Playing around with my new toy!!!

I got an new camera for Christmas and between the weather and school starting back up I have not been able to do a lot of picture taking. Last Saturday I decided to go out and play around with my camera. My Dad also got a camera so I called him up and we both went. I love buildings and there are some really pretty Churches downtown, so that is where we started. Here are some of my favorites.

Christmas in Austin

We celebrated Christmas with my side of the family on New Years Day at my sister and brother-in-laws house. That day is also my brother-in-law, Kevin's, birthday. We went to have lunch at Kevin's favorite restaurant and then came home to open gifts. It was so much fun watching Avery opening gifts. She liked getting to tear the paper and she took it very seriously. Her favorite gifts were her first doll and her shopping cart. She was able to pull herself up and hold onto it and move. I will post some pictures soon. I downloaded them at my sisters so I will request some from her.

Christmas in Abilene

After Washington we headed to Kris's Aunts house in Abilene for the Tooley Christmas. We had another round of gifts, dominoes and fun. I also played around with my new camera and took some pics.

Christmas Day

Christmas day was truly amazing!!! I got to open the first present and I got the present that I have long been dreaming of. I got a Canon 50D, that’s right one awesome camera. I do have a lot to learn. I have been playing with it non stop. We all opened our presents and then had a wonderful breakfast. Every year at Christmas we do a blessing jar. My mother-in-law gets blank paper and we write down all the things we are thankful for for the past year and put them in a jar. Then we take turns around the table and draw one out to read them. This year we did something a little bit different. We had a separate piece of paper that we wrote one gift we would give to God for the year and on the other side we wrote one prayer we would like to have answered for the year. We then took turns reading our own and then all prayed over each person. It was so amazing. I will remember that moment forever and am so glad we added on to our tradition. The rest of the day we played lots of dominoes and just enjoyed each other. Oh and had a wonderful Christmas Day dinner.

Seattle, Washington

Next we flew to Seattle, Washington for a week to have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Sean, Shanna and baby Bradley. Kris's sister actually lives in Oak Harbor, WA, which is on Whidbey Island and is about 2 hours away from Seattle. So the first night we got to Seattle we stayed in a beautiful hotel downtown and went to an awesome seafood restaurant so I could get some yummy oysters while they are in season. Oh by the way, Seattle got record snowfalls when we got in and it hardly ever snows there so the roads were very dangerous. I feel like as I have gotten older that Christmas just doesn’t seem like Christmas anymore. I have to admit that the surroundings made it feel like Christmas. The next day we spent the whole day in Seattle walking around downtown. We walked everywhere because for one it is a city and it easier to walk in a city and for two we experienced enough fear the night before in the icy conditions that we felt safer on foot. We went to Pike's and a bunch of fun stores. Seattle is one of the coolest cities I am so thankful that I got to spend Christmas there.