the day after

I woke up with my right eye crusted over and feeling all achy and basically like poop. So, I ate a bowl of pickled garlic for breakfast and now my sinus are open enough to blog and enjoy my day. (I'm alone...at the computer and breathing on no one.)

We had a wonderful Christmas! I got to spend the majority of my day in pj's and hanging out at home, basically doing nothing. I did edit a bit on my computer, but only because I wanted to and NOT because I had to.

A very Merry Christmas.

We attended Mass @ St. Joseph and I love this part of our Holiday Season. Summer sang a solo during the caroling and did an awesome job! I love listening to her sing and NOT just because she is my kid. She is good. I hope she keeps her voice honed and always loves it!

The church looks empty at this point, but like all Good Catholics the arrive by the first reading. LOL


The rest of these photos are from Christmas morning at home. Santa brought many good things but my personal favorite was the Friends, DVD Scent It. Oh, and Gilmore Girls Season 6. Poor Devin, he just doesn't understand our passion sometimes. But that's OK. As long as there are 2 TVs in the house we are living in harmony.



Me Christmas Morning enjoying my cup of coffee. I do nothing without the coffee.

Summer and me. People say we look alike. Maybe we do, but my smile is real above and hers is totally fake. It's the "Christie Brinkley" in her. HA!



Kalyn and Summer exchange with each other every year. It's such a great thing to watch how excited they get! No one knows you like your sister.


Christmas gift from my Dad. Gotta love this!!! This is also the only shot I got of Devin. (his hand, anyway.) He hates having his picture taken.


My yummy pj's from Devin and the girls!



Last shot I took of the evening. We had Christmas Dinner at the in laws and it was SO good. Prime rib, green bean casserole, Jimmy Johnson Potatoes, fresh green salad, and homemade pies. Very yummy. It was about this time that I started feeling very congested and tired and achy. In-laws have very good couch for that!

This shot of the girls was too cute. my 50 1.4 and 800 iso. They were playing computer games in Grandma's office. Still in their PJ's! LOL

merry christmas everyone

I will most definitely blog later with all the days festivities, but for now, this shot of the tree will have to do. And no, I did NOT drink too much egg nog, this is purposely shot out of focus. It's all warm and pretty and makes me feel good.

Merry Christmas Everyone! And God Bless!

time sucker

WARNING...CLICK HERE for a fun, addicting TIME WASTER.

de-stressing

Are we done? Are all my responsibilities over? You know the one's women. Laundry, cleaning, shopping, cooking, gift buying, etc. Is it OVER? I'm ready to just enjoy it. Wait. I did.

Last night.

I met Gayla, Julie, and Elizabeth for a de-stressing evening of drinks, entertainment and most of all, my personal favorite, laughing. We had a wonderful time! No photos folks. Sorry! I left the camera in the car and just didn't feel like going back to get it. Besides, I'm sure I would pay heavy liability charges among friends if I posted any dance photos or pigging out photos from IHOP. I'm already on thin ice for a "passed out" Santa, from and earlier blog moment.

We started the evening out at Melt. A lively little mature bar downtown in the Buddy Holly District of Lubbock. I go to the Buddy Holly District all the time for haircuts and photo sessions, but have never gone for the night life.

The Christmas Martinis were wonderful! Very fun and festive and yummy.

Then, my wonderful "cheech" mobile friend, Stephanie, text messaged us about the bull riding out at the Rodeo. So of course we must go and check that out too. I must say, seeing the LIVE bull riding at a bar, just made me think a bit about lawyers, emergency techs, etc. But hey, whatever it takes for a business to survive in Lubbock, Texas right?

The point is, I enjoyed myself and now I'm ready to finish my last minute gift buying and hey, may even squeeze in a pedicure. I want to leave you blog readers with a view of my tree and some favorite things that hang there. So read on!

Oh, and my phone says that the storage is running low, so I'm thinking I've missed voice mails again. IF YOU CALLED YESTERDAY or the DAY BEFORE, I may have missed your message. Please try again! (In a few hours after I figure out how to dump the memory onto the very expensive 2 gig card the salesman said I needed for things like this. UGH! This phone!)


This star on top of this tree? I made it from tree twigs that laid in our yard the first winter we moved into our home. I was so proud that we had TREES! West Texas isn't known for trees and when a girl grows up in Eastern OK, well, the green was missing from her life. I thought it was soooo cool (at the time) that we had twigs and shrubs and limbs, etc. all over our winter yard and how I would bring the outdoors in.

I don't think that so much anymore when I help Devin prepare the yard for mowing. Gee... BUT they do make good tree stars.


This cute little number is from my Nana and she gave it to us our first married Christmas. It reminds me of the chipmunks. You know, Simon, Alvin and Theodore? "Christmas, Christmas, Time is Near".

Ahh...LOVE this snowman! When my girls attended St. Joseph, one of my favorite things is that they decorated the school tree as a WHOLE. Each class hand made ornaments and included them on the tree and when they dismissed, they brought them home. Kalyn made this cute one in Mrs. Cooks class one year. It's one of my favorites!

MD Anderson ornament from the first year Devin was home after his cancer.

Enough waxing poetic for now. Share your favorite ornaments on your blog. Oh, and notice the fruit loop garland all over our tree? Can't believe it made it a year in the cellar. Wow. That makes you feel good about eating that stuff for breakfast, huh? LOL

To keep the techno-freaks happy, all images of the tree and ornaments were taken at 800 iso, with my favorite lens the 85 @ 1.8. Wide open baby! Only way to live!

TIME

I was driving home from taking Summer to school and after the kids are out of the car, Kenny and the Animal Farm are OFF and Fox News takes over. They were talking about the closure of DIA, (Denver International Airport) which was built with the ability to "never close". Guess Mother Nature had another idea. She's so competitive. HA!

Made me think about all those folks living in an airport trying to get home or to get somewhere for the Holidays. Sleeping on floors, baggage carasols, etc. Eating McD's every meal and just plain miserable. I mean, I've been stuck in airports before for hourse, but not days! And I love it at first. You know, read all the magazines front to back and actually have the time to do so. Or the book you've been meaning to get into. A good bag of flower seeds, diet coke, place to sit, and I'm fine. Or internet? I wonder if DIA is wireless? And if they are FREE like Vegas, or if you pay? Either way, these folks have time. TIME.

TIME.

That wonderful thing I'm constantly craving! More time. And these folks have it. Either by themselves, or with their kids, or with their lover.

Just not much privacy! LOL

I'm giving a "shout out" to Jodel in Amarillo this morning, photographing a wedding and I know, doing well. Good Luck! And I know you will capture some beautiful memories for this couple! Oh, I'm in soooo much trouble for this photograph below! I'm sure no more "Bottle Caps" for me!

Hey, Jodel? If you don't want to fly home today? Julie and I (and Elizabeth) are meeting at Melt tonight for drinks. You up to spending the Christmas weekend with me? HA

all tied up

WHEW! I'm all tied up for the Holidays! Rushing like mad to get my personal stuff done, as well as deliever last minute orders to everyone! (Huge screw up at my lab.)

Wanted to let you all know that I will be taking off over the Holidays. My vacation starts on December 20, 2006 and except for a wedding on the 30th, (Lindsay and Andrew) I will not be OPEN. Whatever that means? gee?

When the kiddos go back to school on January 8th, 2007, I will resume regular office hours. (Another "gee".)

I'm sure if you email me, I will respond. I mean, come on! I can't leave my computer. Heavily addicted to online reading of blogs and stuff. So...

Merry Christmas everyone!

saturday night

This is what getting old looks like. You have that blank, dear shot in the headlights kind of paniked look. It seems like he's screaming for help on the inside to stay "STOP!" No more TURNING WORLD!

hee hee

Just teasing, David.

This is my father-in-law and we celebrated his Birthday Saturday night. Devin slow cooked some ribs and I even managed to cook for the first time in days, folks. DAYS. (too much work to get out before Christmas.)













Nice shot of Devin and David. (I even remembered by 550! YIPEE!)

christmas party

Julie.

She's been my friend for several years now. You know the type? Come on girls. The one you can just pick up where you left off, and you always feel good around? The one that you can catch up with in a second or two and knows you and your history and doesn't judge. The one that would be there for you, always. And the one that will always tell you the truth when you ask. Well, that's Julie to me.

Anyway, her and Heath (her hubby) invited us to their Christmas Party this year and all we were required to bring was our BEST SANTA HAT. How fun! Deserts and drinks flowed!

I've been so swamped with work and orders and video store, and was worried, because I had to work all weekend at the store due to Jacqui's circumstances and employees needing off to celebrate family Christmas's. I really thought we weren't going to get to go.

But we did.

And I was so glad. (Special thanks to Capri Chapa for making that happen!)


The shot above is of Julie's house as we were walking up. Great festive feeling hit and I left "computer editing" and work behind and decided to have some fun!

Guess, fun greeted me right away! Check out this dude's hat! And you have to understand, he's about 6'6 and ducked down so I could get him in my camera's frame.


Happy Birthday Page! I was not prepared with the macro lens to capture the beauty of her birthday "bling bling". You can see just a glimpse of them here, (in the photo above) but way to go, Tracy! Lovely earrings.


So all of you won't feel inadequate with your personal photographs, what I'm sharing here with you, will make you feel on my level. Come on! I'm a pro, right? Well, if you are a blog reader, you remember that I recently upgraded to a full sensor frame with the Canon EOS 5d system. No built in flash like my 20d has, so when I'm out and about for personal use, gee....I forget to bring the 550. UGH! So, I resort to unexposed photographs that later need to be fixed and converted in PS. UGH! So, yes...even I take horrible photographs. But they are still worthy of my personal memories. And they still make me happy. And that's the main things. They should make you HAPPY!










Not a "creature was stirring" by the time we left, except for TACO BELL. YUM!

Merry Christmas, Julie! And thanks for inviting us for a fun, relaxing evening with friends!

santa land

Summer had her Santaland debut Sunday evening and our entire family went, along with some cousins and friends. It was such a great relaxing evening. Our first in quite sometime. Life has gotten so extremely crazy for our little family. I was telling a customer at our video store today how 2004, (the year of my wreck) was preparation for this year! 2006 has been a rollercoaster of a year. So many ups and downs. Santaland was a nice way to just breathe for a bit. Well, for us anyway. Summer was nervous! She's been working on her piece with Cami Caldwell for quite some time, but I think it had been a year since she had sang in public, so of course the stomach was churning. It was a good run through for her Christmas Eve solo. Way to go Summer!



















For you camera techno/freaks, I took all of these with my 5d and only one lens. My baby. The 85 1.8. All available light and no flash. YUM!