Katharine Elizabeth Photography {the blog}

I need to mention that I will be out and unavailable from December 9 until December 20. Most families have finished their holiday card, print, and product orders, but if you have any remaining items that you need before Christmas, please contact me before December 9th so I can take care of those orders.

And since I can’t ever do a blog post without at least a few pictures, let’s talk about Christmas ornaments!

This is a little tradition that I got from my parents and continues in my own family today:

Every year (all 15 Christmases that we’ve been together), my husband and I pick out a new ornament to put on our Christmas tree.   It is “our ornament” for that year and we even label the bottom of it with our initials and the year we bought it.

It’s always fun to pull all of the ornaments out of their storage box each year and decorate the tree with them while remembering when we bought each one and why.

After we had kids, we added them into the Ornament Tradition mix.

Every year before Christmas, the kids each get to pick out an ornament — any kind they want — and we label the bottoms of each with their names and the year.

As they’ve gotten older, their tastes have changed, of course.

Although my son did pick out a really cute dartboard ornament this year, so I can’t complain too much.

We usually pick out our annual ornaments at The General Store in Minnetonka. It’s such a great place to get in the holiday mood. This year, we asked an unsuspecting passerby to snap our picture before we went into the store.

I know it’s not the best family snapshot ever taken, but it’s meaningful to me because of what it represents:  the excitement of preparation that happens those last few weeks before Christmas, the comfort of family time, and new memories added each year to our own special tradition.

Our family’s tree isn’t expertly decorated, color coordinated, nor would it make it into a home decor magazine.

But we love it and it is perfect for us.

I hope your holiday preparations are going wonderfully and are filled with your own special traditions of comfort and happiness.

I think it’s fitting on Thanksgiving that I post a few pictures of this cute, little 4 week old turkey.

He is as beautiful and sweet as can be.

***

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. And may we all be thankful for the small but wonderful things in our lives.

My 7-year-old love, love, LOVES Calvin & Hobbes.

He reads the books at night after we put him to bed and we can always hear him laughing up in his bedroom about Calvin’s adventures with his stuffed tiger.

My husband and I searched high and low for a Hobbes stuffed animal to give my son for Christmas.

And do you know who sells a plush Hobbes?
Nobody, that’s who.
Nobody sells a plush Hobbes.

Nobody except an awesome shop found — where else? — on Etsy!

Super soft and handmade with love and care, I am absolutely positive that this stuffed Hobbes will be one of our son’s favorite holiday gifts.

Welcome to the fold, Hobbes. I think you’ll like it here. You’ll be rooming with a stuffed Yoshi and some other good folks. Plus, in my humble opinion, your new owner is about as sweet of a boy as they come.

Last week (the day before we got that big dump of snow), my 4 year old daughter asked to try on all of her new, as-yet-unused winter gear:

And then I guess I forgot to knock on wood because the next day, we were slingshotted into winter with nearly a foot of snow.

Remind me not to let her try on her winter gear next year until we are at least a few days into December, okay? 

It’s hard to believe (with 10 inches of snow on the ground outside) that this session took place just 5 days ago:

I met up with these cute kiddos right before sunset on one of those crazy, warm-weather days last week.

Their family has a beautiful home with a great wooded area behind it.  I couldn’t have asked for a better location, better light, or a more lovely family.

The oldest daughter’s cat (named Marshmallow) followed us from spot to spot as we took pictures.

I love this dang cat; she is so pretty and so sociable!

You can see her rambling around behind the kids in the shot below.  So funny.

And again here:

Okay, I will stop talking about the cat now.

This family’s 2-year-old is adorable.  He has blue eyes to beat them all.

And was happy as a clam to follow his siblings around.

I love these family shots … just the normal commotion of a family of five, but everyone is happy to be together.

Love this shot of the middle kiddo:

And the kids being goofy up on top of the hill:

We walked back to the house when the sun was nearly set and after a quick wardrobe change, took a few more pictures in the backyard.

Her freckles are to-die-for:

And again with the blue eyes:

I’m so glad I got to meet this family and spend time at their beautiful home.  And I’m so glad the kids were so relaxed and were just themselves while I was there.  I credit their parents with setting the relaxed tone…

… they made it a wonderful, wonderful session.

Have a great holiday season, you guys!