I Love Everything In This World

POTD 120709 - Wish, originally uploaded by katrina.kennedy.

We had a good day today. Unexpected kind of good day! A quick trip to the snow, only 25 minutes away! We live in California!! Granted, Northern California, but we DON'T get snow. Sure Tahoe is a two hour drive away. But 20 minutes?! Cool. Seriously.

Ian loved the snow. But the best part? On our way home he announced, "I love everything about this world." When we arrived home, this tshirt was in the mailbox. My mom had great timing! He insisted on wearing it immediately and loved pointing to his approximate spot on the globe. (We'll work on geography next year!)

Thanks Mom!

He Loves Santa Claus

Funny how the boy who wouldn't get close to Santa Claus two years ago has completely embraced him this year. He doesn't hesitate. Asks for him. Waits patiently. Tells him without hesitation what he wants for Christmas. Says thank you.

Obsessed!

And this year, Santa is bringing EXACTLY what the boy has asked for!

And Santa will deny persuading the boy to want what he is bringing :)

Long Days Of December

Not every day of December is filled with snowflakes and bliss. Today was definitely a testament to that! I spent my entire day corralling a kiddo who wanted to climb everything, although he's never been a climber. He hit the ground countless times with a cry of, "I'm ok," which in our house translates to, "I've hurt myself but I'm not going to admit it." He dunked legos into a glass of water, just for fun. He gave me that, I'm going to ignore everything you are saying look, repeatedly. Stuffed silly putty into his sock and walked around in it. The silly putty and the sock are now in the trash, they were inseparable. Now he is asleep. And that, I must say, has been the best part of my day!

He's Gonna Find Out!

Credits at DesignerDigitals

Captured! Daily December, December 1

I love this project! Today we started what I hope becomes a tradition, a letter from Santa. It came with a small gift and a reminder he'd be watching. Ian was thrilled.

Credits at DesignerDigitals

I hope he doesn't expect another gift tomorrow!

My Photography Book Is In The Store

As we say in my house, this makes my heart happy!

I loved working with my dear friends Melanie Grimes, Kathie Ostgulen, and Jill Hogan. They took beautiful photos as they worked their way through my exercises.

Kathie sent me an email that brought tears to my eyes as I read it.

Thanks sooooo much for including me in your book and making me a better photographer Katrina...you did what no one else could do for me and for that I will be forever grateful!

Yes, she made me heart happy!

If you have read it I'd love to hear what you think. What did you love? Where were you frustrated? What are you able to do now, that you couldn't before? Photography is such a journey.  I'm hoping we can share it.

Our Plan For Holiday Magic Making

I love the holidays! I love getting out of the house and joining our community in celebrating the season. I wanted to keep all of our events and plans together and saved forever. So here are the things we are planning to include!

11/27-11/29 The Santa Train - A new family tradition! Free for Train Museum members too! Ride the train with Santa the weekend after Thanksgiving. Live music, decorated train and just pure holiday goodness! The best part? Santa really stops and talks to each child!

12/5 6PM Festival of Lights Parade This is a new parade in the newly coined "Handle District." It says they hope for 20 floats. So this might be quaint and fun or completely cheesy. Either way we are going to give it a try. It's a good reason to be out and then stop by Rubicon after!

12/5 7PM Sacramento Boat Parade - We had a bad experience attempting to see this last year. So this year I'm going to give it another try, time permitting. If the Festival of Lights Parade is HUGE we may not make it.

12/10 Governor's Christmas Tree Lighting - A family tradition. (two years in a row counts right?!) We only go for part of the ceremony because it is usually super crowded and cold!

State Capitol Museum Music - Throughout December the Capitol Rotunda is filled with music. We love to go to the second floor and peer down on the performers. Everything from bagpipes to classical piano. All ages and stages of performers too!

Old Sac Horse Drawn Carriage Rides - Fun for an evening outing. We bundle up and this year plan on taking the ride around the Capitol to see the lights and make people wait behind our carriage.

T Street Lights - Okay, the lights aren't on T Street, but that is how we always remember. Then we drive down T Street slowly until we see the line of cars turning! I love walking down the street to see all of the displays.

Santa's Toy Shop - This is a new to midtown event each weekend of December. Sounds like story time with Santa. We might give this a try.

Old Sac Theatre of Lights - A new to Old Sac event. I love the magic of Old Sac at Christmas so an added event should be fun!

Midtown Ice Skating Rink - It's not Rockefeller Center, but we are so excited to have the rink within easy walking distance of our home! We took our niece and nephew to the old location for many years and this year Ian gets to continue the tradition a bit closer to home!

Carnival of Lights - Another new light event worth investigating. Includes lights and...a carnival. In the old ice rink spot.

We'll throw in some holiday baking. A little home time. Our annual Holiday Party and I think our month is full! Looking forward to a fun one! What are your plans?

December Daily Begins November 26th!

Click here to view this photo book.

I love my Daily December album! It has a prominent home on our coffee table so I can thumb through it and relive last Christmas. Ian loves to see what he did and ask if we can do it "today." If he had his way we would have decorated and bought a tree about three months ago!

This year I'm going to document December again, but I'm starting on Thanksgiving. My Thanksgiving photos always get lost in the shuffle of holiday preparation so it seemed like a good place to begin. Plus this year we are celebrating the turkey day with Shea's family and Christmas with mine. Now we'll have photos of both included!

A few things I learned last year that I hope to remind myself of this year.

• Make time to document. I tried to make time each evening to look through photos, document funny things that happened or sweet things Ian said. Having a lot of photos helps to jog the memory.
• Keep to a simple format and stay with it. I'm going to use Ali's December Daily Templates 2 and use the same papers and embellishments I used last year creating a continuation of last year's book. I'll mix in a few of the Original December Daily Templates ! I just love those!

• If you miss a day don't freak out. I missed a couple of days last year both photos and words. I just skipped those days in my book. The sky did not fall. There is no gaping hole in the book. It still makes me smile.

• Use the camera you have! Last year I found myself with Ian at the mall experiencing one of my favorite days of the year. I did NOT have my camera, which is a rare occurrence! I snapped photos of him anyway and created one of my favorite pages of the entire book.

• Enjoy the moments. I believe we experienced more as a family because of the project. I really wanted great photos, great locations, and to see everyone smiling! That meant venturing out on cold nights (ok, California cold, but we are in Northern California so it is a bit cold!)

Did you do Daily December last year? Link us up to your book or your favorite page from your book so we can be inspired!

Here is my favorite page from last year! The story still makes me smile :) Happy Thanksigiving! And yep, bring on December!