Holiday Fun

On Friday we went up to Madeline's daycare for a Christmas concert and cookies. I use the term "concert" very loosely as it was mostly her and her classmates staring as the music teacher sang and played the piano. For whatever reason, she spent a lot of the time doing her version of fish face.

All day long we'd been immersed in news coverage of the horrific events in Connecticut, and throughout the concert my mind would drift to the parents facing life without a child. I cried at several points as I looked up at our girl and cuddled Charlotte in our lap. We talked about going out to dinner but instead went home so we could just be together as a family.

Today we put together her gingerbread house after nap time. It didn't take Madeline long to realize that the candy was much more fun to eat than it was to decorate the house with. But she really enjoyed herself, and she looked so cute in her elf apron.

Earlier this week, I did some baking for work parties at my office and Brian's office. I made these Peppermint Patty Surprise Bars that I made last year, and then I shared this picture of them posed in front of our tree (they're actually sitting on the girls' high chair tray). 

I got a lot of compliments on the picture, with a few asking me how I'd gotten the lights so blurry in the background. One person even thought it was an app that plugged the background in, which was a huge compliment.

To get this shot, I used my trusty "nifty 50" Canon 50 mm lens. I set the aperture as low as it would go, and then - this is the important part - I put the bars on the tray and put them about six feet away from the tree.

Last year when I got this lens, I put Madeline right up in front of the tree and was never super happy with the blurring of the lights. This year I did a little more research and read that you need to have some distance between the subject and the tree/lights in order to get that big, blurry effect. The greater the distance, the bigger the blurs. When configuring the camera, put your focal point on the food (or kid, or dog, or whatever you want to be the main subject of the picture), and then set the aperture as low as it'll go. I experimented a little with the white balance and adjusted a little in iphoto when I was done, but the result is the fun pic above.