As is becoming tradition for our family, the day after Korben’s birthday (that would be December 22nd), David headed to Lowe’s and picked up our $5 tree.  I know it’s waiting to the last minute to decorate but you just can’t beat FIVE. BUCKS. y’all!  I mean, those trees are $40 just two days before the Korbster’s birthday.  Worth the wait.  Definitely.

Least coordinated tree, ever.  But we love it.

Christmas in Kempner

Aaaaaand… we didn’t have very many matching light strands since we’re in the beginning stages of switching over to LED strands, so… this is our little tree out front.  So sad.  So funny.

Santa brought the cat a shelf.  How thoughtful.

360 – the decorated cedars… I was sitting in traffic and had to snap a quick shot of them.  They were all so shiny!

And a busy last Friday of the year… I had a model shoot at the Capitol (on film, literally) with another EOS 3 shooter followed by a wedding out at the Barr Mansion (I got there super early and read a chapter in the book I’m working on.)

And Korben… hanging… out… I want to pinch his tummy!

And Korben… out… in the car rider line to get James, after James got in the car.  I also snapped this one with the film body, hence the light meter stats.  I keep track of my settings this way.

Staying home also allowed us to go to the Christmas Eve Service.  I’ll post about that in the next few days.

We didn’t hide them well enough and James ended up finding them two days before Christmas, so both older boys got their Strider bikes early.  We have a friend whose older son has one and through communicating with her, I decided that was totally the way to go.  Get a boy to ride a bike without training wheels and without any help from his parents by the age of 3?  Yes, sir! No back breaking awkward driveway running trying to keep a 5 year old upright?  Yes, sir! Within hours of first climbing up on it, James was already coasting without help.  On two wheels. In retrospect, we’re glad they got them early because the weather changed and Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were actually pretty cold.

On Friday morning, David and I heard the hushed curiosity of two little boys poking around the presents around 7:30.  Shortly after, Korben was screaming (did I mention, he’s teething?) so we all got up gathered in the living room.  James ripped through all of his gifts from us, Grandma and Grandpa Barnes, and his Aunt K and Uncle P (and R, T, and K) in no time flat with shards of wrapping paper flying into the air around him.  Lowell was much more meticulous and made sure every scrap of paper made its way into an appropriate trash receptacle.  Every gift got some intense scrutiny and focus by the L-man.  He was so… intentional about the entire process.  Korben crawled from box to box, barking at the mess and clapping his hands.  He was oblivious and happy and amazed and, well, teething.

I purposely did not take any pictures to force myself to really absorb what it felt like.  I want to remember their joy and youth forever, but not in pictures this year.  In my soul.  It was amazing not seeing everything through the viewfinder and I am so glad I left the cameras all on the desk this year.  All five of them.  I did snap one of the aftermath but it was nothing compared to Round Two.

Grandma and Grandpa K showed up with as big a load of gifts as you could imagine.  The boys got so excited about another round of gift-un-wrapping, especially James.

All-in-all they got a lot of toys.  A LOT of toys.  And we’re thankful that we don’t have to figure out how to get them all into the minivan to get them home.  We’re now a lego family (yes, yes, I know Korben is still too small to even be in the same room as legos, I know) and even have a transformer in here somewhere.  The etch-a-sketches from Grandma and Grandpa K were a big hit and the car launchers I found at Mardel are another favorite.  I’ve already engraved little boys’ names into their beloved toys with the engraver tool.  That was one of those “best tool we ever spent money on” sort of things today.

David now has two very expensive knives and I’m a camera-battery-pack richer (thanks, Jer, you shouldn’t have) and now have a pretty awesome hotshoe clamp.  We really love that we found useful gifts for each other this year and hope the gifts we gave were just as useful as the ones we received.

All-in-all, this was, as James kept saying, “The best day, EVER!”

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I just baked 83 of these little delights for our playgroup’s Recipe Exchange playdate. This is the card I made up from this tag template to pass out to the ladies. I hope 20 cards is enough! Recipe from allrecipes.com

2006

2005