'Tis the Season

Well, it's here already. This year has gone by so quickly. The turkey's gone and the boxes have been dragged out from the storage area. I've braved the stores and I'm almost done with the shopping. I bought a new camera last week (a SONY DSLR-A350) and I've been having a great time playing with it and trying to apply everything I learned in my black and white photography class to digital photography. I've got a long way to go, but with the Christmas decorations up, I've got an ample supply of subject matter to photograph.

For example, the row of stockings hanging on the rail. These aren't actually the stockings we fill anymore - these are about 12 years old, but they match the ornaments on my tree so they've become part of the 'decorations'.

We've been an artificial tree family for the last decade. I always insisted on real... until they started making the fake ones with the prestrung lights. It's so fast and so easy that it's worth giving up the yummy smell of the real trees. Also, we always seemed to end up with the tree that looked like a stunner on the lot, but showed its true disfigured self once we got it standing askew in the living room. Those trees were also always bottom-heavy with lights... I'm not so tall, and the top of the tree is a long stretch from down here!

I did say I have ample subject matter to practice on, not necessarily HAPPY subject matter. Erin thought it would be cute to get some shots of our cats wearing Christmas outfits. I bet her that our little girl kitty, Persephone (Sephie for short), would probably scratch Erin's eyes out if she tried to dress her. I was wrong, but only because the kitty couldn't reach her eyes. Sephie scratched her foot off instead, then she ran like the demons were after her anytime Erin got close. Ha ha! I'm not sure which girl I felt worse for. I didn't think our old tom Grae would let her get near him either, but he surprised me. She got the necklace thingy and the hat on and although he was a bit nervous about it, he took it in stride pretty quickly and left us to go eat his dinner. Was he thrilled about the two of us following him around and flashing him in the eyes with the camera? Um... I don't think so!

If looks could kill! Anyway, Grae wishes you all a Very Hairy Christmas! (Now shoo you humans and let me eat, really, this is getting old. Go ahead... touch the bell on my hat again... I dare 'ya!)