Today was Christmas celebration in Dalton. As with all our celebrations, there was food. Lots of food. But that happened before the pictures (and after the pictures too if truth be told). So much fun to celebrate with family. And new family too this year!

Christina putting the finishing touches on the presents with Buttons:

Silliness and laughter abound:

Modeling the new pajamas:

Minions assemble:

This is the Christmas tree in the girls' room. They paid for it themselves, but the boys cut it down to surprise them one Saturday afternoon while they were out. They decorated it with tinsel and mostly pink or blue decorations. Having big kids is fun!

Cold, rainy weather needs hot chocolate. Enjoying it with a sweet Christmas bouquet that Tina gave me.

As for the picture, by the end of the day I still had not taken a picture, so I tried this. It would have been better if the hot chocolate had been steaming. But I had been messing around with different angles and backgrounds, so it was cooling off at this point. (Which actually is ideal for me since I always seem to burn my tongue on hot chocolate). I really need to learn more about white balance. I adjusted the color of this one in post-processing. It was much more yellow straight out of the camera. Of course, that is typical of indoor pictures. I actually like the yellow better as it feels warmer to me, but technically that would not be considered a good photo. I tried to make the white of the cup and flowers truer to white. There is always more to learn.

Who? Me?

That mischievous grin is meant to distract you from the fact that he is making himself at home in the girls' room and playing with eating their iPod.  Also, notice the wet pants, rolled up after I found him standing in a bucket of water.

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So, it has been a long time since I posted anything on the blog. I didn't post for a long time (and note to self: go back and change that "about me" in your profile, you aren't a mom of 6 any more!), because I kept thinking I would go back and catch up. That is obviously never going to happen, so I'm just jumping in here at the beginning of the year. I'm going to try once again to do the picture a day. Sometimes I just want to document our crazy life. Sometimes, I will focus more on improving my photos. My kids love to go back and read the blog, so it's something for them to enjoy too. I'm sure you can expect plenty of pictures of Elijah, so it is fitting that he is my first picture of the year.

Pretty good group picture

After a band/choir concert at the nursing home:

Happy birthday, Sam!

He loves orange soda so much, he got it for a gift:

Happy Birthday, Joseph

Hard to believe, but Joe is 13!