Ornaments with Memories

Whenever we travel somewhere, my mom likes to buy an ornament for our Christmas tree that has something to do with the area we visited. Some of them include: Canada, Mt. Rushmore, Disneyland, Tennessee, and San Francisco. But our latest edition, and a favorite for all us kids, is our Disney Cruise Line ornament from our Disney Wonder cruise in February. I think it will be the favorite for a long time.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Today is December second, which means Christmas is just 23 days away. I've already watched several Christmas movies, but I can't wait to watch The Santa Clause movies which I have set to record on our DVR next weekend. Those are some of my favorites. And my Christmas station on Pandora has been on pretty much all day every day, which I awesome.





Hooray for awesome Christmas tree bokeh!

I decided to make a Christmas video with clips of different decorations around the house. You can check it out below:

Festival of Trees

Yesterday we went to the Festival of Trees, which had around a dozen beautifully decorated trees. There was everything from winter red and white candies, Cinderella, nature Mexican, and even Clifford the Big Red Dog themed trees.

These green feather-y birds are my favorite!




There were lots of shiny giant ornaments perfect for taking pictures of yourself.

Let the Christmas Season Begin!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving was pretty simple this year, just hanging out and dinner with Grandma and Grandpa. Friday we all went Black Friday shopping (at 3:00AM!), which we've been doing for about ten years now, and came home with some good deals. And all weekend we've been eating tons of Thanksgiving leftovers, which I love.

I've put some lights up in my bedroom window, the house is filled with Christmas decorations, we've been listening to lots of Christmas music on Pandora, and I have already watched two Christmas movies. Oh, and we just got our tree. Christmas time is definitely here!

Catching Up

My family had a great Christmas. We all decided to open our gifts on the morning of Christmas Eve instead of Christmas day this year, which was fun. We all woke up while it was still dark out and my mom and dad had gone out to get some doughnuts, which was a fun surprise. 

I made these yummy chocolate pretzels which we all munched on throughout the weekend. The M&M's on top are the coconut ones.

The day before New Years Eve our whole family went to a ball that our friends put on. It was a really fun night filled with lots of Ceilidh Dancing (Scottish and Irish social dancing) and even a little Waltzing at the end.

On New Years Eve we decided to go inner tubing in the snow at night. We went with some friends of ours and we had lots of fun speeding down the hill.  And at the end they let us go down in trains. That was awesome.

It was quite sad when last week the dSLR died. It was quite sudden as it was working fine earlier in the day. There is a bright side to that, though, because since we don't have a dSLR in the house anymore, I was able to purchase the camera I've been wanting, the Sony A580, last night! I'm super excited about it and I can't wait for it to arrive this week!

So, that pretty much sums up my last couple weeks. How was your Christmas and/or New Years?

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!

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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.

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 Light Bokeh

Now that we got our Christmas decorations and lights out, I thought I would play around with taking portraits with Christmas lights bokeh.

I set two bar stools at the top of our stairs and draped a tablecloth then Christmas lights from them. I placed Daniel a few feet from the background and use my widest aperture (f/1.8) to get the nice bokeh. For the lighting, I opened up the front door, which lets lots of natural light on the staircase.

Christmas Link-up: Christmas Decor

Thanksgiving is over and today starts the first week of A Very Merry Christmas Link-up! 

Week 1 - Christmas Decor
I love pulling out all of our Christmas decorations each year and placing them all over the house, with Christmas music playing in the background. Lots of fun!


Every year at on Black Friday, JCPenny's gives away these fun little Mickey Mouse snow globes. I've been collecting them since 2002, but a couple of them have broken over the years, and last year we were too late to get them.

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Make sure to add the button to you post, then link up below. Then go ahead and blog hop a bit, and check out some of the other entries and leave some comments. The linky will be open till the end of the month and you can submit as many times as you'd like, just remember to follow the guidelines.

At the end of the week, I'll feature some of my favorite entries from that week. So go ahead, and enter you best Christmas decor photo(s)!

Today is Christmas Eve...

... And I'd like to wish you all a very merry Christmas! 

Remember: Jesus is the real reason for the season.

Cookies!

I love baking and decorations sugar cookies every December. There as fun to make as they are to eat! Chocolate crinkles (we call them chocolate snowballs) and snickerdoodles are some other favorites.

I'm loving the bokeh in the background in this shot.

Christmas lights

I was messing around with the wireless flash and trying some dramatic lighting.

What do you like to bake this time of year?