Last Christmas I got this cool Bokeh Kit from Photojojo. Turns out I did not have the skills to use it. 🙂 However, after a year of learning about bokeh and a bit more about how to use my camera, I decided to give it a whirl. I think this is the best photo from my first attempt. It only has a couple of lights, but it is just a better all-around photo than the others.

This photo has the best lights, but isn’t a great all-around photo.

I’m thankful that photography gives me a creative outlet, and I’m excited to play around with this technique more.

Part of my daily routine (hopefully yours, too) is brushing my teeth. This little guy holds my toothbrush for me when I’m not using it. My friend Sarah gave him to me several years ago. I love him because he reminds me of her everyday.

Living in Vienna has definitely given me an appreciation for transportation. Our city has a fantastic public transportation system. My favorite way to travel here is the Strassenbahn. You can just sit back and take in the sites of this amazing city.

OK, so I’m cheating a bit on this one. I definitely didn’t take this today. I took this 3 1/2 years ago on our honeymoon. We went to Paris where we got to see lots of great artwork. Of all the things we saw, the art we were most amazed by was Monet’s Water Lilies. These pieces are housed in the Musée de l’Orangerie which was built specifically to show them off in the best possible way. I had no idea how huge they are! I’m so thankful that we were able to go to Paris for our honeymoon and also thankful that we were able to see incredible artwork like this.

Today we celebrated Thanksgiving with the senior class. It was a great time! I’m grateful that we got to celebrate with these students who will be scattered around the globe in the coming year. It was fun to share an American tradition with them, and it was wonderful to hear the things they are grateful for.

One of the traditions at our house is the Thanksgiving Turkey. Each year, every person we celebrate with writes down what they are grateful for and places it as a feather in the Thanksgiving Turkey. We have a Thanksgiving journal where we write down who we spent Thanksgiving with and where we celebrated. Each year I glue all the turkey feathers into the book so that we can look back at who we’ve shared this celebration with as well as the many ways we’ve been blessed over the years.

The students had the great idea of creating a thankfulness tree to keep in their homeroom classroom as a reminder of all they are thankful for. This picture is of our Thanksgiving Turkey with everyone’s feathers, and my leaf before it got glued to the tree.

Yes, my closet is organized by color. Anyone who knows me is most likely not at all shocked by that. Anyway, I am really grateful for clothing. I’m grateful that this past summer when we were in the States I got to buy some cute new clothes that I love.

As I was thinking about being grateful for clothing, I though about taking a picture of my comfy green sweatshirt, or my favorite shoes, or one of my nerdy t-shirts. Then I thought about which clothes I’m really grateful for, and I thought about some of the things I have that belonged to my grandmother. When my grandma passed away, my mom and I had to spend some time cleaning out her closet. One of the things, well four pairs of things actually, that my mom gave to me were my grandma’s dress gloves. I don’t wear them very often because I really am a jeans and t-shirt kinda gal, but when I do get dressed up, I’m grateful that I get to wear something that reminds me of someone I love so much.

Well, I’m away from my camera for a few days (Gasp!), but I want to keep on being grateful, so I’m using a picture that’s about a month old to tell a little gratitude story. Each year our school has a four-day weekend sometime in October. Normally during Fall Break, Matt and I stay in Vienna and enjoy our amazing city. This year we thought we’d go somewhere, but frankly, we were too lazy to get it done. I mentioned to Matt that maybe we could camp in our living room, and it would be like going somewhere new. After we blew up our air mattress only to discover it had sprung a leak, my ever-amazing husband transformed our couch cushions and a bunch of comforters and pillows into a living room campsite. We had a great four days of movies, games, pajamas, and urban camping. So awesome! I’m thankful for creativity and a husband who’s willing to be a little spontaneous.

I do love this time of year. Starting with Thanksgiving and running right on through the New Year. I think the thing that I enjoy is that it’s a focused time of being thankful and spending time with those we love. Yesterday we got to work at our church’s annual bazaar. It’s one of my favorite things each year. We get to raise money for our church, and while we’re working we get to see lots of people that we don’t see very often. My favorite booth to work is the Christmas cracker booth. If you don’t know what a Christmas cracker is, you can watch this little video: We’re Crackers About Christmas Crackers. Christmas crackers are a great British tradition that we’ve incorporated into our holiday celebrations. I love working this booth and getting to explain to folks what the crackers are all about. Plus, I get to work with my husband and my friend Nicki, which is always fun. These are the crackers we bought for this year. I think they’re pretty. 🙂