Celebrate!

I still have presents to wrap, cards to send, laundry to do, cookies to bake and deliver to school. I'm shopping online for last minute deals, writing lists of everything I still want to do. So much is not finished, it's not what I pictured. I'm harried and hurried and wonder what happened. I tell myself this same thing every year that next Christmas I'll relax and be kind to myself. But the life that I lead is hardly so tranquil, I remind myself that at least I am vertical. So I try to be grateful when chaos surrounds me, keep moving and breathing and soon it's astounding. That I no longer care about the lists I have made, because it's here today, time to celebrate.

This post is in honor of Robert Neal Johnson who passed away this afternoon surrounded by love.

Happy First Day of Winter!

It seems like it's been Winter for months already, but today is officially the shortest day of the year. That means that it will start to stay light longer from here on. Now that's something to look forward to. As much as I really prefer the warm weather, the snow that we are getting (It's still falling) has been lovely. We went into the city yesterday to the employee childrens party at the Penninsula Hotel where my hubby works. Seeing Rockefeller Center and a decked out Grand Central Terminal was refreshing. After living in the city for years, you stop paying attention to the beautiful sights. Now I go in whenever I want with a new perspective.

I've never seen Metro North go so all out on holiday decorations. They were projecting light shows periodically and we just caught one on our way through.

And I can't believe that I got a posed shot of my son at the hotel. He is completely over having his picture taken. I'm hoping that he grows out of it cuz I'm not going to stop!

They go all out for the employee kids. Santa comes with gifts, they have an indoor moonbounce in a banquet room and clowns who paint faces. The buffet is everything a kid would possibly want to eat and then some. I loved the face painting table.

We made it through the crowds to see a bit of Rockefeller Center.

Then it was straight to Nintendo World. What a gas! I could stay in that store for hours. You can be sure that Santa will have some Nintendo goodies for under our tree.

Then back home today it finally stopped snowing late in the day, so I went out to catch some snowy sights and get out of the house. The neighborhood was looking gorgeous under a fresh blanket of snow.

I'm so lucky to live on this beautiful property. I love my river.

The house at dusk in the snow. More snow! At least shoveling is good exercise.

Canon EOS 5D Mark ll

I've been wanting this camera ever since Canon announced it. I didn't get in on the first round of available supply and really thought that I'd be waiting months to catch this in stock. While checking my email last night, I clicked on a B&H Photo email and just decided to try calling again. Their website has had this camera back ordered since its announcement. Somehow when my salesperson checked, his computer finally said "Now accepting orders". WhoooHooooooo!!! SOLD! Could be a week, could be a month, but I am really popping out of my skin over this one. Check out Canons feature on Vincent Laforet and his video short "Reverie". I'm inspired!

Album Art for Libby Johnson

I've known Libby since we were both little kids growing up in New Canaan. Libby's sister Carrie is my BFF since age four and I am simply a member of the Johnson family. Both Carrie and Libby are AMAZING singer/songwriters and they both have new records out. I shot the album art for Carrie and so it was really fun to do something completely different with Libby. Libby's album is due out any day. You can check out her website at libbyjohnsonmusic.com. From there you can go to her myspace page or head over to iTunes and pick up one of her amazing albums. I have some of her music featured on my website and I love it. When she and Carrie collaborate on a project, the resulting sound is always magical. I'll do another post from Carrie's latest release soon, but for now check out some of the imagery that we shot for Libby's album art. I am so blessed to be surrounded by so much talent! I think that this might be Libby's best album!

Holiday Boat Parade in Stamford, CT.

For the past few years we have been going to the holiday boat parade in Stamford, Ct. This year the weather was a balmy 40 something degrees, but somehow the turn out was less than last year when we all froze our butts off. My Mom lives on a Marina, so we have turned this evening into a post Thanksgiving tradition. It usually ends up being a huge party and officially begins the kids countdown for Christmas. I have been using these "Magic Blog It Boards" for a while now with "MCP Actions" to create photo collages, so it was ironic to get an email this morning that they are running a contest to give away a gorgeous Into the Darkroom Blog. This Blog of mine could use a little love. Wish me luck!