Belated Photo Essays: Trimming the Tree!

Okay, Okay...

Everyone has been bitchin' and moanin' about "where are your Christmas pictures!!??" and "don't you have a blog to update??". Okay, maybe those are the voices of guilt in my head. But either way, I have a bajillion photos that I have taken of the Christmas season, only most of them are crappy because I absolutely refuse to use flash indoors, so all my pics are yellow and blurry. But the few that are not blurry look a bajillion times better than those with flash.

If only I had a new camera with a lens that could stop down further, to let in more light so that I could shoot indoors with no flash... so that I could get that much narrower depth of field that I have been in lust with since I signed up for the evil flickr account that makes me realize what a better photographer I could be if I worked at it.

Oh but wait! I AM getting a beauteous new camera for Christmas, and while it doesn't have the $1400 lens I so covet, it does have a rather nifty and awesome little lens that is the next best for a thousand dollars less! It just hasn't arrived in the mail yet.

More on that later. Darn tootin', there will be a LOT more on that later, baby!

But until then, I give you the first installment of my family Christmas photos... the Trimming of the Tree!!!

Why haven't I shown you this before? Why do I show them now, the very day I took the tree down? YOU try buying presents for a bajillion people while jugging twin toddler's second birthday parties, researching daycamps, while stopping a plethora of "he took my toy" fights and "he threw a truck at my head" tantrums, and getting all these crazy people fed. Just do all that and keep your blog up to date! I dare ya!

So, be still and enjoy.

You just know, we waited until the twins went down for their nap before opening the boxes of decorations. I am a "real pine tree girl" but with the chaos and the 2-year-oldness that abounds in my house, we just opted to put up the tree and be done with it, no watering, no mess.

We also went with the all-plastic ornaments, which proved wise what with Ethan's penchant for yanking balls off the tree, screaming "OH NO!!!!!!" and throwing them across the room.

We did add in the special ornaments that were made by the NICU nurses the day after the twins were born, to celebrate their first Christmas in this world. They put their wee footprints and their names on them, and hung them on their isolettes.

It turned out to be a really awesome Christmas for us. Noah is five now, and was fully immersed in the Santa story, was trying to be good for Santa, kept worrying that he was going to get a "rock of coal" in his stocking.

He asked all the tricky questions about how Santa gets down the chimney and all. He didn't believe in Rudolph, though, because there is no way reindeer's noses can light up. That's where the whole story lost credibility, you know.

Of course, that all turned around when we watched Santa's progress on NORAD's satellites, and he actually SAW Rudolph out there in front of the sleigh. "Whoa... there really IS a Rudolph! THERE REALLY IS A RUDOLPH!!"

Christmas generally rocked this year.

I was really dreading the season, what with the whole Halloween slide into Thanksgiving with Noah's birthday the very next day, twin birthdays just before Christmas, and don't forget we do Hanukkah, too!

But it wasn't the complete insanity I expected! It was rather enjoyable, and while I didn't exactly have time to reflect much, I did get a few chances to sit back and see how good I have it, and to give thanks.