Kristie Serra Photography Blog »

This is truly my favorite time of the year.  I love the crispness in the air, the smell of pine as I’m walking our twins to and from school (definitely a new thing for us now being in WA), holiday cookies, listening to Christmas music 24/7, the increase of spirit and generosity in people, watching my favorite Christmas movies over and over again (‘Elf’,’  ’A Christmas Story,’  ’Miracle on 34th Street,’  ’It’s a Wonderful Life’ and ‘the Holiday’), letters to Santa, fun Christmas mail and that overwhelming feeling of Christmas magic.  This year we started a new family tradition of cutting down our own Christmas tree at a local tree farm, thanks to our artificial tree not fitting on our moving truck.  Ha!  It’s funny how traditions get started.  Visiting the tree farm was such a fun and special way to start the season.  It took us hours to decide on the “perfect one,” but thankfully they had an endless supply of hot cocoa to keep us warm!

Before I leave you with a few images from our visit to the tree farm and M.and A.’s letters to Santa, I want to wish everyone a MERRY, MERRY Christmas.  I hope your holidays are filled with peace, love and joy!!  Make sure you give extra hugs to your loved ones because more than anything, we wish we could be hugging our loved ones in Florida, Georgia and Massachusetts right now!!  See you all in 2010–it’s going to be an AMAZING year!!  I can’t wait!!

And, a lot more JOLLY…

Wising everyone a wonderful day!!

As the holiday season continues to go by a million miles an hour,  I thought I’d slow down for just a minute this evening to share this beautiful and OH-SO-JOLLY family! Mom and Dad, who happen to be friends of ours, couldn’t be more wonderful and the kiddos are as fun as they come!!  I can almost hear them singing now “Fa la la la la, la la la!”

Once in a lifetime you’re blessed with a friend, a best friend, who knows you better than you know yourself. A best friend, who brings you sunshine on your darkest (or brightest) days. A best friend, who just hearing their voice makes your heart smile. There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not thanking my lucky stars for having that once in a lifetime best friend. I don’t know what I’d ever do without her and I’m hoping that I’ll never have to find out!

L. is as creative as they come and always up to something FUN!!  About two weeks ago, I received a fun package in the mail filled with 12 envelopes. I’ve had SO-MUCH-FUN opening an envelope a night the past twelve nights. Seriously, who thinks of fun things like that??  Now I have all twelve days hung on a little tree on our entry table. Tonight my twins had me sing the whole song, but using what L. had written. I was out of breath and cracking up by the time I was done!

We’ve had such a fun year, with a girl’s trip to Boston, a surprise visit to Georgia, a surprise visit to Florida and then two planned trips to each state. 3,000 miles isn’t stopping us either, we just spent a fun weekend together in Georgia while I was in town for a newborn session. Unfortunately, the Seattle winter weather came with me. It was dark, cold and rainy the entire time I was there. I was determined to make a family session work somehow, so we just went for it and we had so much fun in the process. I love this family more than anything and I was so glad we were able to get some fun shots!! I thought I’d share some favorites of my favorite family…

I hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season. It was a magical day for us today, we had our first little snow fall, okay it was just a very small amount of flakes, but this Florida family was very impressed! We watched from the window and then had to run out so M. and A. could catch snowflakes on their tongue for the first time. What a blast it was to relive some wonderful childhood memories! My childhood was spent in New England and my hubby’s was spent in Virginia, so we are ready to have snowball fights, build snow forts and go sledding! Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

I couldn’t imagine time going by any faster, but somehow it does and these little guys of mine, who haven’t been little in such a long time, turned six! We’ve been celebrating all week and let me tell you, they really know how to work the birthday angle too! After their second glass of chocolate milk or extra cookie requests get turned down, they quickly come back with, “well, it is our birthday.” I can’t say how much longer that is going to work for them, but for now, I’m still giving in. Plus, it gives me an excuse to have a second cookie too (heehee)!

I’ve been amazed at how well they’ve adjusted to a move across the country, a new home, a new school and the cold weather! And, I thought for sure not having a birthday party was going to be the end of the world, but celebrating with mom and dad turned out to be pretty awesome too!  Who knew?? The daily birthday packages and cards they’ve received from our amazing family and friends have really helped too!!

Besides the obvious changes a year brings (taller boys, longer hair), their career aspirations have slightly changed, A. who has wanted to be a race car driver for the last couple of years, asked me to look up online “how to be a ninja” and M., who has wanted to be an artist, now says he wants to be a bus driver. We’ll see what another year brings (maybe astronauts and veterinarians??). One thing that hasn’t changed though is their desire to have their pictures taken (see below). Clearly they’re impressed. HA!

Happy birthday to my sweet boys!