‘Tis the season for giving!! It has always been my favorite part of the holidays. I’m glad to be back east with the snow, and I am truly grateful for our wonderful family here and in California. Life is good ; ) This is the time of year when we get to send our tokens of appreciation to our loved ones, and others who may be less fortunate than ourselves. This year Erik and I donated to two of our favorite charities. Erik chose the Child’s Play Charity for video games for kids in hospitals. Since video games bring Erik so much joy, he wanted to make sure no child goes without this holiday season. I chose the San Francisco SPCA because that is where we adopted two of our amazing cats. If you have ever been to the SF SPCA you will know how lovingly they treat the animals they protect. Most of the animals are kept in “condos” instead of tiny cages, and they are showered with human contact.

We adopted Arthur from there many years ago now. He was an adult with little known of his history. He is a manx, and was born without a tail.

And Yoshi, who is a siamese mix. Yosh and his sister were abandoned at 5 weeks old and were saved by the SF SPCA.

Our other cat, Mocha, didn’t come from the SPCA – a friend of mine is a breeder of Burmese and had to retire Mocha. She needed a loving home where she could get constant attention. But I couldn’t leave her out of this post!

There is so much to be grateful for! Thank you to all of the new friends we have made this year.

If you are thinking of donating this year, check out this website I found which rates many charities. You can feel more confident that your money is going where it is truly needed.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Today I turned 34!! Wow. Time has flown by way too fast. I have had quite an amazing day today – we got some beautiful snow, and Erik and I got to shoot an engagement session with an awesome couple. Then Erik took me out to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Kolam in Newtown, CT. The day couldn’t have been better. I am not going to get mushy here, but I did want to say that I am so grateful for all the people who I have known a long time, and also to the people who have recently come into my life. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by so many supportive and just plain awesome people. And of course, my amazing husband Erik. Thank you for your empathy when I needed it, for the hugs when I needed them, for the jokes when I needed them, and for the support when I needed it too. Thanks for knowing what I need, when I don’t know myself ; ) And mostly, thanks for showing me that I can be at my very worst and you will love me even more. I am grateful for all that I have learned in the past 34 years – and there have been a lot of learning experiences for sure. I am looking forward to all the experiences that are to come!

On that note I will leave you with some pics of me as a kid. Please excuse the poor quality scans of really old photographs.

Here is the infamous picture that my family has laughed about for years:

And one that I love that my Dad took and developed in our darkroom.

Well, we have been back for a week, and I am sorry for not posting sooner! After a week of catching up I am ready to post some pictures from our awesome trip to Placerville, CA. Erik and I had a blast, as always, with his parents Rod & Lisa Souza, and we got to spend some time with Lauren (Erik’s sister) and our almost-3-year-old nephew Jacob. I haven’t been THAT relaxed in a very long time! Erik and I did some of our most favorite things – spending time with his family, driving around and taking lots for pictures of the beautiful scenery, eating at In-N-Out Burger (2 times), watching the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy (extended version), and catching up on sleep! We also had the opportunity to watch the extremely talented Lisa Souza in action – she is one UH-mazingly gifted artist (there will be a future post with images of her at work). Lisa taught me how to knit a couple of years ago, and after almost a year of not knitting, I am SO inspired to knit like crazy after seeing all of her awesome colorways. Yes, I saw her entire stash all in one place – in the guest house/studio where we slept. A color-freaks dream ; ) This is what I do in the off season. Erik plays video games.

On our first day there we headed in to “town” and Erik and I were so amazed to see how much Jake has grown. He didn’t forget us, thank goodness ; )

Jake was trying on hats – his Uncle Erik ended up buying him this one.

We got to play some ball! Here is Lauren sending it home:

Rod:

and Jake!

He eventually figured out that it is easier to hit the ball with his eyes open, but it took some practice.

Then Lisa, Rod, Erik and I drove up to Jenkinson Lake. We found this cool stump:

It was a perfect day! The sky was gorgeous. (especially with my infrared converted camera)

We were walking around a bit and saw a wolf. It was so beautiful. Unfortunately both Erik & I had on our wide lenses to shoot the landscape and we didn’t capture it. We just watched it walking around. I felt so lucky.

Then we headed up into the Sierra. It is so magical there! Here is another infrared:

The moss on the trees was incredible.

I love these trees – they feel like something out of a fantasy movie.

The views up there were breathtaking:

We passed through Silver Lake:

And then to Caples Lake. Apparently they had been draining the lake, which made for a crazy experience! There were many old stumps, and rocks and old objects (Erik found an old Bubble Up Soda bottle which was made in the 70’s) that were buried under the Lake since way back when.

A few years ago Erik and I went to see the Dorothea Lange and Pirkle Jones exhibit at the SF Moma on their documentation of Lake Berryessa before the dam was built. Mind you, the images looked very different, but the exhibit kept coming to mind…Sadly I can’t find any of the images themselves online.

It was like another world.

I will have more to post from our trip for sure. We took so many pictures ; )

Be sure to check out Lisa’s blog for her version – and you can see a picture of Erik & I “chimping“.