Tag Archives: New Years

New Years: the complete haul

As I mentioned the other week, it’s taken me a bit to get to all these New Years pictures.

But finally, they have marched one by one through Photoshop and out the other side.

Into the light of day.

My favorite shots are the cuddly ones. Our good friend Tyler has found the love of his life, Liz, and we just met her for the first time the day before the party. You have no idea what a perfect match they are.

My husband and I have known Tyler ever since our freshman year of college, when we were all babes blinking in the brand new sun of a world of independence. A world in which every day for breakfast I had a mocha, a yoghurt, and a piece of string cheese. A world in which I never washed my sheets. Or wore a coat . . . and then proceeded to catch the whooping cough.

But never went to the doctor or started wearing a coat. Yep, life was good.

But I’m getting off track!

Tyler and Liz! That’s what we’re talking about.

Tyler is smart. Academic. Politically driven. Idealistic, but pro-active. Well-read. Involved.

There is so much to this guy, and I wondered for a long time if he could ever find a woman who matched his political passion, his smarts, his debating skills.

And if such a woman existed, what were the chances that she could be a beautiful ballet dancer as well? (Tyler has always had a thing for ballet dancers)

Well, that woman is clearly Liz.

Ballet, beauty, brains and all.

“Are you real?” I asked her, poking her ribs.

Hard to say,” quoth she.

Seriously, I was in wonderment that this women existed, and that Tyler has found her!

The only rationalization of this is that God planned it all out from before the beginning of time. Yaaayy for love!

Dave and Katie hosted the party again this year, and bless their hearts–it was pitch perfect.

It’s no small feat to feed a dozen or so people, organize a group game, provide beds for everyone, and cook breakfast the next morning. And then watch as everyone else prances out the door fancy-free around noon the next day, leaving all the mess behind.

But Dave and Katie did it, and did it with grace and foresight and lots of hard work.

Thanks guys!

No, thank YOU,” Dave is saying. Or appears to be saying.

You’re welcome, Dave. I’ll show up at the New Years party, eat, drink, laugh, talk, sleep, and then go home the next day with no responsibility any year you want.

Though thinking of responsibility, I have become the default photographer–so maybe that’s enough to get me off the hook of other duties for all eternity, amen and amen.

Dees camera . . . eet ees soooo heeefffy.

We played Chinese Telegraph again (because it was such a huge hit last year), and it was hilarious.

As we have all come to expect.

And Joe and Steph–I’m so glad these guys got married.

I just wish they lived closer to us!

Joe is studying for his PhD in Economics, and if they weren’t so far away, he could engage with my husband in academically satisfying discussions on a more regular basis.

Why don’t I engage him on a regular basis, you ask?

Let’s just say that while my husband looks at and studies maps, I look at and study cookbooks. While he reads obscure books with lengthy titles about obscure historical facts, I read Kate Atkinson or The Hunger Games.

Then we gaze across the room at each other in complete bewilderment as to why the other person seems to be enjoying him or herself so dang much.

I love my husband, and we have so much in common–but he needs to have academic discussions with people who won’t change the subject to this great recipe on braised chicken thighs at the first opportunity.

What do you think, sweetie?

Oh, you think it’s hilarious that I like looking at cookbooks and reading fiction?

You find these leanings completely incomprehensible?

Great. Just checking.

So maybe I need to make more of an effort to climb into his world of thought–but anyway!

I’m not generally a party-person. I tend to feel awkward, my small-talk skills start waning after about 5 minutes, and I quickly start wishing I were snuggling at home, PJ-clad, popcorn bowl in hand. But this party . . .

. . . it’s different. I love it.

‘Til next year, everyone!

On being behind the camera

I’ve been lagging soooo behind on my picture duties. I’ve just now finally wrapped up the picture processing of Kevin and Katina’s wedding from mid-December (see here for their engagement pictures from last summer and here for pictures of the bride getting dressed), and I can’t wait to share the rest of the shots with you guys! (Katina was glowing. Kevin was dashing. Etc, etc.)

Consequently (since I’m trying to deal with my pictures in chronological order so I don’t get confused all to heck with where I stand), I haven’t made it through any of the Christmas pictures (except for the small batch of James shots), or the complete batch of New Years photos.

If you’ve been with me for a while, you may remember that every year we celebrate the New Year with the same group of friends, and a merry group it is!

I love those guys. Some of them we see throughout the year, and some we only see once, at this party. Due to some pressure from facebook and my own inherent guilt, I finally threw a couple dozen or so pictures up on facebook, with the promise to go through them all later and actually get the complete set made public (task completed as of Monday!). As I doing my quick intial scan of the oodles of pictures, selecting a few here and a few there for immediate sharing, I was thrilled that there were a couple good shots of me and my husband!

(by the way, isn’t my husband’s nose fabulously straight? I hereby wish that nose and that nose only upon any future children of ours)

Being the girl behind the camera at most events in my life, there aren’t that many pictures of me–probably less than 0.01% of the total pictures taken with my lovely Nikon. And having a slightly weird face when it comes to the camera (don’t worry, I’m at peace with my face–it’s just not at peace with a lens), there are even less good pictures of me.

I also feel bad asking anyone to take pictures of me, first because I’m still slightly self-conscious (“will they think I’m, like, super vain???”), and second because I have to explain how to use the camera in order to obtain a focused, non-blurry, generally A-OK shot (“you can rotate this part of the lens to zoom in; yes, you have to look through the eye-hole-thingy instead of just looking at the screen; press halfway down on this button to focus, then the rest of the way down to shoot, but don’t hold your finger there after shooting because it will keep shooting and could burn out the flash; it you want to take a vertical shot you need to rotate the head of the external flash like so so that it points towards the ceiling and bounces off at the right angle . . .”). And frankly, that’s got to be kind of annoying to the poor person designated to take my/our picture. And in the process, I end up feeling like a micro-managing, controlling female fiend.

So thank you to whoever took these!

I think it was Liz.

They make me happy, and my nose doesn’t look 5 miles long. Yay!

More pictures to come!