{"id":17276,"date":"2011-12-07T10:59:24","date_gmt":"2011-12-07T15:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/?p=17276"},"modified":"2012-04-30T06:25:25","modified_gmt":"2012-04-30T11:25:25","slug":"photo-tree-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/photo-tree-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Florence, SC Lifestyle Photographer: {Personal Post} Photo Tree 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love making a big production out of the whole tree decorating thing. Pajamas, hot chocolate, Christmas carols, happy children who don’t fuss with one another or their parents. Ha. It never works out the way I imagine it will in my mind. It’s okay, though, because usually reality turns out to be better. I had it in my head that we would decorate our photo tree this past Friday night. I would bake cookies with the kids all afternoon all June Cleaver-esque, we would go to the tree lot as a family and select the perfect tree, we would bring it home and my completely non-stressed out husband would get the tree situated in the tree stand and wrap the tree in lights just the way I wanted it. Kids would happily put on the Christmas pajamas that I had selected and then we would decorate the tree for the next couple of hours, happily munching on the homemade cookies and sipping homemade hot chocolate. Straight out of a Holiday Hallmark Special. HAHAHAHA. I make myself laugh.<\/p>\n

Where did I think I would find the time for an afternoon of cookie baking? How on earth <\/em>did I think my dear husband would not be stressed out from getting 3592 Christmas orders together? I also didn’t take into account the fact that my little loves had stuffed their sweet little faces with mini-cupcakes at the Sweet Grand Opening all afternoon and now had tummy aches from too much goodness. Friday night didn’t go as I thought it would, but it was fun anyway. The tree was selected, brought home and strung with lights. Collin humored my little tree decorating fantasy even though I’m quite sure there were a bajillion other things he needed to be doing. A few of our photo ornaments were hung, but not too long after we started it was determined that children MUST be put to bed. Our little lovelies definitely needed some sleep to find their happy and sweet spirits.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"The tree sat halfway decorated until Sunday after church. Collin and I had a much needed date night on Saturday while Mak and CB had a good overnight bonding session with my parents. Gracious, I have no idea what we would do without family. We decorated for a couple of hours Sunday afternoon and I kind of got my little Hallmark Holiday Special fantasy. No pajamas. No glowy warm fire. No homemade Christmas cookies. But there were happy kids and a much less-stressed dad which made for a happy momma. And cupcakes from Sweet. Which is WAY better than any homemade goody that would have come out of my kitchen.<\/p>\n

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This countdown placemat should actually say “days til Ma-Ma and Pa-Pa…” because that’s what Mak and CB are most looking forward to. Collin’s parents are coming for Christmas this year and we are all SO EXCITED. I can’t wait to have them here with us on Christmas morning to see Mak and CB’s faces and share the day with us!<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"No homemade hot cocoa this year. At least not yet. Maybe later in the season. I’ve learned to pick my battles and make time for the things that really matter. Homemade hot cocoa wasn’t tops on the list that day.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

This one makes me laugh. Give me my cupcake NOW, and get the camera out of my face.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Pretty sure my little Mr. and Mrs. Snowman mugs are some of the cutest things EVER. Go to Tomlinsons to get your own. And they’re so inexpensive…like $4.50 or something, I think. {Shameless family business plug}<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Miss CB is in the process of learning how to eat without messing up her lipgloss. Girlfriend is growing up and starting to worry about girly things. Momma’s not ready.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"It didn’t take long to throw lady-likeness out the window and dig into that egg nog cupcake. =)<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Cupcakes and cocoa gone, now it was time to move on to the tree decorating. This is our third year for the photo tree and I love it SO much. It’s so much fun looking back over the year and seeing through photos how the kids have changed. Judging from the photos, camping was a big thing for the Smiths this year. I like that. =)<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"This kid is Hilarious. Pretty much every photo of him on the tree makes me laugh. I am so blessed that he’s mine.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"It was a fun afternoon. Y’all need to remind me to learn to let go of the details and preconceived notions. ‘Cause reality is way better. Merry Christmas, Y’all!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love making a big production out of the whole tree decorating thing. Pajamas, hot chocolate, Christmas carols, happy children who don’t fuss with one another or their parents. Ha. It never works out the way I imagine it will in my mind. It’s okay, though, because usually reality turns out to be better. I...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"pp_embeds":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,30,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ac-life","category-lifestyle","category-our-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17276"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17323,"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17276\/revisions\/17323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}