Most days, I work hard to capture good photos of my family. To make sure that our memories are preserved so we can go back and remember and smile and re-live the precious moments.

But some days are just too hard to capture. Nights and lights and moving rollercoasters make it impossible to capture the essence of the joy that’s in the air. The excitement and thrill of being up past bedtime.

The cold air blowing through our clothes and turning our skin pink. The shrieks of joy and begging for more.

These things cannot be captured in film.

Sometimes you just have to let go and live in the moment. Know that the photos will be imperfect and yet you will still cherish having them so that you can look back and remember the magical night. So you can almost smell the cold air mixed with popcorn and fried dough. So you can almost hear the Christmas music and the jingles and bells.

Sometimes you just let go, get the best photos you can.

Sometimes life’s too magical to be captured in film.

I can’t believe this year is almost over. I am so not ready. Not just yet.

This is from a wreath that I just got for our house. More coming in another post.

Last night I decided it was time to stop mourning and whining and get back to being joyful. So I did a 180 with my attitude. All is better now.

Nathaniel has discovered the presents under the tree.

I love that Amazon is doing frustration-free packaging this year. I love the free shipping too. Amazon rocks my world.

David has been home all week. I feel bad for him but there’s been too much sickness in our house to risk spreading that at school. His school is officially closed for break now. He’s been pretty wonderful at home and so I let him play the Wii to day. He loved the Wii Fit boxing.

Our stocking holders were these cheap ones from Walmart until I filled them and they fell on the floor. Six times. And they have these sharp edges which ruined the molding and my foot. I was holding them on there with baby wipes and finally decided to do away with them and bought these simple ones that hold so much better. No more wipes on our mantle.

It’s Friday. I am planning to relax this weekend. Work on my art. Read. Bake some with my son. Draw some. Cuddle up with my husband. Just enjoy life. Simple, ordinary, magnificent life.

Today was a long day. I woke up with a sore throat and tired and cranky. And Nathaniel is also still cranky. So we did a lot of sitting still and doing quiet things.

Poor David is still home. His nose is still really clogged and with Nathaniel sick and me getting sick, I didn’t want to take my chances. He spent the day watching movies and coloring his box. I love him so.

And Nathaniel ate and cried and clung to me most of the day.

Thank you for your well wishes. We’re all mostly on the mend. I called a plastic surgeon today and got an appointment for next week so I can have someone look at my nose. And I am catching up on my endless todo list and there’s light at the end of this tunnel. I can’t see it just yet but I know it’s there.

I love that Nathaniel’s puffs are heart-shaped.

Nathaniel didn’t sleep at all last night until 3am. So this morning I was wiped and decided I needed a mental day. I’ve had the last five days off for vacation and I have over 300 emails in my work account. I am traumatized at the idea of going near them.

Tons of Amazon boxes showed up yesterday (David calls them the smiley boxes cause of the logo.) so I decided it was as good a time to wrap as any.

And here’s one of the little boy who was struggling a lot today. He has not been wanting to sleep cause he doesn’t want to be left alone but he won’t sleep when I am there and he needs the sleep so badly.

I managed to port all my comments from the old blog. Some of the pages are still the old style and they shall stay that way. What do you think about the redesign? I wanted larger images and I missed having a side column. I will fill it up over the next few weeks. This is project #1 for 2010 for me. A bit early but so it goes. More on the projects coming later.

Please let me know if you notice anything odd with the site, I am trying to fix all the quirks. And I am also open to all opinions/suggestions of course. Still feeling my way around it.