2023

Bah…Humbug!

In addition to the ornament adorned trees in the house, there are several small ceramic items sitting on a shelf in the dining area. I removed them and placed each item on our kitchen island so I could put a solid background behind them (black cardboard) and sit them on granite to get a nice reflection. Two of my favorite items are the creamer and little sugar bowl below.

As I mentioned yesterday, photography has allowed me to capture life moments that I can enjoy for years to come. Christmas provides multiple opportunities to capture family photos, but that is just the beginning. Here are a few more reasons why photography is near and dear to my heart.

Oldest grand daughter senior portrait 2014. She’s soon to be a mother.

Obviously, I didn’t take this photo, but we have the memory thanks to photography.

One hobby that I have enjoyed for over 50 years is photography. For the longest time I did nothing more that take photos, deliver them to the local Walgreens, Walmart or other place for processing and hope I got some good photos. The introduction of digital photography and PhotoShop rocked my world. I could take hundreds of photos, open them on my computer and edit them to my satisfaction, then print them any size I liked. Over the past 20 years I have probably owned 10 or 15 different cameras. Even cell phones now take excellent images. I have taken a few online courses and belonged to a photo club. The results is, virtually every photo you see on this blog has been captured by me.

Photography has allowed me to capture the special moments in the lives of my family. Through Shutterfly, I have produced several themed photo books for us to enjoy. Photography is a hobby that I can enjoy as long as I can hold a camera. Christmas has always been my favorite time to capture images of friends, family, and the events and symbols of the season. I would encourage anyone to take up this hobby, if only to capture the memories. My wife got me the ornament above as a tribute to my favorite hobby. Photography has replaced fishing as my favorite leisure pursuit.

A new life brings joy to the family. New relationships are formed. Some members become brother, sister, aunt, uncle for the very first time. It seems to be a special event when it occurs around Christmas. We are soon to become birth great-grand parents for the very first time. In the midst of adopting a young boy, our grand daughter and her husband learned that they were expecting their first born child and recently learned that the new addition to the family will be a boy. Our new great-grandson will arrive in a very few weeks. It’s an exciting time in the life of our family. This new addition has had great pre-natal care and has been monitored from the very beginning. The birth of our Savior was not as closely monitored.

Mary and Joseph spent the night in a stable because there were no rooms available in Bethlehem. They were alone and away from family, friends, and loved ones. They were a young teen couple just trying to get through the night, take care of the business of the census, and return home as soon as Mary was able to travel. There was no waiting room, no excited grand parents or loved ones to welcome Christ into this world. There were no doctors or nurses to care for the new mother and child. It was just two lonely teens trying to make it to the next day. The world took little note of the greatest event in the history of mankind. Only a few wise men and a shepherds were aware of the importance of the birth of Christ. But Oh What a Wonderful Child.