Several weeks ago, my family celebrated Christmas according to the old Julian calendar.  Holidays can be a very stressful time for most people, but with a little care and a lot of patience, they can also be a lot of fun.  The New Year brought a lot of promise and joy for me, but sometimes changes are needed to keep that momentum going.

If you’ve ever been to my site before, you’ll know how much I enjoy photography.  It’s something I’ve been doing on and off since high school and even though I have a way to go, I’m definitely getting better and better at it.  However, my equipment was in desperate need of upgrading.  This is partly due to the outdated technology of my old DSLR, but I was also beginning to have some technical problems that were threatening my ability to take and retrieve photos.

So, I decided it was time to get something new.  I haven’t followed the world of photography equipment lately so I can’t honestly say that I understand what’s going on with the current models for sale, but I settled on the Nikon D7200 as a good replacement for my old Nikon D70s.  I have some learning to do with all the new features, but I’m definitely enjoying it so far.

Last year, I picked up the ukulele again.  I learned this adorable little instrument back in elementary school, but its resurgence in pop culture has been hard to ignore and this mini beast started calling me again.  Unfortunately, I had to relearn from scratch as we learned D-tuning ukulele in school and C-tuning is now the norm, but it’s hardly a difficult switch to make as it’s an incredibly easy instrument to pick up.

Now that I’m playing more both at home and at twice monthly jams, I wanted to try something a tad different.  I’d seen the various types of ukuleles at the jams and decided that I wanted a tenor ukulele.  So guess what my brother got me for Christmas?  A lovely tenor ukulele!  I definitely enjoy the thicker fretboard and it’s so much louder than my soprano.  So wonderful!

Of course, no discussion of a holiday season would be complete without a discussion about the food.  And wow, was there ever a lot of it!  I would elaborate, but I think the picture says it all!

In the process of playing with all my new toys, my mom got a chance to try one of her presents after Christmas.  After all that feasting, you have to get out and burn some of that chocolate and butter off, right?  We headed to the Forestry Farm on the earliest free day after the holidays and she got a chance to snowshoe for the first time in almost 30 years.

I hope everyone else had as wonderful of a holiday season as my family and I did!