{pretty, happy, funny, real} Christmas

Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life...

{pretty}

It's a bit of a rarity that I'm able to get a nice picture of all three girls.  Would you believe I didn't plan to have them coordinate for Christmas?  Madeline's dress was the only one she tried on that she and I both liked.  Ellie had a few choices for Christmas Eve Mass but she liked this dress the best because of how well it twirls, and Katie's dress was what I wanted her to wear for Thanksgiving before we got hit with hand, foot and mouth disease.  She was supposed to wear a different dress but I discovered on Christmas Eve morning that I never got her a pair of black patent leather shoes, so I decided that his pretty brown dress and her brown shoes would have to do for Christmas.

I love to take pictures of how the family room looks on Christmas Eve before Bryan and I head up to bed.  It takes me a bit of time to get everything set up, so I like to have a picture of how it looked before the girls come down and unwrap their gifts in the morning.  I was shocked at how many gifts each of the girls had.  Bryan and I gave them three each (plus one for Santa). 

{happy}

Madeline was THRILLED when she opened up her new bedding set.  She was very excited about her gallon of purple paint, too.  Her bedroom is now a very pretty shade of  Sassy Lilac.

As soon as Ellie saw the shape of this present she knew she was getting an American Girl doll.  She was so happy when she discovered her Caroline doll inside.  She's been playing with it a lot over the past three days.

{funny}

Bryan was playing around with the camera after Christmas dinner while we unwrapped gifts from extended family that my parents had brought up.  He was attempting to get a "dignified" shot of the dog.  Nothing about Mr. Furkins is dignified, but I think the picture Bryan took was pretty amazing.  He doesn't normally get very good results when he shoots with one of my prime lenses, but I love how this picture turned out.  I'm a little jealous that I can't get the twinkle lights to look like that in my pictures.

{real}

Katie is largely unimpressed by Christmas gifts.  This picture of her standing next to her new car was about as excited as she got.  She didn't like Christmas last year (she was very sick), and this year she was pretty overwhelmed by all of the presents.  Maybe next year she'll enjoy Christmas morning.  She sat and watched Madeline and Ellie as they took turns opening her presents for her.

Visit Like Mother, Like Daughter for more pictures of contentment.