Happy Happy Merry Merry

We are fully in Christmas mode around here and I LOVE it!  This is by far my favorite time of year and we try to make it last as long as possible.  We decorated a week before Thanksgiving because we would be gone for that holiday (another one that I love!) and it's so nice to walk in to see lights and Santas everywhere.

The boys' elf came today and brought little soft elves for them to love until Christmas.  So far they have enjoyed having them to carry around and snuggle-and Nate, who loves all stuffed animals, is having a big time using his elf as a weapon. 

We were so lucky to have our friend Jody Mack take some pictures of us over Thanksgiving weekend and they are so good!  Here are a few of my favorites.

Sick

Ben was Patient X-he threw up right outside of the Carolina basketball game Friday night.

Next came Gil on Sunday.

Now it's my turn.  The couch is my friend. 

Help!

Why oh why can't I take a decent picture? 

I have such good intentions-and I have a wonderful camera-but alas, I lack basic knowledge.  We went out to the Horseshoe with Leslie not long ago to get some family pictures.  I have been wanting to do a family session with a professional photographer but just can't bite the bullet.  Last summer Leslie went with us and we got some great shots.  This year I decided we needed that soft evening light.  Bah Humbug.  I wasn't thinking that the beautiful light requires a slower shutter, so all of our pictures are blurry.  I have also been admiring sun flare on professional photographer pictures lately but I have no idea how to actually achieve that with the real sun! 

Basically I need to take a class on how to get out of auto on my camera.  And maybe get a tripod.

I spent so much time coordinating our outfits so we weren't too matchy matchy-but you can barely tell.  We are all in green and brown (inspired by Ben's shorts) but again, you can barely tell.

And then let's talk about getting more than one person to look at the camera and not make a monkey face.  Factor in that two of the monkeys are 3 and 5 and it's all over.  How do those professionals do it?  They don't get all this monkey face business??

This is probably the best shot of the session.   Should have given Nate a green lollipop at least.

Wow, are there any people in that mess of a picture?



Oh look, it's ants (grainy ants).

Enter the monkey faces.....

 Mom and Dad are looking, but what about the monkeys?

There are about 200 more, but not a one that begs for a frame.