And I was SO busy (in a happy way!) yesterday that I didn’t manage to post any photos yesterday. So, here are a few glimpses of our Christmas Day. The cloudy, dark weather wasn’t at all what I ordered for picture-taking purposes, so these are grainier and darker than the usual picture fare here.
Please note: this post is composed almost entirely of pictures, so if you read my blog on dial-up, or you just can’t stand looking at pictures, you will want to go away and come back on Monday.
There’s even a picture of me.
I was opening a bag from Joshua and Lisey, and it was filled with marshmallow Santas. Yum.
This is as close as I could get to a picture of Mr. The Frugal Girl. He’s very camera shy.
After we opened presents, we had Monkey Bread for breakfast, but, um, I forgot to grease the pan. So it was sort of pulled apart when I served it. It was still tasty, though!
This is the mess in my living room, post-present opening.
While my husband and I cleaned up, Sonia and Zoe tried out their new art supplies (which were all purchased at Goodwill).
Do you notice the beautiful bokeh my lens made out of the Christmas tree lights? I love my 50mm lens. It made a flash-free Christmas morning possible.
I hope your Christmas morning was as delightful as ours! I’ll be back with pictures of some of the gifts I made either tomorrow or on Monday. Right now, though, I have a serious mess to clean up in my living room, dining room, and kitchen. Must. Restore. Order.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Looks wonderful! Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!
I did notice the beautiful photos before you even mentioned it. Love it! I love that you got all of the art supplies at Goodwill. We had a few “Mom 2 Mom sale” items for Christmas. They were so excited about their Thomas tracks and trains that we bought on Craigslist that we actually put away 4 of their presents for their b-day in April. They would cry when they “had to” open more gifts so we gave up and saved money in the mean time. I thought you would be proud being the frugal guru and all!
Merry Christmas! Our family had a wonderful day. After reading your posts this year, I visited the goodwill store near our home for the FIRST time. I was a lucky shopper. I bought 3 men’s sweaters, 3 women cable sweaters, 1 men’s dress shirt and 1 beautiful hounds tooth skirt. All were originally from high end retail stores…Banana Republic, Abercrombie & Fitch, etc. The goodwill store was having a sale that day…buy 3 sweaters and get one free. All sweaters were wool or cashmere for $7.99. I nearly passed out when I looked at the price! I put all the garments in the cleaners, gift wrapped the men’s sweaters and gave them as presents to my son and husband. I wore the skirt on Christmas Day. All of us got compliments on Christmas especially my husband from my mom. She wanted to know where I purchased my husband’s charcoal gray sweater. Thank you for sharing your life with us all year long. I’ve learned so much…in thing in particular, that there are other venues to shop and obtain beautiful clothing…all on a VERY MODEST BUDGET! Have a health New Year!
Kristen,
First, LOVE the pictures! Your Christmas looks beautiful. Merry Christmas!
Yvette,
I applaud your Goodwill purchases.
My Christmas gifts were almost entirely Goodwill purchased, and not to toot my own horn, but I gave fabulous presents. Toot toot!
Welcome to the club.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
Merry Christmas Kristen! I love the photos, and how awesome that you found so many great gifts at Goodwill. The one where I live is not that great but then, I have not been in awhile so maybe a trip is in order soon.
Also, just wanted to share that I got a 50mm lens for Christmas this year! I was trying to decide what lens to upgrade to from my kit lens and after finding your blog, I was inspired by your photography skills and advice. I LOVE it! It was also a joint gift from several relatives and I am really looking forward to using it all the time now.
Have a blessed New Year!
Could that be … fish … that Zoe is drawing???
Yvette, that is some impressive Goodwill shopping! Go you!
Amy, do you have the 50/1.4 or the 50/1.8? I have the 1.4 and I love it so much.
Freckles, Zoe hasn’t figured out how to do that yet. The rest of us draw fish for her, and then she colors them in. lol
I have to say Kristen that I love getting little glimpses of your house! It is very cute! I love the red walls.
Hope your Chirstmas was as wonderful as it looked! I absolutely love you blog, it has changed the way I feel about life and money tremendously!
I just got huge props for my goodwill gifting. Not to brag, but the words, “original” and “thoughtful” were used. Yay.
Hey Kristen, I got the 1.4! I was trying to decide between the two and can honestly say that reading your comments about the 1.4 really helped me make my decision. After talking with some friends who are pro photographers, that’s what we decided to get. I love it, too. It was so nice to take Christmas morning photos with no flash! (I have two little nephews so it was really important to me to get great shots of them.)
I still have a lot to learn about photography but I enjoy your photos and your tips. So thank you so much for sharing them, along with all the other wonderful lessons I’m learning from your blog.
Stephanie, thanks! The red walls are in my bedroom. That’s probably the loudest color I’ve ever chosen! lol
hiptobeme-that’s awesome. Go you!
Amy, I haven’t tried the 1.8, but from what I hear, it is not nearly as good as the 1.4, so I’m really glad you sprang for the more expensive one. I got mine last Christmas morning, and I was so amazed at how well it worked in low light. I’d never been able to take decent Christmas morning photos before. Have fun playing with your lens!
“Must. Restore. Order.”
Made me laugh. I had almost a dozen in my house for close to a week. It was a good week and a lot of fun, and I got to try out many Cook’s Illustrated recipes (thus furthering my goal of trying all the recipes I’ve tagged over the years) with many helping hands doing the dishes for me. Many board games were played – turns out I’m OK as part of team at Scrabble, which I never knew, and did you know that Clue is actually a very complex and subtle logic game? – and I didn’t break the bank feeding the crowd. In fact I had fun figuring out how to do that.
But order was not restored till after the crowd had left.
I absolutely love that your son is wearing a shirt with Link on it. The Legend of Zelda series is by far one of the best video game series out there.
It sounds like your Christmas went very well. Mine was wonderful and was the first I spent with my girlfriend. Between us here on TFG, I need to start thinking of how to frugally (not cheaply) get a good ring for the next phase of my life.
I too can appreciate your the bokeh on your lens. Personally I didn’t get the Voigtlander Bessa R2A with a Nokton 50mm f/1.1 that I asked for (I mean, it was only $1,149 for the lens
)