busy season
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time to market
The thousands of photographs I've taken since Gabriel's birth aren't making it to the website regularly.
I've dumped some unedited pictures from December so they're available without making demands of my time.
You don't have to buy anything. A complete proof sheet of thumbnails appears behind the semi-obnoxious order form.
These pictures help illustrate the narratives below.
the wonder year
Gabriels Christmas started early in the month when Grandma Claire's package arrived: his first
Christmas present ever. We opened it right away to find a blanket with stuff on
it—squeeky toys, crinkly toys, all sorts of velcro attachments for the boy to play with as he
lies on the blanket.
The next holiday installment was at Dave and Nancy's home, early Christmas eve. We were joined by Chris and
Jen, for the evening meal and gift exchange. Gabe got a lot of attention from the adults, as well as some
pretty keen booty.
this left Christmas morning for us to enjoy with Gabriel alone. He liked unwrapping presents, especially
the specially-wrapped eeyore in the crinkly foil camping/emergency blanket. It was a close call between
the gift and the wrap, but the wrap won the first round.
He opened a few more presents before he became overstimulated. We have photos
of Gabe reaching his limit, and the nap he took afterwards. But recovery was complete, and he soon
was able to finish unwrapping all his gifts.
We shot a pose of Gabe munching on his "Gabriel's First Christmas" tree-ornament picture-holder;
we'll put that photo in the ornament for a recursive posterity.
marriage of a lifetime
For our eleventh wedding anniversary, we left gabe with our cherished sitter, and drove to the Santa Cruz
beach for an evening picnic.
At the cost of forgoing firewood, we arrived at the waves in time to see the sun drop into the sea.
The other couple on the beach was doing about the same thing, so the romanticism was reinforced.
We threw out a blanket, snapped a few photos, mulled some wine and broke out the cheeze and chocolate.
For hours we lay on the sand, studied the stars and sky, talking about what we'd learned from the last
eleven years, and then shared our hopes for the next eleven.
It was grand, worth every effort we'd taken to get there.
in the forest for the trees
The whole family went to Half Moon Bay to select the tree for this year. Deb's aesthetic requires the tree
to meet certain criteria. I'm so lucky; without her to do the work, I'd never get a tree at all.
Gabe didn't think so much about it until we got home. He definitely didn't like the power saw I used to
trim branches off the trunk for fitting the stump into the tree stand, but he totally recovered when we
set the tree upright.
Trees aren't supposed to grow in the living room! Gabe new that immediately, and could not stop
laughing. Every time his giggles would run down over the next twenty minutes, Gabe would look
at the tree again, and lose control. It was so funny, we found his delight contageous.
Gabe likes the tree even before the lights were strung. He'd lie on his back and play with the branches
just like it was one of the hanging toys he's been delighted with.
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