Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas Day in QLD, Australia

Having a very large blended family (9 children) consisting of mainly adults means that Christmas day is often missing a few of our children. This year my eldest daughter Sarah & son-in-law Oscar are in Melbourne celebrating with Oscar's extended family. My oldest prodigal son , his fiance and their 2 children (who we have not seen since March... their daughter Annabelle was born only a few days before Christmas).  Michael's 18 year old prodigal daughter was with her partner's family. And his youngest 2 daughters were with their mother.
I wasn't really looking forward to Christmas, especially after finding out only a few days ago that my second grandchild had been born and knowing I may never get to see her.

This Christmas day was celebrated with my youngest 2, Ben & Bec, and Michael's oldest 2, Amy & Tamsyn. It turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable & peaceful day.

I cooked the turkey breasts last night as our hot summer is not really conducive to a hot Christmas lunch. It's been Ben's job to cut the turkey & ham for so many years.

Bec loves creating salads so I was "kicked out of" the kitchen. The potato salad was a joint effort between Bec & me, and the tossed salad was Bec's.

Michael with Amy (23)

Michael & Tamsyn (20)


Lunch was delicious and was followed an hour or so later by my Mum's amazing Christmas pudding. I usually make Brandy cream to accompany it but, due to being sick all week, I opted for a pre-made Pauls Brandy custard (which was rather disappointing).

After lunch, we exchanged gifts. Michael surprised me with a Canon 50mm Portrait lens and so I embarked on doing something I had only done a couple of times - switching to manual mode and experimenting with adjusting aperture, shutter speed & ISO.

Here are the results SOOC. I was amazed at the sharpness of the images and quite happy with the results but I still have so much to learn.

Youngest son Ben (20)

Youngest daughter Bec (19)

Oldest step-daughter Amy (23)

Step-daughter Tamsyn (20) - love the light in this one

Great friends, Tamsyn & Bec.

Husband Michael

And me

This last image is credited to RAD Photography (Bec) over at Through the lens; RAD Photography

Around 5:30pm, Michael collected his youngest two daughters, Jess & Lizzie, from their mother's house and, when they were back home, I took a family shot (well, with 6 of the 9 children). I had no idea how to alter settings for so many people so on went the 18-55mm lens, set on Auto, with tripod & 10 sec timer.


Today, I am extremely grateful for celebrations with family

Linking with SOOC Sunday &

join us now!

12 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

what a great family! congrats on the new lens! those came out great!

so fun to see 'summer' clothing for christmas! :)

Linda said...

terrific family shots - looks like a wonderful time together!

FilipBlog said...

Looks like a great family party. Enjoy Christmas.

Greetings,
Filip

Michael S-B said...

This is a great post, Liz. Well-told story, great pictures. I'm looking forward to seeing what unfolds as you learn and grow with your new lens :)

Jenni said...

It looked like such a lovely day. I look forward to seeing some great new shots coming from the new lense, how wonderful. Lovely family photos in your post.Happy holidays.
Jenni

Tina´s PicStory said...

thanks for this nice highlight!

Nadege, said...

Great shots from a wonderful family get together.

Mark said...

Looks like you had a great day!

eden said...

What a lovely Christmas get together!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hey Harriet said...

Sounds like you had a lovely Christmas day. We sure were lucky with the weather this year in Brisbane! Warm but not too extreme. Phew!

Beautiful photos taken with your new lens!

Stewart M said...

Hi there - glad you had a good time - the 50mm is an often over looked work horse of a lens.

Hope 2012 is good for you and your family.

Stewart M - Melbourne

Melbourne Australia Photos said...

Beautiful photos! Looks like you thoroughly enjoyed Christmas.

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