Christmas 2009, the Recap

I finally managed to go through all of the Christmas pictures taken at various family gatherings over the past few days.

I didn't take nearly as many people photos as I should have. I realized that after having captured some particularly delightful (to me) kid pics at my mother-in-law's Christmas gathering.

The beautiful children pictured below belong to Mike's nephew, Curtis, and his wife, Candice.

First Adriana...

Do yourself a favor and look at it large (click on the image). She just has the most beautiful blue eyes and this angelic face that just melts your heart. Unfortunately, she spent most of the party napping. But this one perfect shot makes it okay. One time soon, we'll have to arrange a special photo session for this little cherub.

She has a brother, too, which you probably would have figured out for yourself.

Mason also has big blue eyes and a little cherubic face that just screams, "Take my picture!" I couldn't decide which shot of him I liked best, so here's another. In color...

The little guy on the left is Mike's great nephew, Ryan. He is Chris and Steve's little boy.

Ryan is not the sit-still-and-pose type. Actually, he doesn't sit still. (Don't worry, Chris and Kathy, I deleted the crazy pics of him.) But look at this boy's skin. Have you ever see such creamy, flawless skin?

He is sitting with his paternal grandmother. Her name is Kathy, which is really quite funny. Why funny? Well, my name is Kathy, and I am married to a guy named Mike. Ryan's maternal grandparents, my sister- and brother-in-law, are named Kathy and Mike. So this is Kathy #3 in our family.

The above images are from the day after Christmas. The day before Christmas, aka Christmas Eve, was at our house. For whatever reason, I didn't take many pictures at all. Most of the ones captured by my camera were taken by my daughter, Amy.

I did capture this shot of Joey, our youngest grandchild, digging the very yummy, homemade trail mix, gifted to us by June and her family (Mike's cousins) in Willow, Alaska. I practically had to pry the bowl away from him.

I did slide it away from him at one point (he wasn't paying attention). But he politely grabbed the bowl with two hands and pulled it right back. Notice how he's holding on tightly with the right hand?

Here's Brianna with the Shrinky Dinks Hubby and I gave her. I used to LOVE Shrinky Dinks, and I think it's super cool that she likes them, too.

This is the only full-face shot of Gaige captured all evening. He's trying to make Meg say "cheese" I think.

Here's Joey in his cute Santa apron. He knows how to say "cheese" for sure.

I got zero pictures of Amy and TJ. None. What a bummer. I was going to remedy that at our post-Christmas gathering, but the whole family was sick and had to stay home.

I did take a few shots of the parents on Christmas day. Here's my Mom...

And my Dad...

... who can now grow upside-down tomatoes without being called a redneck.

And here's Mike's mom. My mother-in-law. We camouflaged her candy in this box full of packing peanuts, trying to trick her into believing we forgot to get the one gift she looks forward to most every year. She dug, and dug, looking quite perplexed. Then, as soon as she hit the box, she said, "Oh, is this my candy?"

That totally cracked us both up. She LOVES that candy and knows we would have enough sense to warn her in advance if we weren't able to procure some.

And that's it for the highlights. I told you I didn't take many pics. If you want to see the rest, you'll have to go to my FLICKR site.

All in all, it was a nice Christmas. Even if Shannon is halfway around the world.

I'll try to get more shots next time. I promise.

I did take a few cool pics yesterday...

This is K, who was sleeping beside me, on her back, on my chair.

This one shot I took while testing my new 2x teleconverter lens. Doesn't this image just scream COLD?

A teleconverter increases the focal length of a lens. So, if you have a 300 mm zoom like me and use a teleconverter, you effectively can have a 600 mm zoom.

That's how I got this close-up shot of the moon.

You will not achieve the same quality you would get with a true 600 mm zoom lens, but it costs ten times less than the cheapest 600 mm zoom. The more-expensive 600 mm zoom lenses cost many thousands of dollars. For one lens.

That's it for now. I hope to get more people pictures later in the week. Stay tuned!