read up and the more I learn about my camera's capabilities and photography theory, the more I'll be able to put it all together, eventually.

Now, hopefully I've done the blog placing properly and this is displaying as I had intended. It looks okay on my screen but I dread to think what it looks like on a mobile phone (because I have so many adoring fans keeping up with my goings ons).

Yes, yes, I know this is all very self indulgent. I'm amused, so there ya go.

PAN'S LABYRINTH

Wonko and I watched PAN'S LABYRINTH last night. This was no Disney fairy movie.

I quite liked the fairy tale aspect of the story but was a bit put off by the violence surrounding the real world part of the storyline. Thinking about it, I understand why Guillermo del Toro told the story they way he did. I don't think it would have worked had the real world ugliness not been told.

The score and filming were fantastic, as were the special effects.

I may never look at an insect the same way again.

THE JOY OF LOVE, DAY 4

Willette Photography & More is offering a free, online photography class this February, called The Joy of Love. There's still time to sign up, if you're interested!

Lesson 04 - WHAT THEY WEAR. Well this one is pretty self explanatory, though there are countless ways to portray this. My daughter was watching cartoons while I was headed to the shower this morning. She has her legs pulled up inside her favorite pajamas. I thought it would make a good picture.

As I've mentioned in many of my latest blog posts, I have a Cannon PowerShot SD1000 point and shoot camera. It was still dark out when I took the photo, and the only light was from the TV and the hallway behind the rocking chair. My ISO was set at 800, so welcome to grainyville. I will say that I quite like how the light falls on her hair and at her feet.

I'm hesitant to post any pictures with a higher resolution. I know photos get 'stolen' online. I doubt mine are likely to be nabbed, but I like to make it as un-tempting as possible.

GUNG HEI FAT CHOI!

Did I say that right? This is how it's spelled in our local newspaper.

Happy Chinese New Year! This is the Year of the Rabbit.

Weeb has a little rabbit that she carried around for the better part of a year. He's been in the washing machine several times to prove his love! Little Weeb, she calls him.

I took these pictures in the bathroom, upstairs (yes, I spent a lot of time taking photos in bathrooms today). I like the one photo, with the sharpness on Little Weeb's feet, but then the focus getting softer towards his head. I also like the second photo where he's in focus, sitting on the tub.

THE JOY OF LOVE, DAY 3

Willette Photography & More is offering a free, online photography class this February, called The Joy of Love. There's still time to sign up, if you're interested!

Lesson 03 - THEN AND NOW. We are supposed to, obviously, show a then and now shots. The instructor suggested we pay attention to the position of our subject. I'm not especially fond of the position, but the light was workable and it was an awesome representation of then and now.

As I've mentioned in several of my latest blog posts, I have a Cannon PowerShot SD1000 point and shoot camera. The first picture is February 2008 and the second is February 2011 (today). I like the shot from 2008 better just because it was a very sunny afternoon so I had great light in the little bathroom. Today, not so much. But I liked the comparison more than today's actual photo.

Weeb in February 2008, above - and in February 2011, below.

PS: We have little fish 'stickers' on the mirror in our downstairs bathroom. I'd like to say I got them for the kids, but too many people know I've had those things on one bathroom mirror or another for 20 years already.

THE JOY OF LOVE, DAY 2

Willette Photography & More is offering a free, online photography class this February, called The Joy of Love. There's still time to sign up, if you're interested.

Lesson 02 - HOW THEY LOOK. We are supposed to capture our loved one at their best (or worst). Try to capture the true essence/expression/attitude/posture that SCREAMS your loved one, in this case, Weeb.

As I've mentioned in several of my latest blog posts, I have a Cannon PowerShot SD1000 point and shoot camera. This shot was taken in our kitchen, with no flash. Weeb was a bit wiggly, but I really liked this shot. Poor kid has wicked bags under her eyes, just like I do. I will have to work on fixing that.

I did a bit of editing. I cropped and changed the angle a bit. I applied a layer with an Unsharp Mask, then another layer I used a Soft Light blending mode, then adjusted the contrast a bit. I believe there is also a warming filter in there to change the tone slightly.

I know it's hard to tell too much from a 72ppi image. I like the picture. It's not the best picture in the world, but I like the image, despite it not being as sharp as I would like. I tried it in black and white and desaturated, but I didn't care for either, they just looked washed out and drab.

So there ya go, Day 2. I think I've captured my loved one's essence quite well. And I like her position - right under foot, where she usually is. LOL

Original below, unedited other than adjusting to 72ppi.

I will admit that I've been too embarrassed to submit the photos to the Flikr site for Willette Photography.

FROST CRYSTALS

When I got to my car this morning, sunlight was just starting to spill into the sky. It was below freezing and I had some awesome frost crystals on my car. I pulled out my trusty Canon PowerShot SD1000 and turned off the flash and turned on the Digital Macro setting. I tweaked the photo, but only a little bit. I applied a bit of Unsharp Mask and a bit of High Pass Filter in Photoshop, then cropped it.

Cool eh? Literally! *snicker*

THE JOY OF LOVE, DAY 1, PT 2

I like this picture better. I'm pretty sure all of it was done in auto mode and it's clear that the flash went off. I don't remember where the ISO was set, though probably automatic. The hands are blurry and I did a tiny bit of editing. But I still like it better than the last. I like the color of Weeb's slinky and that the photo doesn't seem posed.

THE JOY OF LOVE, DAY 1

Willette Photography & More is offering a free, online photography class this February, called The Joy of Love. There's still time to sign up, if you're interested.

Lesson 01 - WHAT THEY DO. We are supposed to take a picture of a loved one, doing something. I tried to incorporate natural light as the tutorial was about finding the light in your home and catchlights.

As I've mentioned in several of my latest blog posts, I have a Cannon PowerShot SD1000 point and shoot camera. I don't have much control over it, as it seems. I do have several options, one being adjusting the ISO to 1600 (max).

Aside from capturing a picture of Weeb doing something she likes to do (playing with her rainbow Slinky), I think the picture is a fail.

I can't adjust shutter speed or aperture, and the flash bugs my daughter's eyes. The ISO set at 1600 to try and deal with fading natural light just resulted in a massively grainy shot. No matter where I tried to get the picture, and from what angle, we have too much clutter in the house to be able to get a shot without a million things in the background. I also have a model who is not keen on modeling at the moment.

I won't lie, I'm frustrated and thinking this hobby is pointless, and suspecting I don't have the talent or patience to make this worth anybody's while. I thought this hobby might be good to interest me and Wonko over the dreary winter months here, but with dreary months, come lack of natural light, which I think is my only hope at good photos.

I'm determined to learn something, at least.

This photo has not been edited at all, aside from a 6"x4" crop, @ 72ppi.

SNOW DROP 2

Wonko took a different route with this photo than I did yesterday. So I made him walk me through his steps today since I'm home, feeling like crap anyways. I still think his version looks better and I’m still not happy with my work, though I did pretty much the same thing. I don’t think I have the eye, patience or skill that he does. Still, I think it looks more like what I was going for than what I did yesterday.

We duplicated the layer and applied Smart Sharpen filter, with the radius low and the amount adjusted to whatever looked right and used the blending mode Luminosity.

Then created a layer mask (hide all) and painting white on the areas we wanted to reveal as sharpened. Adjusted opacity on this layer to around 75%.

Then created an adjustment layer and applied Curves, adjusting the contrast (we used the default Medium Contrast), then in the adjustment layer, we painted black over the background to further blur it.

I duplicated the background layer, applied a Soft Light blending mode and change opacity to about 30%.

There’s only so much you can do with a mediocre, blurry picture, though I image those with more editing skill could do something better than this.

The second photo, I did a dry brush filter while the photo was at 300 ppi, then I cropped it to 72 ppi and did a cross hatch filter. It looks more like a painting, but it seems I like most of my photos better that way. Original photo is in the earlier post.

SNOW DROP

We were visiting my folks on the weekend and they have these wonderful little snow drops in their garden. It was sunny, the little flowers were very pretty and I desperately wanted a picture.

However, I had several things going against me. My camera battery was dead so I waited about ten minutes to get a charge before I headed out to the garden. I could not get low enough without actually getting into the garden, which was rather on the damp side, this being BC and all. My ribs were not keen on the position I was trying to get into to get the shot I wanted. The digital macro was not working especially well because my arms were outreached and wobbly, plus there was a breeze that was bobbling the flowers about.

So I dropped the digital macro and went to Auto. My ISO was at 100, at my husband's suggestion.

This is cropped from a much wider shot. It was blurry, but I fiddled with it anyways. A bit of Smart Sharpen and a High Filter Pass seemed to help. It's not nearly the shot I wanted, and I don't especially like it, but it gave me an excuse to play around a bit.

Original photo, below.

MY PEN

I'm still playing with my Cannon PowerShot SD1000 and the Digital Macro setting and Photoshop.

I cropped this photo to 4" x 6" 72ppi, then did a layer with a High Pass Filter, and another layer using the blending option Hard Light and then applied a Smart Sharpen Filter.

I would have liked to have focused more on the tip of the pen when I took the photo, but I was at work and didn't have a lot of time to spare fooling around with my camera. I spent about five minutes editing with Photoshop. Still avoiding the rule of thirds here, but like last time, I really liked the placement of the pen.

As previously, the original is below the edited version.

STRAY STAPLE

In a continued effort to figure out how to best use my little Cannon PowerShot SD1000, I've been practicing with the Digital Macro feature.

This is just a random staple on my desk, at work.

I cropped to 4x6 @ 72ppi and added two layers in Photoshop, using the Multiply and the Linear Light blending modes. I didn't tackle the rule of thirds here, but I think the placement turned out quite well. Not bad for a little point and shoot camera!

Above, is the second edit with a High Pass Filter.

Thanks to Carla S for the suggestion.

Before, below. After, above.

Because I'm sure you couldn't have possibly figured that out all on your own.

TIME FOR TEA

I have some friends who are improving their photography and Photoshopping skills. It is inspiring me to learn more. Though we have a nicer camera, I always carry my Cannon PowerShot SD1000 with me. This picture is all about my mom. It's her teacup, on her coaster, on her kitchen table.

THAT'S WEEBY!

It's a Weeb!

THE FROST BEFORE THE SNOW

It got chilly this week. Before the snow hit, I found a nice frost pattern on my car window. Jack Frost is a crafty type.

And because I like to digitally bastardize my photos so they are almost completely unrecognizable, here is a bit of the same photo, all over-filtered.

Then last night it started to snow. It was pretty. I wish it had started earlier in the evening instead of starting at bedtime. Poor Weeb had been so excited but didn't get to play in it until the following morning when, though there was still a ton left, it was beginning to get heavy, and there was only so much playing she could do before school started. I was glad I'd brought work home as I do not do well driving in the snow. I am just not confident. I'm one of those people who other people are talking about when they comment about wishing 'they' would just stay off the road when it snows. I do. You're welcome.

So pretty. I love watching it snow. Fingers are crossed the next dump comes on a Friday or Saturday night!

YOU PARK LIKE YOU'RE BLIND, TOO

Seriously?

I get that the guy who works next door to us parks like he's visually impaired, I mean, he's been parking badly, next to me, for the past four years.

What amazes me is that everybody else who parks in that spot ALSO parks like they have visual issues.

I have to wonder if there is something gravitational going on in regards to my car. Perhaps it just sucks people and their vehicles into some kind of Toyota Echo-y vortex of closeness?

And it doesn't just happen at work, though it does seem to happen there quite frequently, and as I have a window that looks out on the parking lot, I have the opportunity to catch these terrible parkers more than in other places. I mean, when I park at the mall, I go into the mall, I don't just hang out waiting to take photos of the idiots who park too close to me (though I have pictures from the mall, too).

I don't have a clever closing, other than a rather large number of people appear to be stupid and park too close to me.

YOU PARK LIKE YOU'RE BLIND

Dude in the office next to mine - seriously? How did you get out of your van? If you tried just a little harder, you might actually get closer to my car. Heck, if you tried just a little harder, you might actually get INTO my car.

Your complete lack of ability to park without appearing to be brain damaged continues to fascinate me.

If you stare at the photo, the contents of my desk, reflected in the window, will appear to you. That's just a little bonus from me to you. Enjoy.

WHAT TIME IS IT MISTER WOLF?

I have many clocks and watches available to me at any given moment. None of them tell the time as much as they suggest what it might be.

Sitting at my computer, I can see the time on my computer, the DVR, the cordless phone, my cell phone, my iTouch and my watch, and NONE of them tell the same time. I can lose ten minutes looking from one gadget to the next.

(Photo nabbed from some unsuspecting website, somewhere or other.)

I have the same problem at work. The phone, my computer, the server, the fax machine and the thermostat all tell different times. I can never seem to get out of the office on time - I end up five minutes early or ten minutes late.

I can lose hours just walking from my living room to my kitchen!

With all the fancy shmancy technology that I'm forced to deal with on a daily basis, you'd think something would be able to make all the clocks in my life tell the same time.

I'd be content just to know what gadget is actually telling me the correct time.

Maybe this is what Einstein was really talking about. Time is relevant, indeed!

HIGH WIRE SNEAKERS

I don't know if this happens everywhere, but here, it is not unusual to see sneakers hanging from power lines.

I have no idea how they get up there. I imagine they are tossed up there, but I also imagine you must have a pretty good arm to get them up that high.

So are there groups of shoe thieves out there attacking unsuspecting, large footed people donned in running shoes, snatching said shoes, tying the laces together and then pitching them up on these wires? Do the victims of shoe thievery just walk home in their socks? Do the thieving pitchers get bonus points if they get them up there on the first toss?

Or are people doing this to their own shoes on purpose? Maybe it's like tagging (graffiti)? Maybe it's just a way of saying, "I was here! And my feet are large! And I need new shoes!"

It's no digger in a ditch, yet it still fascinates me and Weeb every time we see them. This particular shoe-y ornament has graced the power lines outside the corner store near our house. They've been there for the better part of a year, maybe more. Every time we drive or walk by, Weeb says, "They're still there." And then I say, "Yup." Yeah, it's not a big conversation starter, but it is still a moment for us.

So thank you, shoe tossing strangers, for this interesting little conversation piece (however brief the conversation may be).

GOODBYE 2010, HELLO 2011

In 2010, we lost some amazing people (and a dear fuzzy), put up with some annoying people, missed some far away people, and were lucky to be surrounded by mostly awesome people!

Goodbye Christmas 2010. Santa was good to us. He was kind enough to leave us part of his beard on the glass of milk we left for him! I guess those extremely marshmallowy Holiday Rice Krispie treats were stickier than we thought!

We rang the new year in with rounds of coughs from most of our family members. Still, we had fun. The yearly tradition of doing puzzles and eating as much turkey, chocolate and potato chips as humanly possibly from Christmas Day through New Year's Eve continued, though I'll admit that the chocolate and potato chip indulgence was mostly just mine.

I hadn't intended to take down the Christmas tree this weekend, but the timing seemed right and with a five year old with more toys than we have space, a five year old who was very eager to spend the next three days playing with these many toys, we decided to try and put Christmas away with as little fuss as possible.

Turns out we got Christmas put away in less time than it takes to speak to in-laws in England and watch Despicable Me for the zillionth time. It seemed to be easier this year somehow. I've been trying to downsize in the past couple of holiday pack ups, and I guess it paid off. But then we don't put out very much Christmas cheer as we spend most of our time with my folks, whose house is a tribute to family and Christmas. It is home. It is joy. It is a winter wonderland, usually minus the snow. My mother spends endless hours decorating. I don't know if she just loves Christmas or just loves that her family loves Christmas. Regardless, she makes the environment, the holiday, magical.

Usually the house looks empty after Christmas decorations have been put away, but not this year, not with a five year old and all her toys all over the house. I used to get depressed after Christmas, but not so much now that I'm a mom.

We'll spend the next couple of days trying to get back to some kind of 'normal' routine before school and work starts again.

Here's to a fantastic year for us all! Happy 2011!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2010