Jenny Anne Photography: Christmas Favorites

It's a sad thing when Christmas ends. Really. I get bummed. One, because that means I have to go back to work. Blech! Two, because now there's really nothing to look forward to in the winter now that Christmas is over. And three, Christmas music and movies come to an end. BUT, there are LOTS of things to look forward to now that Christmas is over...SPRING...and then SUMMER!! (how many more weeks till I'm doing freezing my toenails off everyday?)

Brian and I made our way to the big Mitt, the Glove, the up North, the cold, Michigan for Christmas. We had our own little Christmas Thursday morning where we opened each other's gifts. Brian is a darn good shopper! I love all my presents!! And I must say, I'm the way cool wife that got my hubby DJ Hero. Ok, ok, the gift was 40% selfish too. I love that game! We ate our crepes with ligon berries and got ready for the drive to MI. Well, my eye was hurting really bad the day before. I was going to try to wait it out, but as we kept driving on, my eye kept getting worse. We weren't going to make it to MI in time for an eye doctor to see me that day and they were closed the next day. So we stopped at an eye doctor in Maryland on our way. It's a good thing we did. I ended up with a bacterial infection in my left eye. It's my third time having this. It's a KILLER when it gets really bad. My doctor said if I didn't get it treated in time, it would've gotten much worse and could've lead to blindness in my left eye...UMMM...YIKES!!!!! As a photographer, I generally rely on my eyes to see things that would make a great picture. I'm sure I could use ONE eye and still be a photographer, BUT I still think it might've been kinda hard. We are so thankful God provided and allowed us to see the doctor just in time in order to get my medicine. God provides for his children. He knows what we need even before we ask.

Anyway, our Christmas was great! The Barnhart family did their usual Christmas tradition. Christmas Eve, Mom's birthday, dinner at the Bavarian Inn in Frankenmuth, then off to Bronner's to check out all the ornaments, and then off to some Christmas Eve service. This was Brian's first time attending a Barnhart Christmas Tradition. haha...poor guy. I think he was in shock when he first stepped inside the Bavarian Inn to eat lunch/dinner. I can't really explain this place to anyone. (I've also found that I have a hard time explaining my elementary/high school and college experience at Pensacola Christian College to anyone...really, only those who have been through it know what we are talking about) Anyway, it's a Bavarian themed restaurant where the servers dress is knee socks and other garb I don't know how to say. The walls are very brightly colored and well...it's just weird. But, we like it! We've been going since before I was born.

The pictures below are just a few of my favorite that happened over Christmas break.

Mom, pretending I'm not there with my camera in her face.

Mandy, humoring me.

My dad, also humoring me.

My husband, tired of humoring me.

David being dragged into the picture to also humor me.

My mom, moments away from pulling off Santa's beard and dashing all the hopes and dreams of every child (and brother's named David) in the room.

These little plastic German boy and girl that come in our frozen yogurt and how we'd all remember Nanni collecting all of ours and taking them home with her.

The side of the restaurant from where we were sitting.

The view into the restaurant where our table was. (sidenote: this place has like FIVE other rooms for eating and they are all themed.)

Ok, this is NOT a favorite. This is a creepy doll face.

Bronner's, where it's Christmas ALL. YEAR. LONG.

Dad and a plastic Santa number 54 (There are thousands in this store).

This picture shows 2% of what the rest of the store looks like.

A Mermaid themed Christmas tree. Creepy? yes.

One of the many halls where ornaments are found.

I LOVE this picture!

I played with different Bokeh's in this store. It was perfect for playing with the Bokeh on my camera. (Bokeh - where you can get your camera to blur out the background in a picture. Sometimes you can get the background to be blurry circles, stars, hearts, etc...it's make the foreground of the picture stand out more.)

Bokeh.

Jolly Bokeh.

Perfect example of Bokeh. (notice the blurry circles? That's Bokeh.)

Brian copying Santa number 987.

Santa number 987 blushing whilst I kiss his rosey cheek.

Jack (my buddy) looking from the outside in.

Mandi's very festive cake she made for my mom's bday.

Singing Happy Birthday...off key.

THIS PICTURE! done. (she'll kill me when she finds out it's up, but I couldn't resist)

Jack, when he get's punished. He has to go down the basement. But he's smart enough to use the cat door to peek out...and actually get his WHOLE body out of the door.