Twas the Night Before Christmas

The Lights

Despite this being our third Christmas here, we hadn't yet made the drive down south to see the lights on the Fayetteville square.  It's not that far, but still, it is a bit of a drive at night when you have kids that go to bed early, etc.  But, this year, we did it!  And it was gorgeous!

But, this trip down was another perfect example for me of how I just HAVE to learn my camera better!  The photos from the night turned out awful.  Grrr...  It's hard to try to play with settings when you have two impatient kids.  I'm half tempted to start taking my tripod places, too.  I think that really would've helped here!  But, I recently read a blog post about how not every photo will turn out perfectly, but that's ok...it's about capturing the moment.  So, I decided to post these anyway, because seriously, I love this little girl and her new crazy faces.  So ignore the poor photos and enjoy the many faces of Riley.

And again, even though it's poor quality, I want to include this....because it's not always that Jarrod offers to take photos with me in them, and I love the ones I have of me and my babies.  :)

 

Resolutions

I know it's not even Christmas yet, but I've been thinking about resolutions already.  I went through my 30 Things list to see how I was doing and realized I really like the idea of creating a 'to-do' list for the year.  I'm also thinking about picking ONE thing to really focus on each month, or every 2-3 months.  Photography, for example, is something I've had on my 'list' for year or resolutions for years.  Since I got my camera, I'm sure.  But I still feel like I haven't accomplished that goal.  I get excited about it, but then get stuck on something or don't understand something and feel completely overwhelmed and take a step back.  There's a class on February 2 that I really want to take so I'm thinking it might be a good goal for me to really focus on getting better and understanding my camera more in January and February.  I really enjoyed making the capes for the kids, so sewing is another big task I want to focus on.  Our budget, coupon binder, etc. is another..  Plus, I really liked my resolution last year to make a new recipe each week.  I'm thinking I want to do that again.  My list gets longer every day.  What are you going to focus on in 2013?  Give me some ideas!

Holiday 2012 Card

Spread Laughter Holiday Card

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Christmas Train

Back at the beginning of December, we surprised the kids with a ride on the Christmas Train.  I have to say, I thought it would be a bigger surprise than it was, but it was still nice.  Gavin was excited at first and then quickly started asking if he could use my phone to play games.  Sorry, son....let's just enjoy family time!

Riley, of course, was entertained with the snacks in the bag they provided, but we learned that day that Riley is NOT a fan of dressed up characters.  There was a snowman, a kangaroo (spokes-animal for a local bank), a dog, a reindeer, and of course, Mr. and Mrs. Claus, and she was terrified!  Poor girl...

 

We took a ride down south about fifteen minutes and then put it in reverse and went back to the train station.  We sang Christmas songs and watched out the window, waving to the cars as we passed.  

We barely got this picture.  They passed us and Riley was panicked, while Gavin just politely said, 'No thanks' when asked if he wanted a picture with Santa.  Once they passed, they turned around and stood slightly behind me while Jarrod took a picture of me with Riley; she just didn't know that Santa and Mrs. Claus were also in it.  :)

Next year, I'd like to try the bigger train ride that's more like the Polar Express.  But for our first train experience, this one was good.  :)