Happy 2010 and Vacationtime

Happy 2010 a little late! We were busy having our Christmas Party on New Years Day. I can't believe the holidays are already past. They just went by so quickly.

I thought I would post my video from Vacation. This is my family in our Fjord cottage at Cove Point Lodge Resort...In Beaver Bay, MN.

We had a good time as usual at Lake Superior. I wish I could bring the Fjord home with me and the view too(LOL)!

I finished my Christmas cards at the lodge too...and sent them out not a moment too soon. Sent them from good ole Beaver Bay Post office.....Funny story is we were going to send them out in Silver Bay, MN but they closed their Post office down for an HOUR for lunch break. Can you believe that?(gotta love small towns). That was the DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS and everything. Crazy right? I can't get use to small towns shutting everything down so early too. If you want to eat out or shop you have to do so before 8:00 pm. Sometimes even earlier. I complain here in town when things close before midnight(walmart or Grocery store etc....).

Here is our family Christmas Card

I used winter wishes theme cuz of how late I would be sending them out this year. Plus, we took the winter shot outside this year. We did manage to take our family photo out by Lake Superior...only the sun was peaking in and out of the clouds. This shot looks cold but it really was 28 degrees(not bad)....just a few hours later(and a day) this is what superior looked like

Crazy cold, wind, waves......and only to get worse. We decided to go home(Minneapolis)early and we were glad we did. The Northshore got hit by the winter storm really bad. We would of been stranded on Christmas by the lake(which wouldn't of been so bad really)! We really wanted to be home for Christmas tho and we left that night instead of checking out the following morning. It just started to snow when we got home. Perfect timing. I could tell by the how the lake was getting rough it would be bad storm.

In Minneapolis it wasn't so bad, my sister in Grand Forks, ND got alot more snow. It was bad enough to postpone our family get together with Doug's side of the family. Doug's sister in Hibbing couldn't make it due to the weather. So as I was saying, we had our party on New years Day. I will try to post some pixs.....later....and some of New years eve.

Meanwhile here some of my favorites from up at the northshore and taken with the new Canon:

Made this into my banner above....love the sunrises over Lake superior. This was taken right thru the picture window of our cottage. Didn't even have to go out in the cold to take the pix. Great view to wake up with isn't it? I love the cotton candy clouds too!

Here some family portraits from our family photo shoot out by the lake-The photos that made it onto the family card:

Had to crop the bench/stool Aaron was standing on/so some of the background got cut out

Used this cute shot of Aaron.....and reused an old pix of Muffin...Cuz Muffin didn't go on vacation with us(no Dogs allowed at the resort-poor Muffin)!

We were outside for awhile taking photos.....Here some more that Didn't make it onto the card:

Than I took some fun outdoor pixs for test shots for the camera:

Like my furry hat? LOL.....some of those closeups are kinda scary!!! My hubby takes better pixs with my new camera than me tho...boo hoo! I need to work on it. Figure out the settings!

Than here are some of the scenic favorites during our vacation:

I haven't beat my all time favorite shot from this very spot last Feb......perhaps the sunsets are better in frigid temps? The pink sky is so pretty! I think I got lucky getting this pix/shot with my old camera that hardly worked last Feb. It's still my favorite of the Northshore.

Christmas 2009

I didn't get time to post pixs of my new Christmas tree. Our old one was getting to hard to assemble. So we swore we would get a new prelit, 3 section tree...and more tall and skinny for my narrow family room. My old tree was shorter and very wide. This tree works out alot better for the space. Doug loves it cuz it's easy to assemble(LOL)!

I did switch out my theme for the new tree. No more red berries. Those were nice for awhile but not real easy to make look good every year. So I bought a few new ornaments and went with a traditional (Bulb) look instead. I like it alot. I usually only use white lights......but I found these really cool LED garland bead strings. They really made some nice color to the tree and they double duty as garland beads. This tree was a Martha Stewart Slim 9ft tree.

Some closeups of the LED beads. They look nice on/and Off.

I got new stairway garland too/from Target...it was already pre decorated but not prelit...so I had to put lights on them.

We decorated Aaron little playhouse too. Here some photos:

and here is the video of it....kinda need the video for the sound effect(jingle bells)!

Of course the porch again this year was festive:

look thru the windows and you can see the snow that we got during Christmas snow advisory/storm. We made a good decision to get back early from our little getaway up on the Northshore. Turns out Duluth, and the Lake Superior northshore area was hit bad by the winter storm. So we were happy we made that decision to leave the night instead of waiting for the morning. Minneapolis didn't get hit too badly. It could have been worse.......and it was so warm today the snow was melting and it rained. Weird!

Our Christmas plans did change because of the weather. We made it home but Doug's sister and bro-in-law didn't. They were stranded up in the Hibbing area. So, they did not make it to our house for Christmas day. We postponed Christmas until New Years Eve Day with them. Doug's parents that live in town did make it to watch Aaron open some gifts. So our Christmas was a little disjointed.....as plans were put aside, and we did things on a wimb(like we never do...LOL)!

We had a good time with Doug's parents and made them a last minute ham dinner. Our Christmas day I don't even have pixs of our time. We basically just hung out and was casual the whole day. Just real relaxed and didn't do much. Aaron played with his new toys, Doug slept in(like he never gets to do), I slept in(like I always do(LOL), and Muffin had a good time sleeping, eating, sleeping , eating, sleeping eating....LOL! I have very little pixs to show of my Christmas......because it was so casual. I did get some...and by the looks of my photos.....I need to practice on my new camera(ha)! I think I had it set wrong or pushed something wrong. That's ok

tho, I didn't take much anyway. No worries!

I did manage to catch this moment of video tho.....so much fun! Aaron really got into opening the presents this year. I just wish I could of got a video of the previous gift he opened instead of the one i did capture....LOL! Doug had to explain what the present was, as it was in a large box, and not put together. It wasn't a toy, we had bought him a chair for the computer area(one his size). We also bought him a computer hutch/desk to go with it. Anyway, he was a little more overjoyed with the previous gift which was the handy mandy work bench/repair shop thing. LOL! oh well! Sorry bout the vid too....Aaron has a little of the plummer "crack" showing at times. I can't seem to find pants that fit him. Ha! You can tell we were casual I didn't even comb the poor kid's hair that day. Jeesh! I like the photo with the big present(red bear wrappings). Notice the tag?(Santa tag)...Aaron's Grandma saved that tag........(as she used it for Doug when he was a little boy). she saved it all these years to use on Aaron gift. That's vintage and cute idea. Now i have to save it for Aaron's kids someday. Yikes, I am not as good as saving things. I will try!!!!

Muffin got a new pet pillow.....poor Muffin. Her eye was hurting her. She takes allergy pills and sometimes they tend to mess up her eye. So we have eye ointment for that purpose. She did like her new pillow but.............

She is a little "BIG" for it. Oh well, she seems to not mind much? Ha ha ha....poor Muffin! She's getting quite the large back end. She needs a doggie diet for sure!

That is our Christmas in a nutshell. I will try to post about our time spent at The Northshore.....at Cove Point Lodge Resort. We took more photos and video up that way. It was fun time. It made the holidays very rushed but well worth the hassle.

Hope everyone had a wonderful and fun Christmas season!

What Another Gift?

Santa has been good to me this year. I got another gift right before Christmas. I know I already got a new camera but was disappointed with it. It's not a bad camera.....just not right for me. I've been kicking myself for not getting my second choice...which was a bigger size Canon power shot with huge zoom lens. I think Santa knew the dilemma I was facing and felt bad....and behold the new camera right before our Christmas vacation. Cool!

I love this camera!!! Not disappointed with this camera at all! I'll still use my little point and shoot camera but this one will be for more serious photo taking.

This camera is not a SLR but looks like it.......it's about medium range between SLR and point and shoot. So it's perfect next step for me. I love the zoom capability on this camera. I'll be posting some pixs from our Christmas Vacation we took up on the Northshore. That why I've been so absent from blog world......been struggling to get everything ready for Christmas and leave for vacation for a week before Christmas. Yikes! We made it thru tho and it was alot of fun relaxing up north for awhile. I made my Christmas cards right at the resort with my little portable printer. That worked slick and the new camera was really nice for taking tripod shot for our Christmas card photo shoot. Loved it! My new toys for Christmas really help me with creating for Christmas(card). My cards were so much cheaper this year too/as HP had a free download site....for cards. I just bought blank photo paper and made a card from their site on my little HP printer. Slick!

Here some more views of my camera:

Here is one photo we took with it:


I love the lighting and how crisp the pix looks. I can't take credit for this photo. Doug took it. LOL! He was just goofing around with the camera at the time. Just shows what the camera can do with closeups. Love that!

Christmas is early

check out what I got for Christmas early




I've always wanted one of these portable, compact 4x6 printers. I can't wait to use it. I am going to make my Christmas postcards on it. Hopefully! Will see if it works. I love the carry case too. Very nice and so portable. It prints 5x7 too and can print via bluetooth(mobile phone, iphone etc). Even has editing tools and no need for PC either. can photoshop your pixs right on the touch screen.

Thanks Santa!!!!!