Christmas Day 2008

Christmas Day went by quickly. We started out by going to Grandma and Grandpa Maus' house to open gifts. Everyone was so generous and we had so many fun things to open. Grandpa Maus made his special Biscuits and gravy for breakfast. That was really good.
After a while I took Nicholas and Celia back home for a nap. I think they needed some time from the commotion because after nap they just wanted to play quietly at home for a bit. I cleaned up and opened our new coffee maker while they played. They played for an hour and then I brought them back.
We did something fun this year and had chinese food for Christmas dinner. We had homemade egg rolls, sweet and sour sauce, and then ordered some additional meals from a chinese restaurant to add to it. Everyone really enjoyed a bit of something different. My friend's family does this as well, so I guess its not that uncommon to try something non-traditional.
Once N&C went to bed for the night we played Balderdash. We needed an additional game piece, so unfortunately Grandma Maus had to be the Triple Paste. lol

Once the house was quiet I tried some pictures of the tree. I had read that you need to set your settings to a very narrow aperture (like f/22) and a super slow shutter speed (until the exposure is correct). I couldn't find my tripod, so I wasn't able to get the entire tree in the picture. Since the shutter speed is so slow, you can't even hold the camera because the slightest movement will throw the picture into blur. So, I had to lay the camera on a flat surface and press the shutter button and wait (not breathing) until the picture was taken. There are some gorgeous things you can do with Christmas light pictures. I like how it makes the lights twinkle into starbursts. Anyway, here is my fun. I'll have to look for my tripod again.