Christmas Eve

Even though we had already acted out the Nativity in part for Family Home Evening on Monday, we still have a family tradition of acting it out on Christmas Eve. My Dad narrates and usually plays King Herod. The most coveted role is always to play the sheep, and my nephew won out this year. The next coveted role is the shepherd so that you can 'tame' the sheep. My brother Brian got that role. We also brought out more costumes this time around, with my brothers collection of wigs being the center piece. It was great to see my brothers and my Dad with hair again! I played a wise woman, so naturally I was made for the part. My little sister Julie was the photographer, so I didn't take any of these pictures, she did. But she is a better photographer than I am so enjoy! I love the creativity of my family, it is so much fun.

Brian as the Shepherd

Isaac as a sheep

Me as a wise woman

Steven and Jen as Joseph and Mary

My mom and Abigail as Angels, they both wanted the part, so hey, why not?

Switching roles, my mom as a fellow wise woman.

Going to King Herod, I love my Dad and Brian's faces in this one!


After our acting debut's we switched gears and started getting ready for Santa Claus! It was so fun to have the kids around this year! We set up our name tags so Santa would know where to leave our presents, got a plate of cookies ready, and the whole time the kids were just anxious to go to bed so Santa could come. If we would have let them they would have gone to bed at 7 probably. My niece informed me of her secret plan to stay awake, but pretend to be asleep so she could see Santa. Original, I know. I loved it though. Poor kid didn't make it 20 minutes probably. Below they were getting ready some carrots for the reindeer, Rudolph needs his treats as well!

Writing a note for Santa, maybe a last minute plea?

The Potomac and the Temple

We decided to brave the cold weather and go and see the Potomac River. It is about a 15 minute drive from my brothers house. The river forms part of the borders between Maryland and Washington DC on the left bank and West Virgina and Virginia on the river's right bank. We were going to look at the falls. Because it was so cold we decided to stop off at on the way and get some hot chocolate. I have never had 7-11 hot chocolate before and I have to say that it kicked Starbucks booty. Way better than the chalky version Starbucks puts out that I can make better with my Swiss Miss hot chocolate packets at home.

So we made it to the river, it was as cold as expected, but the river was pretty in its' own way. The water was a dirty brown color, which wasn't the most aesthetically appealing, but it was big and had cool rocks. Here it is:


My niece.

Doesn't this look like one of those pictures of a movie star outside of Starbucks or something?

My parents. Yeah it was cold, but does that necessitate putting road kill on your head? I ask you this question Dad. =)

The rocks had ice and snow on them, which I thought was cool, and I was able to capture it with my zoom lens. Love the icicles.



The river was such a dirty, nasty color I tried to change it to a better green color in this picture. Let me know what you think.

My little sister Julie who is extremely photogenic.

They had flowers around the temple made out of Christmas lights. Cool idea. I hear about a Botanical Garden in Seattle that is open at Christmas time where they have thousands of flowers made out of lights. I am planning on trying to go and see it after I get back!



Some lights around the temple.

And what you have all been waiting for..... The DC Temple! We went and looked at the lights around the temple. I was trying to get a clear picture of the temple at night when this nice Missionary offered for me to use his tripod. I had wanted to bring a tripod specifically for this trip, but didn't have room in my suitcase. I was disappointed I wouldn't be able to get the pictures of the temple I wanted. But everything worked out great and I was able to get these clear pictures!




I wanted to end with some random thoughts. First, DC is a random place, but I like it for this reason. They have this written on their license plates: (Taxation without representation). I think it is great that they officially protest in this way.

Second thought, how did this tire get in the Potomac River?

Nativity Fun

One of our family Christmas traditions is to act out the Nativity. For Family Home Evening tonight we did that. It was really fun and my niece who is 5 impressed us all with her knowledge of the story. My brother and sister in law played Mary and Joseph, my nephew and sister Julie played the Shepherds and the Wise men, my parents played the innkeepers, my brother help up the flashlight for the star, and I was the Angel. Abigail directed everyone and told them what to say. At home we have costumes for the parts, at least we did when we were kids and still manage to squeeze into them somehow. Here though, we used extra towels for the wardrobe. My nephew insisted on turning off the lights, killing my chances to document most of it, but I got a few shots in.



And here was our glowing baby Jesus.

Abigail wanted me to catch an action shot of her jumping down the stairs.

My dad playing with Isaac and Abigail.

Our beautiful Christmas tree.

Birthday Fun

So, today is my birthday. I am spending the day here in Virginia with my family and it has been a pretty nice day. I got to sleep in, hang out with my family and eat leftover pizza from last night. Then we went to church which was of course excellent. We came home, had some beef and broccoli stir fry that my sister in law makes which is fabulous. I ate way too much. It was followed up with cheesecake, pictured below. Then my brother made some of his fantastic cinnamon rolls. I think they are part of the reason my sister in law loves him so much. Seriously. My uncle whom I never see also drove down to visit. We had a concert with all of the musically talented people in my family playing their instruments. I whipped out my cello and dazzled everyone. Then my mom brought out these scarves that she had made for us to take pictures in. Anyone that knows my family can imagine how that turned out. Especially with the siblings that were involved. We were just told to wear the scarves. You can see what we ended up doing in the pictures below. Now that I have got you anxious to see the pictures, we will turn to the exciting part of this blog entry:

Yes, I do love cheesecake.

My nephew thought it was hilarious to wear his scarf in strange ways, as did the rest of us...

Julie

Abigail

Julie and Me

The scarf fight that ensued.


For my presents I got a black sheep. Symbolic of my role in the family. I thought it was great.

I also got this amazing painting. Liz Lemon Swindle painted it after a trip to Africa. Isn't it beautiful?

And here is the rest of my loot.

Photoshop Actions!

Since I got photoshop I have been accumulating different free Actions to use with it. An action is basically a program that someone wrote for photoshop to take it through a preset sequence of adjustments to get an effect. I use them a lot with my editing because it is an easy way to make your photos look really cool. I wanted to share some examples of different actions that I have. Below I have the original with no adjustments at all. Then I have the different actions, where all I did was press play to get the effect. Check them out and see how much I cheat when editing pictures!

Original


B&W Beauty

Boost

BW

Color pop

Cup of Joe

Define and Sharpen

Fresh and Colorful

Grandma's Attic

Lovely and Ethereal

Punch it Up

PW's B&W

Sepia

Shot of Espresso

Soft and Faded

Vintage