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Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Christmas at the Knowles home

Years ago, I took pictures of everything that happened on Christmas. That usually meant that I had a lot of photos of the top of people's heads as they opened presents and lots of photos of people eating Christmas dinner! I got tired of taking those kind of photos and of constantly having a camera in hand. In the last few years, I've purposely taken a few "tradition" photos and then set my camera aside. I like these photos better, and I have a more relaxed time at holiday gatherings.
This year, because of the record-breaking, road-clogging snow, we didn't spend that much time with our extended family. But the pictures below are some of our "must have" photos to record this holiday.
On Christmas Eve, we move our stockings from the front of the armoire to hang on the fireplace (we can't have them there sooner or they'd block the tv which is in our fireplace!). We have the kids sit in front of the stockings (they chose to add the Santa hats a couple of years ago) with our cookies and drink for Santa.

One Christmas tradition that Quinn started with to read "The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve". We collect different versions of the book and have Quinn or one of the older kids read it. This year we used the pop-up book version with beautiful cut-out illustrations and Tayler (home from college) read the familiar story.

When I was growing up, the traditional shot on Christmas morning was of all of us sitting on the stairs waiting to go in to see what Santa brought us. Our kids (our homes have never had stairs) stand in the hallway in front of the Santa curtain waiting to go see what Santa brought them.

I always take a photo of the Christmas morning mess. It's one of my favorite shots! Another shot I try to take is a group shot of my kids with their favorite Christmas presents. I didn't get around to taking that one this year.

Monday, December 29, 2008

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Here in Oregon we always wish for a white Christmas. Maybe it's because we seldom see any of the white stuff around here. This year we got our wish! Snow fell here in the Portland area for over a week. We had over 18 inches! It was the biggest snowstorm since 1968! I hear the garbage trucks outside my house right now while I'm blogging. I bet this will be a really busy day for them. Most side streets weren't navigable until last Saturday! They missed 2 weeks of garbage pick up. We missed several days of mail and we missed 2 weeks of church. We also got out of school a week early because of the weather.

But the snow interrupted our Christmas shopping. We did try to venture out the Tuesday and Wednesday before Christmas. Each time, we kept wondering "what were we thinking?" Of course, we don't have chains. You don't really need them in our part of the country. Quinn kept a shovel in our van so he could dig us out when necessary (it was necessary several times!). Trees and bushes were so burdened with snow that they fell over. Sadly, my favorite "photo" tree at my mom's house fell over.

"Oregon is boring without snow," Tanner informed us Saturday morning when we looked out the window and saw green grass again.


This is River Road (a major road near our house)

Many cars were snowed in. Luckily, ours were in the garage. But our driveway was snowed in!

The view from my mom's back porch. The power went out at our house several times one weekend and so Quinn, Taryn, & Tanner hiked over to Mom's to enjoy her electricity & heat!

The snow kept piling up.

Our house looks so beautiful in snow! Quinn dug a tiny path to our front door.

"Tis the Season of Weddings

Fall is usually a slow time for Kathi and I to shoot weddings. But this October, November and December kept us very busy. I even got to go out of town to shoot some weddings--my sister's in Columbus, Ohio; a friend's wedding in Salt Lake City, Utah; and my niece's wedding in Tucson, Arizona. The following posts are just a few of these weddings.

My Niece's Wedding

Last weekend I left the snow and gray skies and flew to Tucson (with my mom and daughter, Tayler) for my niece, Chelsy's wedding. It was glorious weather for we Oregonians. Perfect weather for a winter wedding! Chelsy spent months working on the wedding details--the luminaries lining the walk to the chapel, the rose petals covering the church aisle, getting a harpist to play for the wedding (it was a beautiful touch), and more. She had her nephew, Jackson (4), and her niece, Ava (15 months) as the ring bearer and flower girl. I've posted way too many photos of this wedding, but I had trouble weeding it down to this many! Thank you Chelsy for letting me photograph your wonderful day! It was so great to be there.








Jackson was reluctant to kiss Chelsy on the cheek or to let her kiss him. We promised him some Skittles so we could take this shot.

The Martin and Christensen families.

Ryan and his mom, Joann

Ryan with his dad, Rob

Chelsy with her mom, Darcy (my sister)

Chelsy with her dad, Kent

Here are some of my favorites of the bride and groom. There were so many good ones. The weather in Tucson in December is fabulous--in the high 60's and low 70's and sunny! Coming from the gray skies of Oregon where even at noon it can be dark, I loved taking photos at this wedding!





A few of the candids taken at the reception.
Ryan and his sister, Erin






Chelsy didn't plan on throwing her bouquet but she and her friend decided to "stage" it.

The first dance as husband and wife

Getting ready to cut the cake.

They are such a cute couple!

I like this candid of Ryan

I seemed to be big on catching reflections in sunglasses. I tried it twice. Getting Ryan's brother, Patrick, in Flinn's sunglasses and the reception table decorations in Jackson's sunglasses.


There was a slight breeze off and on through the afternoon which caused some of the paper lanterns to fall down. Chelsy joined Jackson in an impromtu soccer game with some of the lanterns.


Ava looked so cute wandering around with her bow untied and two pens in her hand as the adults cleaned up the reception.

It was Chelsy's idea to have the "pink" pop. She snagged several bottles to take with them.

Chelsy pokes her head out the window for a final wave goodby as they head off to their honeymoon.

Here are the detail photos that I so love to take. Chelsy chose silver and fuschia for her wedding colors. The reception decorations turned out just beautifully.