Merry Christmas 229-244

Christmas has come and gone and I think it was a success. As long as my kids are happy, then I'm happy. I had a good time with my parents and my sister and her family dropped in for a little while and it was good to see them too. Unfortunately, I don't think I got any really great Christmas shots this year. Of course, I thought I got a lot last year, so I looked back at them, and I don't think I got any last year either. I'm being a tough judge on pictures anymore. Here is the tree, nice and pretty before the chaos begins. I woke up early to get ready for the big day and took this shot. The camera settings are ISO 100, 30 seconds with a shutter release cable, @f5

This is a sideways shot to include all of the presents. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the top of the tree like this because my lens was the 24-200 Tamron. I'm not sure about the settings here, but they are similar to the ones on the previous picture.

 

Here is the insane mess after the kids are finished opening up their gifts. The shot is a little soft. Oh, how I need some better lenses!!!


The following are just some random pictures of the kids opening their gifts. I was bouncing flash off of the ceiling and I think the ceiling fan cast a shadow in some. I should have been using my flash diffuser instead, but I don't know where it is right now.

 


Here are my shots of the food. These turned out ok. The ham looks pretty even though I'm not a huge fan of ham.

 


 Here are some of all of us:


 I like these shots of my parents playing with Stephen:

 And that about wraps it up. Better luck to me next year on getting the shots that I think are worthy!