Christmas Letter is Done!

Once I got on a roll, it was a piece of cake! The Christmas letter is done and I have them all printed out and ready to send to some folks and have made a digitized (pdf) file to send to others. Also, I put images of the two pages of the letters on the web (Picasa) for anyone to view: page one of the Christmas letter is here and page two of the Christmas letter is here

I did it a different way this year: I created it totally in Photoshop so that it was much easier to do and I could easily include more pictures. For those that read it and look closely at the background, I put a large photo of snow-covered pines in the background (barely visible) that's one I took in the Sierra a few years ago and one of my favorites. You can see it on my web page at the Gold Country Artists Gallery website 

Our Christmas Tree

The tree is up and it looks gorgeous. Deb and her Mom do a great job decorating it. For several years now, we have been collecting the ornaments put out by The White House Historical Association (yes, that White House). The pic at the top of this blog shows the 2008 ornament and it is spectacular!

More Coming...

I'll add more about our Christmas later this week. I still have a lot to do this week and just hope I can get it all done!

Building Our Christmas Letter

I've just started our annual Christmas letter (I've already had people asking me about it: "When is it coming?"). I really enjoy creating the letter, but these last couple of years it has been mid-December or later before I have it finished. So, people get it very close to Christmas.

What's the Process?

The first thing I do is go back through all my archived photos of family that I have taken this year, which is no small task! So far, I have 12 DVD's worth of photos and another group that I haven't archived yet.

I take several thousand photos a year: some of them are family, some are for my business (WHRstudios) and for the Gallery (Gold Country Artists Gallery), some are of family, and some are just for the helluvit.

I try to pick out the photos of family (and a few other items) that I like a lot and feel that I can build our yearly "story" around.  I also have a binder with all of our past Christmas letters that I peruse to get the flavor of what I have done before.

Then, I use the photos I have chosen to build the letter.

New This Year

What will be new for this one is that I have a new blog space (this one that you are reading) so that readers of our Christmas letter can read more if they so choose (the link to this blog space will be in the letter). I like this idea because I can continue to sort of "add" to the letter through this blog.

I started this blog because I wanted a way to keep in touch with folks (albeit one-sided). I realized that those of you who read the Christmas letter are the same folks I have aimed this blog at—you are all people I want to stay in touch with in this crazy world (and it's even crazier this year!).

Yet Another Blog

If you haven't investigated blogs, I recommend it. There are so many out there—I regularly skim about 80 blogs for a total of probably 4-500 entries each week (I don't read that many, just the ones that peak my interest). Ones I like to read have to do with photography, blogs, science, the new administration coming in January, NPR, and many others.

Also, there is another blog that I created for the Gallery. That's one that I attempt to update once a week (along with this one, when I can).

And So It Goes...

So, the Christmas letter is in process and will be late in getting to everyone. And some I will send via email as a pdf file to save time and postage. Stay tuned for more info as I create our Christmas letter and get it on its way!

We're also decorating our Christmas tree (and that's another story—maybe another blog later this week!). The photo at the top of this tale is one of our beloved ornaments from our first Christmas together after we were married in 1975.

Whatever you are doing right now, please be safe out there...