Merry Christmas to All!

Just a quick note wishing everyone a very merry Christmas!

Snowflake Lane

For the last few years we've been going to Snowflake Lane, a Christmas performace outside the mall every Christmas season with another family or two. We went this past Saturday night and the sidewalks were packed for the show! We went to our favorite burger place, Five Guys, first before heading to the mall.

We had some time to spend in the mall before the show, and I took many pictures of Christmas decorations.

We went to Starbucks and got a warm drinks. I usually get a cold drink, since I'm not a coffee fan, but this time I got a peppermint hot cocoa.



They have a penguin and a polar bear that wandered around and took pictures with people.

The snowflake lights lining the streets.

These drummers were new this year. They had water on top of the drums that bounced up when the beat it. They also make it snow.



The sidewalks and the area were we were at was packed like crazy. I was able to make my way up to the front to get some pictures, though.



Here's a video clip that my mom took of the drummers.


Gotta love Christmas tree bokeh!



While we were in the Disney store, I spotted this Animal plush, which I promptly showed my brother Daniel. Animal is his favorite Muppet and he can to a perfect Animal voice.



Cristina and I waited outside the Lego store while our siblings went in and looked around, since it was pretty crowded. I had her pose for me in front of that awesome bokeh.

Christmas Link-up: With a Face

It's time for the last week of a Very Merry Christmas Link-up. My, how time has been flying. You can still enter any of the categories through the 31st.
(If your new, or would like more info about the link up, you can visit, this post.)

Week 4 - With a Face(s)
From a portrait of one friend, or a whole group of you doing something fun. Just make sure its still Christmas-y. 



*Update* The linky doesn't seem to be working, so please leave your link in the comments.

Joining is easy. Just put together a post with a photo(s) that fit with this weeks theme, Christmas Lights, add my Christmas Link Up button, and come back here and add your post to the linky. Remember to post a link to the post, not your main blog address. Also, go ahead and check out all the other posts that are linked up. That's what makes this fun!

<center><a href="http://sereinasphotography.blogspot.com/search/label/VMCL%202011" target="_blank"><img alt="Very Merry Christmas Link-up" src="http://i992.photobucket.com/albums/af49/sereinalovesvintage/Blog/VMCL2011Button.png"/></a></center>

The 35mm

For a while now I've been wanting to purchase a new lens, the 35mm f/1.8. Last week I decided to look it up online again, and Amazon had it $25 off! I was super excited that I was able to save a little bit on it and I purchased it that night. It arrived in Tuesday's mail, but was only able to play with it a little bit, since it was getting dark and I had to make dinner. I was only able to take a couple dozen photos, but I can already love it and I definitely see it getting a lot of use. It auto focuses really well and I can get really close up to subjects.


This is one of the first photos I took with it. Like I mentioned earlier, it was getting dark, so I had to bump up my ISO a bit, which added a lot of grain. I was able to fix it up a little in Photoshop, though.

Christmas-ness

"Have yourself a merry little Christmas,

Let your heart be light,
From now on,
our troubles will be out of sight."


I don't know about you, but I've been having quite a fun time taking all sorts of Christmas-y photos. Especially ones with Christmas lights/bokeh. By the time the month is over, I'm going to have so many random Christmas related pictures.

I had some fun the other day taking picture of our tree while zooming in or out with the lens and a slower shutter speed. It's very entertaining.

Then there's all those decorations that I set up in front of the tree, so I can get some nice bokeh in the background. I love Christmas.

Winter Frost

It's that time of year when the rooftops and plants are covered in frost in the morning. 

I Heart Faces - Furry Faces

I don't have too many pictures of animals or pets, I dug in the archives and found this fun picture of a chipmunk we found with on a walk. On our way back from hiking to some waterfall, we stopped at a covered area with picnic benches. As we were getting ready to leave, we saw this chipmunk, so I started slowly inching over towards it, hoping I would get a good shot of it. Then my sister holds the zbar that I was eating to the chipmunk and he starts eating away and I snap away like crazy. 

Christmas Link-up: Foods & Tasty Treats

Week three is here! It's hard to believe it's only two weeks till Christmas is here. Today week three of a Very Merry Christmas Link-up begins, but remember, you can still join any of the themes trough the end of the month. Themes that have already started: Christmas Decor and Christmas Lights
(If your new, or would like more info about the link up, you can visit, this post.)

Week 3 - Christmas Foods & Tasty Treats

There are so many tasty things made this time of year: cookies, gingerbread houses, candy canes, and my personal favorite, eggnog. Mmmm, my mouth is watering! If you bake something yourself, you could share the recipe as well! Anything that is edible will work for this weeks theme. And remember, composition is an important key to getting a great food shot.

*Update* The linky doesn't seem to be working, so please leave your link in the comments.

Joining is easy. Just put together a post with a photo(s) that fit with this weeks theme, Christmas Lights, add my Christmas Link Up button, and come back here and add your post to the linky. Remember to post a link to the post, not your main blog address. Also, go ahead and check out all the other posts that are linked up. That's what makes this fun!

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Cranberries + White Chocolate + Oats

For Thanksgiving, we bought a big bag of cranberries from Costco for cranberry sauce. We had tons left over, so I searched the internet for baked goods with cranberries in them, and came up with these cookies. They're pretty much oatmeal cookies with cranberries and I also added white chocolate chips.

The recipe called for dried cranberries, but just used the fresh ones. They taste really good, but the cranberries were a little sour. Next time I'll add some sugar, or something.

I found the recipe on the Food Network website.

I shot these photos out in the cold on our back deck. I plugged in the lights inside and brought them out on the deck, a few feet from the cookies, to get some nice bokeh.

Christmas Link-up: Christmas Lights

(I was having some technical difficulties with the linky not working properly, so if you had linked up before, you'll need to re-do that below.)

It's time for week two of A Very Merry Christmas Link-up! Remember, all linkys will be open all month, so keep joining with your photos!

(If your new, or would like more info about the link up, you can visit, this post.)

Week 2  - Christmas Lights

Anything from on a Christmas tree, on a house, or anywhere else you can find some decorative lights. They don't have to be in focus, either. Some cool bokeh shots would count as well.

Joining is easy. Just put together a post with a photo(s) that fit with this weeks theme, Christmas Lights, add my Christmas Link Up button, and come back here and add your post to the linky. Remember to post a link to the post, not your main blog address. Also, go ahead and check out all the other posts that are linked up. That's what makes this fun!

<center><a href="http://sereinasphotography.blogspot.com/search/label/VMCL%202011" target="_blank"><img alt="Very Merry Christmas Link-up" src="http://i992.photobucket.com/albums/af49/sereinalovesvintage/Blog/VMCL2011Button.png"/></a></center>