Cindy Lou Who

Okay. I didn't mean to sound so Grinchy yesterday! I really do love the Christmas season. I love thinking of the perfect gift to get someone, making cookies, looking at the Christmas lights, and I really can't wait until Gemma is older and I can see her face light up at all of those things, too.  I guess I was feeling a little like Cindy Lou Who yesterday.  I just want to find and remember the true meaning of Christmas, and I suppose I've just had to try a little harder to find the Christmas cheer this year.

I'm just finishing up sending out the last of our Christmas cards and I am in love with how they turned out. (I was feeling a little guilty that you can't see the babe's face very well, but I've since come to terms with it.) We took the photos ourselves. Took the legs off of the couch in our basement (it was my grandma's), carried into our backyard, set up the tripod, and proceeded to take about 300 photos.  We learned pretty quickly that its difficult to get a dog and a baby to look at the camera, especially when there's no one behind it!  We ordered this card from Pear Tree Greetings, and I think the whole thing came together beautifully.

Here are a few fun outtakes from our little backyard session:

Can you spot Harper? 

Squirrel! Squirrel! Squirrel! (I also forgot to take Gemma's nuk out of her mouth.)

Wow! Jeff is REALLY happy.  Harper looks like a pouting teenager.

And now for one of my favorites of Gemma.  I was really tempted to make this our Christmas card, but we put it on an ornament for the grandparents instead.  The hat was given to G by her auntie, Sophie.

This is the raw image. Jeff did a bit of editing before we ordered it. :)