chopping a stree

Sometime I am just completely stupid.  I mean like a complete and total idiot.  Sunday was one of those days apparently…. although I didn't realize it until today (well, don't worry, I realized part of it then too).  Stuff I could do with my eyes closed looked like I did.  Things I know backwards and forwards that seemed to have vanished out of my brain.

I was so frustrated on Sunday taking all of these pictures.  I couldn't seem to take a whole lot because I wasn't getting enough light.  My shutter speed had to be low to let enough light in so they almost all are blurry - and I had my ISO set to the max.

Or so I thought.

I had it set to the max in the wrong direction (I'm not going to get technical on you).  I had it set so that it is best for the brightest conditions (100 ISO for those who care) instead of changing it to darker conditions (like 2500 ISO or something).  So those two hours or so when I was so frustrated with my pictures being crappy and finally putting away the camera and not getting pictures of many wonderful things could all have been avoided/changed if I had clued into one of the very most basic techniques of photography.

What a moron.

Before we left, Lucy and I made gingersnaps for the occasion.  We love gingersnaps - oh yes we do!!  And Lucy loves getting her hands all sugary so she has an excuse to lick them afterwards!

Since it is Dressember (more on that another time), I needed to come up with a warm, active dress solution.  This was it:

Sweats under the dress, sweatshirt on top, and eventually the dress tucked in like a t-shirt.  It did the trick!

In spite of my lack of brain, we all had a great time.  Oh, but I will tell you about the other time when I realized my idiocy, first.  Because it had to do with getting there.

I got distracted by a million (uh, two) signs pointing the way to the tree chopping place…. just like they wanted us to.  So we turned there, but it was a different place.  It took quite some time to figure out our way to the actual location we wanted.  

Once we got there, the fun was in full-power mode.  The Giesbrechts and Loewens were already engaged in full snow warfare.  It was an out and out battle.  The day, I should explain, was gorgeous.  Mildly warm, which made the snow soft and a little mushy - great for snowmen and snowballs!

Maddy had a photography project to work on.  It also protected her from snowballs.  Someone else I know had a camera around her neck - which also was great protection from snowballs…..

I can't seem to ever get a picture of her not looking at me like I'm a moron (maybe she already knew that I was screwing up the pictures….)

Alex (aka: Couldn't-lose-me-in-these-pants-no-matter-how-hard-you-tried) apparently got a serious amount of snow down her pants.  She was digging for a while.  I was taking pictures for a while, too!

I was taking some pictures of Alex and Maddy and Brent decided to bombard them with snowballs.  It was rather wonderful…. for me.

Alex was not so happy to find out that Timaya (aka: Couldn't-lose-me-in-these-pants-no-matter-how-hard-you-tried-too-or-2) is taller than her.

Eric had a perfect shot on Jessie's head.

This photo is obviously a mistake.  But I love it.  Love.

After a while everyone started to gang up on Brent.  It was him against the world.  Or against the rest of the family, as it were.

Shouldn't have put down the camera, Maddy!

Even some strange boy got in on the war against Brent.  In turn, he also received the gift of participation….

Once the snowball fight diminished, we went on to the actually tree chopping.  Well, shopping.  We decided not to chop.  While we were looking around, a friend of ours showed up with her family - with bare-naked feet (well, in flip-flops!!).  Granted, they hadn't intended to go Christmas tree shopping outside, but still!

Moving on…

I chose another homely Christmas tree this year.  I seem to have a thing for giving ugly trees a good home.  My niece, who was also going to be saddled (in terms of how she felt) with an ugly tree, was not happy about it.  I pointed out to her, being the animal loving person that she is, that she wouldn't reject a homely dog who needed a good home, so why would she reject a homely tree?  See didn't seem to agree with the connection.  Maddy is smiling with our Chuck-the-tree, but she felt much more like how Alex looked about it.

Glenda and I brought some hot chocolate for everyone, as well as some goodies (the gingersnaps for us, caramel popcorn for her)

Maddy and Alex found their own little tree.  Another time when I proved to myself that I can be fairly dim-witted…..  So I loved their tree instantly (another ugly tree that needed a home), but was shocked to find out that they were being charged $5 for it.  In my mind I thought they just found it somewhere and were getting charged.  So I talked to one of the workers, saying that $5 seemed a little much for a discard.  That was when I discovered that they had actually made an agreement with him and cut the thing down!  What an idiot.  I felt so dumb for approaching him…. I told him that he should them charge them $40 (I was not too serious about that part!).  Sometimes I really wish I would just keep my mouth shut.  Actually, a lot of times I wish I would keep my mouth shut.

Glenda, Kim, Cole, Cade, Shandy, Lucy, Riley and I took a little sleigh ride while the stick-in-the-muds did nothing.  I didn't take any pictures of Rye and Coke, the horses, because I am lame.

After these events, the funnest of the crew (I'm just writing that in the hopes that Glenda reads this) came over to our house for some chili and a cozy viewing of Home Alone.

I probably could have edited out the creepy eyes from this iPhone photo, but I like them too much.

Oh, and by the way, "stree" was not a typo.  It comes from Eric saying "stree stand" repeatedly (accidentally), instead of tree stand, and Maddy, Mia and I flogging the dead horse in mockery of anything that could be a stree.  Had to be there - too bad you weren't 'cause it was really funny.  Still is.