What a busy busy weekend I had with my little family, and you know what...it was great!
Possibly even the best weekend so far this year. Let's recap...
On Saturday morning we caught Olly peaking inside the gift bags. Naughty little elf :)
Funny story.
Cadence's second Christmas Tarl got me a Nikon. It was such a gracious gift because as we all know camera's are not cheap, specifically Nikons, but I have always loved taking pictures and with a one year old it truly was the perfect gift. Fast forward to Friday night. I knew we had plans to go to James Island the following day and I wanted to learn how to take bokeh shots because bokeh shots are just stunning when it comes to Christmas lights. If you're unsure of what a bokeh shot is, it's where you focus on something in front of a sparkly light, and the lights are blurry but stand out in the background. Like this...
I knew without a doubt that we could achieve this, after all we had a pretty good camera with all those snazzy settings you need. Turns out the task wasn't as easy as I had hoped.
Y'all I played with my Nikon for over 45 minutes trying to figure it out. I searched tons of websites and tutorials to no avail. I was on the verge of tears simply out of pure frustration so Tarl stepped in. Grabbed the camera and tried a shot at it.
He came very close and got those gorgeous blurry twinkly lights, see...
...only catch was, the camera wouldn't focus on anything in front of it. So all we got was just the above picture of the blurry lighted tree. I stood in front of the tree and he spent at least 20 minutes trying to focus on me but still keeping the tree blurry in the background. At this point I was even more frustrated so I just called it a night and went to bed.
This is where those "it's the little things that mean the most" comes to my mind because on the way to Charleston with all of the camera settings back to their original place I went to delete old photos to make more room on the SD card and there were hundreds of pictures of Tarl holding a candle in front of the Christmas tree from the night before.
After I went to bed, he physically held a candle in front of the camera lens to try and get the lens focused on the candle but still have the bokeh effect with the Christmas tree in the background. We still never managed to learn how to do it, but it truly brought this huge smile on my face knowing that because it was important to me, he truly tried his darnedest to figure it out.
Although it doesn't have the bokeh effect, I just adore the above picture I took on Friday night.
Each year my little family of three chooses one special ornament of the year for our tree. We each get one and I write our name and the date on the backside. It has to be a unanimous vote or we don't get the ornament. I really wanted an Eiffel tower ornament this year but Tarl said no. Cadence wanted a big pink cupcake but I said no, but we all three agree'd on that white reindeer with the red bow.
So that is our families 2015 ornament. :)
On Saturday I realized something, that Charleston is my most favorite city in the world second to Manhattan. I just adore Charleston with all of my heart. It seems like each time we visit Charleston Tarl and I discuss living there. Who knows, maybe one day it'll be in the cards for us, but for now, we visit as often as we can. NYC first, Charleston second and Savannah third.
Charleston is just gorgeous. There is no other word to describe it's stunning architecture and southern style. Simply, we just adore Charleston. Although the lights aren't until night time, we wanted to make an entire day trip out of it, so we left bright and early on Saturday morning and made it to Charleston by lunch time.
It was such a lovely day. The weather was just perfect! So we strolled King Street and ate lunch on the rooftop of Mellow Mushroom in downtown. Their pizza was great, but their cheesebread was out of this world. Next time we're just going to order like three of those!
After lunch we walked from one side of downtown to the other. We strolled the battery and then found a park and let Cadence play for close to an hour. We even played some hopscotch and enjoyed the playground.
These two have my heart!
The lights, as always, were breathtaking!
my favorite light - duh!
boarding the train
sorry for the dark picture, but we're riding the train so a selfie was necessary
After the lights we went to dinner at our favorite restaurant in Charleston, The Charleston Crab House. Yum!
We were all starving after all our walking and playing and we couldn't wait for dinner. It didn't disappoint. After dinner we headed home. Cadence didn't make it out the restaurant driveway before she passed out and Tarl said I made it halfway between home and Charleston before I dozed off.
Seriously, best day ever in Charleston!
I made our advent calendar on November 30th. I cut strips of paper and shove them in each day slot. Each morning Cadence wakes up and the first thing she does is find Olly, the second thing she does is read the advent for the day. She looks forward to this every single morning and we love seeing her face light up. To be honest, after the first week I completely forgot what each advent was. Turns out I put us down for ice skating for yesterday. So what we thought was going to be a relaxing Sunday, turned out to actually be a great Sunday Funday in Savannah!
It took her a while to find Olly on Sunday morning. He was tucked away with all her other stuffed animal friends.
Before ice skating we had brunch at our favorite spot on River Street, Hueys.
Their beignets are so incredibly delicious and light and fluffy and the price is on point too!
This girl loves her beignets!
Ice skating was an experience to say the least! Tarl and I aren't pro's at it by any means of the word, but we can at least stay on the ice without slipping (sometimes). We knew with this being Cadence's first time she was going to fall and we told her to be prepared for it. She fell, like three times, but had a blast. We all did. It was hilarious and so much fun.
We also did some last minute Christmas shopping afterwards, and this hurricane simulator called our names!
Oh, and this morning...
I loved this quote and I thought it was great to share to hopefully start everyone's week off right.
So true!
xo
P.S. If y'all have any tips on how to do bokeh photography, please share them with me! I have a Nikon D3000 and am desperate to learn this before Christmas Day so I can take some pretty pictures!
You were a busy crew! How nuts was traffic on Saturday? We had a cocktail party on johns island and it was crazy how long the line was at the county park at 5:30! They do such a good job on the lights!
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