Christmas with the Whitmans

Over the years, we've evolved to a certain Christmas tradition. Papa, Da and Aunt Tammy spend the night with us on Christmas Eve and then the Whitmans come Christmas Day afternoon. 2010 brought us a pleasant little surprise....snow.

So, an excitement level that was already incredibly high moved a bit more into overdrive. Once they get to town we have a HUGE meal and we open presents, not always in that order. This year, well, this year was a little different.

It started out fairly normal. We took turns opening gifts and admiring each one.

As usual, there quite a few "Alabama-themed" gifts. Of course. We wouldn't have it any other way.

The Alabama gifts come in all kinds of shapes and sizes.

That said, we don't forget Aunt Joanna, who doesn't appreciate Alabama gifts as much as we do (nor does Bear).

It's not uncommon for a cookbook to show up amongst the gifts. I think there's a gene in our family that creates the need to collect cookbooks - even if you don't really cook that often.

Aunt Tammy usually racks up with both Alabama gifts and others.

But my favorite part of Christmas this year was absolutely Aunt Joanna. She was in rare form. I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe any more. Here I think she is pretending to be a woman on oxygen who refuses to stop smoking. (Ok, I know that is not a funny topic, but you just had to be there.)

And then as a show of absolute Christmas spirit, she treated us to a reading of the Night Before Christmas Tide style. That was huge for someone who is a dyed in the wool Auburn fan, but she did it and she did it with gusto and enthusiasm.

We just have a blast when we're together and we just love to laugh.

It may be chaos, but we enjoy spending time together.

The Great...well, First Photo Shoot

Thanksgiving weekend is a perfect time to try out something new.  There's lots of time and family to share in the torture fun.  

This Thanksgiving Joanna wanted some family pictures and asked if I would take some.  After all, I had flown all the way to Chicago for a class and I had  bought a new lens.  What she didn't now was that the class was enough to make me realize how little I knew and that the lens...the lens and I needed more quality time together.

Nonetheless, I told her I would be glad to take family photos.  I think I ended up with something over 300.  There were a few of my munchkins, but most of them were like a real photo shoot.  Keith was arranging people and I was trying to get the light right.  And trying.  And trying.  And trying.  It was so much fun.  Really.  It was - nephews not happy about being there, my darling sons complaining that their playmates were getting their pictures made for the 100th time.  What could be more fun?  Needless to say, I am even more hooked.

Then, there was "post processing."  I don't really have the right software, yet, so I'm sure I am working with "the crappiest" software in the world.  Joanna and I had fun tweaking this and that any way.  We didn't have a clue, but I think we ended up with some nice effects.  Or, maybe we were just delirious and were glad we had weeded out some of the 300 photos by the time we started editing.

I love the shots of the entire family, but I think the one below is my favorite - out of 300 there were some pretty bad ones, but there were enough that it was hard to pick a fav.  If had to pick, I am pretty sure this would be it.

  

You can't even tell he's holding her on his back - what a strong guy my brother is!  Of course, she's pretty skinny these days.

Oops!  Spoke too soon.