Day 281/365

Merry Christmas everyone! I wish you a safe and happy holiday, and a wonderful new year!

Day 279/365

     Today my mom got some of our younger cousins over for our yearly holiday baking/crafting binge. My cousin's two daughters are the cutest kids, I swear, and they are so much fun to have over. We made tons of cookies/cupcakes/and other desserts, and had a great time doing so. 

Day 278/365

     Yesterday/day 278 was the O'Donnell family, (my mom's side of my family), Christmas party. With the exception of a few of a few cousins, almost all of us were able to make it this year. There's so many of us that all of us getting together at the same time and sam place doesn't happen all that often. 

     

     I had an idea to make them all Christmas ornaments this year, (my mom and her seven siblings), using a photo of all of them together on Christmas morning when they were children. I love this picture of all of them; I think it shows each of their personalities so well. And the ornaments seemed to be a hit!

Day 277/365

     It finally snowed today! In both Michigan and Ohio! I love snow in general, but I especially love it around the holidays; it just doesn't feel like Christmas to me without some snow. Hopefully it sticks around until Tuesday!

Day 276/365

     This morning I got to shoot a pretty fun assignment; the national "Shoes that Fit" campaign being hosted at two local schools. The campaign gets new pairs of shoes for children in need. I shot the shoes being handed out to elementary school kids this morning, and they were absolutely ecstatic. My ears were ringing for about a good hour after I left the school from their squealing and cheering. It was really such a great story to be a part of.

Day 273/365

     Monday/day 273 was filled with numerous technological issues for me; between my work laptop deciding to lock me out and then the system that I upload to MLive through locking me out as well. In between my hours of calling tech. support, I covered a few assignments, including a local Bay City area school that restored two nine and-a-half foot electrical toy soldiers and installed them at the entrance to Bay City's Santa House. 'Tis the season.

Day 250/365

     After shooting Christmas tree farms yesterday, and a Christmas market this morning, I was ready to start getting into all the Christmas festivities when I got off work. I went and got an artificial tree. I hate artificial trees, but seeing as I'm switching apartments in a few weeks, I figured moving a live one would've been too much of a hassle on top of moving everything else. Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun decorating it and hanging lights around one of the big windows in my apartment. 

Happy holidays!

Day 242/365

     Tonight I covered "Holidays in the Heart of the City," a Christmas festival in Saginaw. It started with the lighting ceremony of all the Christmas lights in downtown and Old Town Saginaw, and ended with a fireworks display off of Ojibway Island. In between there were living nativity scenes, gingerbread house-decorating competitions, live reindeer, Santa and Mrs. Claus walking around, free tours of the zoo, and trolley and horse-drawn carriage rides. Guess which part I liked best. 

Day 240/365

     I had a few different assignments tonight, but I think the one that was the most fun to shoot was my last one of the night. It was a play rehearsal by the Whistling Idiots, a local dinner theatre troupe in Bay City. They're rehearsing the play "Sorry Wrong Chimney," which I've never heard of, but if the few scenes I saw tonight are any indication, it's going to be hilarious. Especially the girl in the middle of this photo; she made some of the best facial expressions throughout every scene.