A Little Christmas This and That

I read an online tutorial on how to take pictures of your Christmas tree where the lights look like shining stars, so after the kids were in bed last night I set up the tripod and took a few shots of our tree.  In the process, I noticed that one strand of lights on our tree was...different.

Oh, wow...it's like the difference between a regular light bulb and the clear white ones.  They are very luminescent, and I never would have noticed the difference in the bulbs if I hadn't taken a picture.  One strand is VERY white, while the rest of the lights are a bit more on the yellow side.  I thought it was funny.  They're quite blinding.

James and I both have colds (for lack of a better word), and so we stayed home from church last night.  I can avoid touching people and coughing on them, but James certainly can't.  I took a few picture of him playing with his Legos by the tree, and for the sake of a photographic moment, he was allowed to touch the tree.

I made that picture extra large so you could see all the Christmas lights reflected in James' eyes.  KJ will appreciate that.  We were talking a few days ago about how Tolkien wrote that Galadriel's eyes looked as if they had several shining lights in them.  (KJ will have to inform me of the exact wording, because I don't know.)  But he was telling me how when they filmed the movie they used strands of Christmas lights to create that effect.  I didn't intend to do that with James, but I noticed his sparkling eyes this morning when I pulled the picture up on the computer.  Very elvish.

In other Christmas-related news, I got our Christmas cards in the mail last night, and I am really excited about how they turned out!  I was slightly nervous, because I tried a new company, and it took me an entire afternoon of adjusting the size of the card and re-loading the picture to get it just right.  Whew.  But it looks nice after all.  

And in closing, I'm going to be taking some advice from Elisabeth Elliot today.

Do you understand what is going on in the invisible realm

of your life with God?  Do you see how the visible things relate

to the hidden Plan and Purpose?  Probably not....

But you do see at least one thing, maybe a very little thing,

that He wants you to do.  

"Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult

[other translations say too hard, too wonderful]

for you or beyond your reach.  It is not up in heaven...

nor is it beyond the sea...no, the word is very near you;

it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it"

(Deuteronomy 30:11-14, NIV).

Let it suffice you, as it sufficed Mary, to know that God knows.

If it's time to work, get on with your job.  If it's time to go to bed,

go to sleep in peace.  Let the Lord of the Universe do the worrying.

from "Keep a Quiet Heart"