that time we made christmas 2014 a success....

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I really have to say, this Christmas was the best Christmas I have ever had for a number of reasons. The first being the fact that I'm a photographer, so I get the privilege of capturing precious moments of my own family on a daily basis. I don't usually leave home without my camera, and the biggest reason for that is my fear of missing out on a photo opportunity with my kids. My oldest daughter is SUCH a trooper whenever I set up a holiday mini shoot and willingly puts on cute outfits, posses, and smiles for the camera. She's a natural, and i'm so happy to have these memories with her while she's still young.  Check out the fun images from that day below, and keep reading to find out why I LOVED this Christmas......

The second reason? I got the surprise of a lifetime from my Dad while over at my parents house Christmas morning opening gifts. I had already had a computer meltdown crisis about a month ago, so my parents chipped in to buy me a brand new iMac, which in my opinion was OVERLY generous and should have been counted as my Christmas gift for the next 5 years! haha Well my dad played into that pretty well, saying how bad he feels that I won't have much under the tree to open since the budget for my presents went to my computer. We were all finished opening gifts, were setting up to take the family Christmas photo in front of the fire place, and as I got caught up in all of the directing of who was to stand where I didn't even notice my dad sneak off to another room. When he came back, I had my eye up to my camera trying to fit everyone into the lens and I heard this "Here why don't you take it with your new camera?" as he walked out holding the camera and lens I had been saving for for about a year, and probably would have another couple of years of saving for. I bawled like a newborn baby. To say that I was happy would be the understatement of the year. I almost passed out, my hands were shaking, and as you can tell in the family picture, I wasn't able to hold still enough to even keep the image in focus. I have never been so surprised and grateful in my entire life. What's even cooler is that in all of the excitement my grandma thought to pick up the old camera and take a picture of me taking my first picture with my new camera. Now I will always have that photo!

Right after that, I needed to go somewhere to test my new baby out, so we took our girls to a play place in the mall and I followed them around (probably annoying as ever to the girls) testing out the settings and having so much fun! I am so grateful for this Christmas, for my family, and for the generosity that was shown to me this year. I can't wait to get going with my next shoots to really put this camera to work!