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
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 &
