Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas night, and my family's festivities has come to a close. We spend so much time getting ready for the holiday -- the shopping, wrapping gifts, preparing food, and worrying about all the details for the evening. This year my family was also concerned with my husband's ailing grandmother, who has been in a rehabilitation hospital for the last few weeks. She was well enough to come home to spend Christmas Eve with us for several hours, and again today for our Christmas dinner. She's still pretty ill, and she has a struggle ahead, trying to get better with medications and physical therapy. But we were grateful to have her with us, and we enjoyed our Christmas as a family. We were all together for Christmas Eve, and we had good food, wine, lots of gift wrap everywhere as the mass ripping commenced, and laughs .... lots of laughs. That, my internet friends, is the most important Christmas gift of all -- family enjoying each other's company and making memories. Makes my heart smile.

Since I was part of the family celebration, I didn't take that many pictures. More important this time to be part of the memory that to be documenting it. But I've included some favorite photos from our holidays. Merry Christmas everyone!

-- S

Daphne, the family dog. Isn't she a cutie?


Christopher has always been fascinated by trains, and really loves his Polar Express train set. He plays with it every opportunity he gets during the holidays.


Kate, Annemarie and I on Christmas Eve. Photo taken by Kathleen Swain.



My husband's Christmas gift from his sister and brother-in-law? A custom made print with our last name on the jersey of one of the players. It's soooo Jon. :)


We have a small collection of snowglobes, and these are our Christmas favorites: our Merry Christmas Charlie Brown, Starbucks and Coca Cola Polar Bear globes.


This was my Christmas gift from my kids -- a beautiful necklace with these heartfelt charms. It came with a card that said "believe in the beauty of your dreams" and they added a camera charm to it. As I started my photography business this year, this meant so much to me, and it brought tears to my eyes. My kids did well, didn't they? :)



Our family Christmas card this year.

Our Christmas Road Trips

Recently, my family and I took a couple of Christmas road trips. You probably remember doing something like that as a kid ... you know, pack everyone in the car and go see the Christmas lights somewhere? I have some pretty fond memories of doing that when my brother and I were little. Last weekend, we headed out to Salado, TX and spent a little time checking out all the lights. This weekend, I was supposed to finish out my shopping and do errands, but it was a nice day and the kids wanted to go back. We decided instead to take them out to Gruene, TX (one of our favorite Texas towns) for some dinner and a little Christmas sightseeing. Here are some highlight photos from our trips.

So, now, I REALLY gotta get my shop on and finish out my list. But hey, that's what gift cards are for, right? :)

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful." --Norman Vincent Peale


Wreath Angel -- @ Salado -- 12.13.2009


Salado -- 12.13.2009


Outside Gruene Hall, just as the sun was going down -- 12.19.2009


Outside Gruene Hall --- love this place! I've seen two concerts there, and Jon and I have danced once inside. Love all the musical history there! -- 12.19.2009


Inside Gruene Hall. It was still a bit empty in the main room, but people were starting to arrive for the evening's show. Got this shot before it was too busy. -- Chris, Kate and Annie -- Gruene Hall -- 12.19.2009


The Gruene Water Tower -- 12.19.2009


Kate, Annie and Chris -- outside the Gristmill -- 12.19.2009


The main street in Gruene -- 12.19.2009


I love visting the Gruene General Store and Cotton Eyed Joe's. -- 12.19.2009


Outside Gruene Hall. Really wish the car wasn't parked in the front, but oh well ... -- 12.19.2009

The S Family: Holiday Pics

We meet every week ... same bat time, same bat channel. Every Thursday at 4:00 for the last two years, I've looked forward to seeing my long time friend Christine at Starbucks. Oh sure, we do some other things together too -- she's a fabulous shopping sister, and sometimes we go to lunch at our favorite La Madeleine. Besides our love for fashion and Starbucks, we're also both twin moms (yeah, when we shop, we create a little double trouble of our own! ha! ha!) But no matter what we do together, we always have a lot of laughs, and for that, I just love her to pieces!

Recently I got the opportunity to take pictures of Christine and all her boys -- Ray, Dylan and Jordan. Rain was threatening to ruin our photoshoot, so we thought we'd try something different and take pictures at a fancy schmancy hotel lobby. It was beautifully decorated for the holidays, and we got some great shots of everybody!

Christine and Ray -- thanks to you and the boys for letting me take your holiday pics this year. Oh, and thanks for indulging me with a few pics of me and my sbux buddy too ... I just had to do that, you know!

Merry Christmas! Love -- S

Jack's Back!

He's just so cute, and he's back! In September, I had the privilege of photographing little Jack, who was about ten months old at the time. He just had his first birthday last month, and I had the opportunity to do another photoshoot with him, Amber and Joe (his mom and dad) while I was in Houston for Thanksgiving. Yep, little dude was WALKING! Granted it was the wobbly, Frankenstein like walk babies do at this age, but still, this guy is mobile and will be getting into everything (I remember those days very well with my three!).

For his first year/holiday photos, we met at a park in League City, walked around and snapped a few. Once again, Jack laughed and smiled at the silly songs and bubbles my sister-in-law Kathleen was using to keep him entertained. It was a great day for pictures, and I absolutely love the way these photos turned out. Such wonderful expression on his little face! I'm so glad I got to see Jack and capture his personality once again. Thank you, Amber and Joe, for letting me photograph you all! Merry Christmas to you guys!

With Jack's birthday in November, I'm a little late here with this, but it's still very applicable, to commemorate Jack's first year: "Find delight in the simplest things. Today and everyday. And have the happiest of birthdays."

All the best -- S

Birthday Boy

Today, my little boy turns eight years old. And it's his golden birthday ... the day when your age matches the day of the month on which you were born. Such a special time for him!

Every mom says this on her child's birthday: "I can't believe it .... my baby ... is already (fill in the blank) years old. Where has the time gone?" But it's so true! My baby boy is obviously not a baby anymore. He's starting to lose some of the babyish features he had not that long ago. And let's face it, with his football player like size, he hasn't looked like a baby in ... well, even I have to admit he's hardly ever looked like one. ha! ha! But my little guy (I guess I should call him that instead) is growing up fast, and I'm so very proud of him! He's made a lot of progress in school, did well this past season in baseball and is doing well in his piano studies. But most of all, he's becoming a very sweet natured, polite and smart young man. I couldn't ask for a better son! Here are some pics of my little man, from his baby days to now.

So today, Chris ... have a wonderful day, full of all your favorite things and surrounded by your friends and family. I love you, sweetie ... Happy Birthday! Love, Mom


"Your birthday, as my own, to me is dear. But yours gives most, for mine did only lend me to the world, yours gave me my son." -- unknown

Remembering Mom ...

It's been four years ago today. My own personal D-Day, so to speak. My mother passed away December 7, 2005 due to complications from diabetes and breast cancer. I don't like dwelling on depressing things, so I won't discuss the events of her illness and death here. Suffice it to say, as in any close mother/daughter relationship, I miss my mother terribly. But today, rather than focusing on the bad, I'd rather write about a beautiful Christmas tradition my mother and I shared.

For any of you who knew my mom, you know that she loved jewelry. The nice stuff, costume jewelry, whatever ... it didn't matter, she liked it all. For as long as I can remember, my mom always wore Christmas pins on her coats during the holidays. She started out with just a few and would pretty much rotate those out. After a while, I began to notice a new one now and then, so she added to her collection as years went on. I remember one Christmas noting how pretty one of them was, and she promptly offered the pin to me to put on my coat too. I said, "no that's okay, it belongs to you, Mom" but thankful for the offer. She said, "Honey, it's okay ... take it. I have one for every day in December."

And that's when it started. That year, I realized how much these pins had come to mean to her, and I went out and bought her the most beautiful Christmas pin I could find. In my family we always celebrated on Christmas Day, but she and I would always open just one gift on Christmas Eve. I gave the pin to her that night, and it became our new tradition to exchange the treasured trinkets on Christmas Eve from then on.

Now, I have all the pins. Really, more than enough for each day in December. But I have Annemarie and Kate with whom to share them, and the memories of a beautiful mother/daughter Christmas tradition. So although today is a sad day for me, I thought it seemed like a good time to celebrate my mom's wonderful legacy! Blog posts are always better with pictures ... here are some pics of her collection, highlighting a few of my favorites.

Miss you Mom! And yes, I'm wearing a pin today, just for you.

With love always -- S

"Find something to celebrate. Then find more. Celebrate with others. Celebrate every single day!" -- author unknown

Christine, Randi & The Holiday Hounds

A few months back, I wrote a post about a photoshoot I had with Christine and Randi. You might remember that one ... the spunky, sassy ten year old girl and her mom ... with lots of personality, love in their hearts, and the beautiful souls inside? Well, guess what? I got the opportunity to photograph them again for their holiday photos. Them, and a little added craziness to the mix ... their two very active (and very big) black lab retrievers. Yep, it was hectic getting those two settled down long enough for a photo or two, but victory was mine! ha! ha! Here are some favorite shots of our photo session.

Christine and Randi -- thanks so much to you guys once again for having me photograph you and the pups. I always enjoy working with the two of you and seeing the special relationship and bond you share. My girls still want to meet you, Randi ... maybe next time we'll add even more craziness and add two more sassy, spunky ten year old girls ... won't that be fun? ha! :)

All the best! -- S

The C Family: Holiday Pics

We met sometime ago, back in the early days of motherhood for me, when my girls were small. To help me connect and bond with other stay at home moms, I found a local chapter of the MOMS club. I met so many friends there! Our schedules changed and I wasn't able to keep attending the club's events, but to this day I still have connections to many of those wonderful ladies I met then. Diane and I became friends, shared the same officer position in the club, and now share iHearts on Facebook! :::smile:::: (I love getting those from her!). I was very happy to photograph her and her family for the holidays! Below are several pics from our photoshoot.

Diane -- thanks for all the iHearts and for the great photo session with you, Frederick and the little ones. You have a beautiful family! All the best wishes! -- S