| Notes: | | This is the only picture I took of Christmas decorations while I was home this past week. This is a close up of one of the houses in my dad's miniature village display. They're ceramic houses, lit from within. In the center of his village, he has set up an little fenced-in pond with skaters and a big tree being decorated in the center of the village square. It's very cute and if you look at it long enough, it's easy to convince yourself that you really are in that town.
I didn't take many other pictures over the week, though I did have my camera with me the whole time. I almost wish I hadn't carried it around because of my camera's near-death experience on Christmas. I had placed it on a nearby shelf as I stood among 21 relatives for a family portrait. My uncle, who was standing at least ten feet away from my camera, pulled on something (can't remember what), which hit something else (blocked that out too), which caused my camera to careen off the shelf and onto the concrete floor, lens first. There was a collective gasp, but nothing that matched my own level of distress as I imagined my new camera, smashed on the floor. The people in front picked it up and told me it seemed okay. (Okay?! How can you tell that just by looking at the outside!) And then they went on to continue to take pictures. I really can't wait to see these pictures, to see whether my face conveyed how I really felt or whether it displayed the serene Christmas joy that I hoped to portray with that smile stretched thinly across my face. But guess what. The camera really does seem to be fine. How that's even possible, I have NO idea. I would have been bruised and hurt if I fell off the shelf, so I have no idea how the camera managed to avoid any damage! Go Canon - you rule.
In another awkward photography experience... In lieu of gifts all around, my family decided to do a Chinese auction ($20 limit) on Christmas eve. I forgot about the concept of anonymity when I contributed my gift - a framed 8 x 10 photo that I had taken. I was so worried that my gift being a photo would give me away and that everyone would then feel obligated to claim my gift as if they really wanted it, that I was entirely unprepared for my aunt and uncle to open the picture, scoff at the idea of receiving a FRAME as a gift and exchange it for a daily calendar of Bushisms. My cousin, who had to give up the calendar and get the rejected frame, put up a polite front, saying "this is great, I have some photos I've been wanting to frame." Let's just say that wasn't one of my proudest moments. I probably should have spoken up then, but I was kind of embarrassed and didn't want to spoil the anonymity of the auction. However, if I'd admitted then that I had taken the picture, then no one would have had to apologize to me later and say that the picture looked so professional that they hadn't realized it wasn't just the picture that came with the frame. (It probably didn't help that the photo was of a broken window, with what I thought were beautiful textures and colors, but is probably just perceived as a boring picture of a window to everyone else!)
But overall, Christmas was very nice, and my lack of pictures actually speaks more to the amount of time I spent with family than anything else! |
