Picture with Santa

I was four years old the one and only time I got to sit on Santa’s lap. It is a really nice picture, and I still have it somewhere in my mom’s stuff. That was the year I asked the bearded man in red for a puppy that walked and barked. I got it too. I remember the little guy. It was a light brown color and had a smooshed face. I am not good with breeds, but it was cute. I really loved that toy.

Oldest has never gotten to sit on the fat guy’s lap to have her picture taken. Her dad, when she was little, thought it was “not a good idea” and “there are just too many weirdos out nowadays.” I let it go until she was older. I think when she was 6, she asked me if we could get her picture with Santa. We had seen a sign at the local Walmart saying he would be available for pictures every weekend through the month. We made a special trip there one Saturday and we had just missed him. There were no times posted on the sign so it was really frustrating and heartbreaking for her. She asked every year after that, up till last year, if she could do it. And every year, it always seemed to backfire on us. I was happy she didn’t ask last year.

While at Walmart the other day, picking up an order back in their photo department, I happened to notice a basket on the counter full of Santa pictures. Once again, we are in there all the time and they never posted the time or day the pictures would be taken. I was waiting on the guy to bring back my order, so I decided to take a peek at some of the pictures. They had the setting in the lawn and garden area, or the Christmas shop, as they call it this time of year. It was a big blow up Gingerbread house with a seat in the middle for Santa and the kids to sit. The seat was not fancy, just a red chair from the department. You could see everything around the prop that was on the shelves and any people that might have been passing through. Then I focused in on the Santa. You could tell the beard was so fake it was unbelievable and he had no hat on in everyone of them. So his head blended in with the background. It was really bad, I have to say. It’s a good thing that they don’t charge for those pictures and I bet that no one will be picking them up since they take pictures with their phones anyways.

So now instead of being sad that Oldest never got to get her picture with Santa, I should be happy. If they were anything like that guy, I think I would have went the other way. 😉

Scrapbooking Can Be Fun, but…

I love to scrapbook. I have been doing it since Oldest was 3 years old. It can be a lot of fun, but sooooo time consuming. I told you in one of my last posts that I had some pictures developed from Walgreen’s since they were having a great sale. I started looking and thinking about what all I wanted to do, when I remembered that I didn’t do any scrapbook pages from last Halloween. I found seven pics that I had developed, but no pages put together. Hum, only seven pics? I wondered. I had to throw Oldest off the laptop so I could see just how many pictures I took last year. It wasn’t very many, that’s for sure. I went through them and seen 2 more that I really liked, so I decided that since the sale was still going on to see if I could do it again. I went through each folder and realized that I didn’t do any pages from Little L turning one and on up. This had to be corrected now, and I started adding pictures to the cart. I got 1st and 2nd Birthday and a few odds and ends plus the 2 from last Halloween. The order came to right under 6 dollars with the coupon added in. They were ready by the time I started dinner, and I was going to go right after to pick the order up, but then hubby told me that I had only one brake light on the truck. He was going to wait till morning to check it out and fix it, so I wasn’t going anywhere, even right up the street.

I sat down after dinner and began looking at the pictures I had done from the other day. I realized that I was missing several from Oldest’s birthday. I went back into the account and seen that 5 pictures were just sitting there in a folder that I had totally missed. I added them to the cart just to see how much it would be. Then my mom said that she would like to have a few copies of one to send out this Christmas. I let her pic the one she wanted and added them on and placed the order.

When starting a new project, I always want to do something really creative. I went on to Pinterest to get some ideas. I got really depressed because most of them are digital. They are very pretty and look great, but I do all mine by hand. No fancy machines, just scissors and glue. Later on, after L had went to sleep, I pulled my Halloween papers out and started putting some layouts together. Now this is also time consuming, because I will change and rearrange a page at least 10 times before deciding. Sometimes I have to walk away and come back then it will come together. I can’t work on it like I want to, L is into everything, so I have to wait for her to go to bed. Last night I got lucky, she was asleep before 9. Hoping for that again tonight, *fingers crossed*

Although it is time consuming and a bit overwhelming at times, it is so fun to look back and see those beautiful faces and how much they have grown. 🙂

 

Funny Pictures Make Great Memories

I love taking pictures. Some may say that I am addicted. OK, OK, I am addicted. I usually have two cameras going, my good digital and my phone. I am always trying to get the perfect smile, perfect angle, just the right look and working with kids you have to take more then one, cause someone is always looking the other way. I took over 600 pictures before, during and after Christmas. Did I mention I was addicted? I can’t help it though, especially since I scrapbook. My favorite subjects are my girls. When Oldest was younger, she learned early. When mom had the camera, you best smile. And she did.  I even took some pics by the Christmas tree when she was about 3, that when I took them into get developed, one of the photo employees tried to say that they were professionally done, and I needed a release form to print them. I told her I was flattered, but nope, I just took them at my house. It took me awhile to make her believe me too.

I ran into a great deal online from Walgreens photo. 100 prints for 9.99! I couldn’t believe it and yes, I had to jump on that. I have my own printer and paper, but it takes forever for me to print out a few, so I figured this would be the way to go. Plus my ink cartridge only does about 25 prints before I have to replace. I got the photos back yesterday and they look pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Last night at dinner, we were having a great time.  Little L woke from her nap in a very playful mood and she was ready to eat come feeding time. She loves it when I make hamburgers and fries, even though she doesn’t eat much of the burger itself.  She was being such a darn cutie that I had to push my plate away and grab my camera. Oldest joined in on the fun even. I usually have to have everything perfect, but this time they both had food on their faces. When I look back on these pics, I will know that we were laughing, playing and just being silly. Great times and great memories! 🙂

 

 

 

Christmas Eve

It’s finally here. We have made it! Both girls woke up in a great mood. I could have sworn Little L said Merry Christmas this morning to me. We are getting ready to get cleaned up and take some Christmas Eve pictures by the tree. I finally got my Nativity scene put out. It’s in the middle of the dining table so no little hands can grab and break it.

Right now Little L is running circles through the living room hollering and having a good time. She stops every now and then to watch some Christmas cartoons on the t.v. Great day so far.

Must get in the kitchen soon to bake some cookies. Chocolate chip for Santa of course and peanut butter with hershey kisses per request of Oldest this year. We have cheesecake for dad and peach pie for me. Grandma bought a chocolate silk pie for her. Little L has no preference, she will try them all!

Thanks to all for reading my blog and may this Christmas bring you joy and peace! 🙂

~Lesa

My pretty little Elf.