7ish Christmas Takes (5 about christmas and 2 everyday things)

Just getting back into the swing of things, last week was kind of busy. Here finally is my long overdue Christmas post and since it’s Friday I’ll just divide it into 7 parts.

1. First thing, my keyboard is being stupid, and most of the time when I hit the apostrophe key it takes the enter key with it (and vice versa). I was wondering why I kept jumping to a new line mid sentence.

2. Christmas eve was surprisingly eventful. I was feeling a little down because my husband was stuck working the night shift and I was less than excited about spending the special night alone. I had also been cursing the mild temperatures because I didn’t want the snow to melt and I certainly didn’t want it to rain on Christmas day. Turns out it was a blessing in disguise, as was the thing that happened next. We had just left mass and I was still feeling lonely and sad. About 5 minutes down the road we got a flat tire. Blessing number 1, having to stop to change a flat tire at 11pm on Christmas eve, we all just had to laugh, what else could you do. And I really needed that diversion to lighten my mood. Blessing number 2 was the mild temperatures. Everyone but the baby had to be out of the car, so we stood around waiting while my brother changed the tire in a light rain instead of blowing snow, and when we got back inside were only slightly chilly, instead of shivering uncontrollably.

3. Christmas was pretty great this year. Something about watching a baby experience it for the first time, and getting to show them everything just made it that much more special, even if the baby is only 7 months and too little to really understand. And Christmas morning opening presents at 7am because that’s when baby got us up looking at our little family I just felt so blessed.

4. It was also just a good Christmas gift-wise, because for the most part everything I got was on my list, and thus I didn’t get much stuff that has me wondering, now what am I going to do with this? The main exceptions being a few duplicate items, a book and a dish rack. The dish rack was my fault, I forgot to take it off my list when my MIL got me one because she saw it there.

5. On both a photography and a Christmas note, I got a tripod for Christmas. It was on my list but I never expected to get one. It was actually second hand but that didn’t take away from the value in the least, on the contrary, it added to it. It was my father’s and since my mom was never going to use it she gave it to me. Funny thing was the bag with the tripod was in plain sight while I was at her house wrapping my gifts. She prayed I wouldn’t notice the dusty old bag but thought her moving it would draw attention to it. I was completely oblivious. The cool thing is now I have a tripod, and I can take much steadier shots especially when a) the light is low and I need the longer exposure, and b) when I’m shooting outdoors and it’s absolutely freezing out. 8)

6. With the tripod in hand I set about trying again to get some of the shots that were just ok. The main problem I had with my shots is when I got them on the computer they were a little blurry, despite looking perfectly fine on my camera at the time. I set up a chair and the tripod and sat for over an hour taking shot after shot of one specific area of my MILs tree, a certain Christmas ball that was serendipitously placed in front of a santa beard which happened to pick up several colored lights nearby and have a very pretty glow. The ball was semi-translucent so it too picked up some extra colors.

7. Lastly, the reason I was extra busy last night is the baby was just a little more fussy than usual. He started teething, he has had a rash on his head for over a month, actually we think it’s eczema now but regardless it gets itchy and really bothers him, and to top it off he developed a very runny nose and a cough. He was not a happy camper, but he is getting better.