Christmas, while amazing and wonderful, can also be stressful. There is all of the anticipation that you will have loads of fun and togetherness with family you may not see often and then—there everyone is. I hope that all of you were as lucky as we were. We did, in fact, enjoy our time together! That was the very best present of all.

I do not have photos of us enjoying our time together because I consciously did not pick up my camera, except to take a video of Bear on is new scooter. (I hope this link takes you to the right place on instagram.) Jeff gave him this present and, even though he isn’t quite walking, he can make it go! Steering is still a mystery to him, but won’t be for long.

Jeff is here for a couple more days and I am very much enjoying the time with him. We are going to NYC in mid-January so when they leave, I won’t be as sad as I would otherwise be.

I contracted with a photographer (Lauren Pinson, find her here) to take family photos while everyone was in town. She arrived yesterday morning at 9:00 and she managed to fit every grouping that I had requested into a two-hour shoot. There were group shots of all of us (Steve and me, our kids, their spouses and kids, my mom), and of various ones of us in smaller groups, and of Lorna and her parents, her brother and his wife—plus the grandkids. Lauren suggested a shot of the grandkids with both sets of grandparents which was a great idea! I can’t wait to see the photos :-).

I’m sharing this because Lauren is primarily a wedding photographer. If you haven’t worked with a wedding photographer since back in the day, you should know that things have changed. You pay a photography fee and for that you receive digital copies of the photos. It is so much better than having to go through proofs, trying to decide which ones you are really going to want for th long run, and then ordering prints of them. With the digital images you can print what you want to, when you want to. What works for weddings, also works for family photos. 

In other news, Lorna’s parents are moving from their house of many years in Bonham, TX, to Sherman. Steve and Chris and Michael, Lorna’s brother, have moved a lot of stuff already. The final day of moving is tomorrow. I’m on for helping to unpack in the new space. It’s going to be nice to have Judy and Kelly close—especially for the kids. Our communal grandchildren love us all and I can happily say that we are not competitive grandparents. 

I’m going to spend the rest of today sewing. I have been making progress and hope to be able so show little bits soon!