Suspended from the peak of the roof (firmly attached at both sides so that the wind doesn’t carry it away) is this 18-inch snowflake. Blue icicle lights are draped across the house, white netted lights cover the 9-10 foot tall pines (bushy pines) on either side of the house. Getting a full shot of our light display at night isn’t easy, every photograph looks like a bunch of lights floating in the middle of black.

I upgraded my graphic program lastnight, I use PSP (Paint Shop Pro) formerly owned by JASC, now owned by Corel. I upgraded to PSP X (10.0), which has even more features and buttons that I need to play with. hehe! They have a couple of other programs I’m eyeballing as well. A small indiscreet program, Corel Painter Essentials, was tucked away in the folder and I doodled for a bit lastnight with my wacom tablet. I was like a kid in a candy store, playing with my new toys!

I took the girls Christmas portrait yesterday morning, it turned out really beautiful and looks so good I felt like a professional photographer for a day. I’m excited to finally work on our Christmas cards and get those out in the mail!

I resketched the dog portrait (that black poodle, Joey) yesterday, too. I plan to paint today in my small two-hour window of opportunity, so I’d better get ready for it, it comes and goes in the blink of an eye.

Happy Monday – only 12 more days until Christmas Eve!