Janine Boyd Photography » It's All Good

I think I’m pretty sure I foretold of my inability to keep up with self-enforced deadlines and daily photo projects, so I won’t go on about it now. There are genuine and legitimate reasons for not keeping up and it’s really only the blogging of the photos that I’m behind with. I have been taking pictures most days and trying to capture a true picture of what’s going on in our lives this Christmas.

To say it’s not the usual December frivolities wouldn’t even begin to describe what we’ve been dealing with. But it is true what they say – life does, indeed, go on. And there have been lessons learnt along the way. So the following pictures are a visual journey of my past week. Please forgive me for not elaborating on each photo but most are fairly self-explanatory and others may have some witty comment attached just for the sheer heck of it!

letters to Santa are safely on their way with great conviction that their ‘excellent’ behaviour will get them all the Lego and football gear they desire!

the definite nip in the air has arrived and necessitated the annual clearing out of hats and gloves. I’ve been particularly loving overhearing irate conversations about the state of the weather and absence of gritters as folk tell their tales of slipping all over the place on their way to work. Perhaps they failed to notice the last 2 winters and are unaware that the weather will be baltic until April!

this is a paltry photo all on its lonesome, but what pretty vampires! (Vampire Diaries – it’s my new obsession!)

Michael and I enjoyed a spot of Christmas shopping in Belfast this week. I love the new arcs and banners on Royal Avenue celebrating some of the greatest ships ever to come out of this city. I also love Starbucks gingerbread lattes and cranberry and orange muffins! Look at the little muffin alien face!

Thursday was officially Christmas tree day. That it was a tad late only made it all the more fun choosing and decorating it. One of my favourite parts of the season is the unearthing of all the decorations that come out each year to adorn the tree – those that we’ve had for years and those we bought half price last year in the garden centre sale. It’s tradition, it reeks of memories of past Christmases, it’s joyful and magical and just so much fun!

this is what I’m referring to as the ‘self-portrait experience’ series of shots. I hate self-portraits but it occurred to me that I’m in shockingly few of the December photos so far so I had no choice but to take matters into my own hands. These were done with the timer – can you tell?! I am particularly proud of the top one of just my weird looking hand creeping into the top left of the frame!

You’ve got to love the through the tree shots!

I wanted to document a bit of the festive decorating aside from the tree. There is barely a surface left untouched, between candles, advent calendars and books. The bottom of these pictures really just about sums up my life  - Jesus, Twilight and Agatha Christie! I’m not even bothered about the picture I am painting of myself because, you know, there’s not one of those parts of me that I don’t feel passionately about and will gladly talk about in an animated fashion!

Ah, Gisela Graham Christmas accessories, how I love you all!

and this is why my documentation is not always up to date. This place is teaching us so many things right now, about family, faith, priorities and patience. For those lessons I will be eternally grateful, but learning them this way is incredibly difficult. I know so many of you have been praying for my dad’s recovery and I wanted to say thank you, from all of us. You have no idea what your support, from just across the ring road to the far reaches of the world, has meant to us. And will continue to mean to us in the coming days and weeks. We are blessed in ways none of us ever realised before.

My mum has, however, complained on the journeys to and from the hospital that we need a new cd for the car because we are always playing this one from the lovely Kate Rusby. It is Christmas loveliness like you’ve never known! If it’s new to you I can’t recommend it highly enough. Go on, have a listen and see if you can refrain from downloading it!

Edited: I can’t get the video to show here but you can see it here.

It’s been an odd day today and I have no photos to show why. Suffice to say my dad underwent major surgery to remove tumours in his liver and bowel. While he did that, my sister and I took my mum shopping in Belfast where I managed to buy nothing other than a bottle of (very cool magnetic) nail polish! Thankfully the surgery went entirely according to plan and he is through the worst with a very positive prognosis. But it was a weird experience.

In the back of my head the whole time, however, were thoughts about how I was ever going to be ready for the charity craft evening that a few friends and I had organised for tonight. Admittedly the timing was less than ideal, but I’m so glad we went ahead and did it. I have some amazingly talented friends who make everything from jewellery to paper mache, and cushions to applique pictures. Which meant that not only did we get to admire and buy each other’s creations, but we had tip top festive fun with a lot of other amazing friends and family! And raised some lovely money for Christians Against Poverty, our chosen charity. They do such an incredible work helping people out of debt – you should really visit their website and read some of the stories of lives transformed. A-maz-ing! Anyway, I have only a few photos of the evening as I was having too much fun just being part of it all. So this is all I have for today. But that’s two days under my belt and I’m feeling good about this December daily malarkey!

I’ve pondered the title of this post long and hard and can’t help but feel it needs a bi-line and a bit of explanation. Many of you who read Ali Edwards‘ blog will be most familiar with the idea of the December Daily. It’s a way of documenting the festive season through photographs, written thoughts, bits and bobs you pick up along the way and pretty scrapbooking papers and embellishments. It’s a truly great concept and every year I faithfully follow Ali as she puts together an amazing book celebrating her family’s Christmas. And every year I put myself under silly amounts of pressure to do the same. And I fail. Epically! My bi-line for the blog post should read “December Daily – well I can but try!” I have any number of half finished December Daily books hidden in my study. Hidden because they make me feel guilty. Guilty for not documenting everything; for leaving projects half finished; for not using all the great ideas I had.

Last year I couldn’t bear the guilt before I started, so I just did nothing. And this year I haven’t given it much thought. Until tonight, when I decided I want to do something to document our Christmas season but without putting unnecessary pressure on myself. There’s enough stress going on in our lives right now without me adding to it myself, but I fancy that a bit of creative something could be just the thing to give me the balance I so desperately want at this time of year. And so I shall bring you my own version of the December Daily here on the blog. Now, just to let you know, I am notoriously appalling at sticking to photo projects, so if I manage to get as far as next week I’m going to be calling it a success!

In a bid to make life even easier I’m going to ‘allow’ myself to use phone shots as well as camera shots. I don’t believe there’s a rule book anywhere that says camera shots don’t capture real life, and since real life is what I want to document I guess a lot of my images will come via the phone. Plus I just can’t help my instagram addiction! So without further ado, let me share what December 1 2011 looked like.

December came crashing to my attention at 2.30 am when Conor woke and was violently sick all over the bed. Obviously this happened on a night that Michael was working until 3 am, so the whole bed changing/mattress turning was left to me and my gammy shoulder. I then got to enjoy a restless night of Conor not really sleeping beside me. He’s never been sick with a tummy bug before, and while there are endless lists of things to hate about having sick children, I can’t help but feel that I scored big time today with the sick boy cuddles I got. Check them out! He actually fell asleep on my knee after lunch for the first time in a couple of years. I had nothing important to do so I just sat there and let him sleep, until the postman arrived and I had to sign for a parcel. I enjoyed a full hour of tiny snuggled in because only mummy would do today. I sucked every last drop of that hour in, I can tell you! Sick smells and all!

In the moments when Conor was feeling a bit chirpier we began our festive preparations. Elving is what we’re calling it this year, with a nod to Soule Mama for such a lovely verb. Paper chains were the order of the day. Simple and fun. And decidedly Christmassy once we got them up. I later added a few lights and small trees and decorations in preparation for a little craft soiree a few friends and I are hosting tomorrow evening. All in all not a bad day’s work given the circumstances. The boys’ highlight was the first door on their Lego City advent calendar – a criminal with a snowball who is now waiting for someone to aim it at coming out of another door soon!

So how was December 1 for you? Do leave a comment because I’m that nosey and I would love to know!