Our 2024 Christmas Tree
Our Christmas tree for 2024 in our den. This photo was from December 23, when all of the gifts were wrapped and placed under the tree, because we would start opening them the next day.
Yes, Christmas was a couple of weeks ago now, but I am still catching up on the Christmas posts. It was a busy holiday season, not that I am complaining about it. And besides, this photo is being posted on the 12th Day of Christmas. So instead of 12 drummers drumming, you get one Christmas tree photo. I am not sure where you would put those 12 drummers, anyway.
Laura and the Tree
And here is Laura in front of the Christmas tree a day later, the morning of Christmas Eve. Laura loves the Christmas tree, as do I, so I took this photo of her in front of the tree. You can’t quite see all of the gifts in this photo, but they are still there.
A Busy Season
Sometimes it seems like November and December go by so quickly that we do not have time to stop and enjoy the holidays. We have to buy gifts, wrap gifts, go to different Christmas events, cook food, go to the actual Christmas gatherings, and who knows what else.
In our house, we sometimes do not have much time to just sit and enjoy the Christmas tree until Christmas is actually over. At least Christmas Day is over, but the Christmas season lasts a little longer than just Christmas Day for us.
Slow times are a blessing sometimes. It is good to have things to do, places to go, and people to do them with, and we are blessed with all of that. But I sometimes look forward to the blessing of nothing to do, even if sometimes you have to actually put off doing something to have that time of nothing to do.
Sometimes I hear people, mainly youngsters, complain about being bored. If you change your focus to be able to enjoy the blessings of downtime, you will never be bored.
Sometimes, it is all about perspective.
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. - Colossians 3:23-24 ESV
About the Photos
Yes, I know the Christmas tree is not centered in the first photo. That is because there is a doorway to the left, just out of the photo, and if we had stacked up all the gifts symmetrically, we could not have walked in the door. So the photo is centered more on the gifts than the tree.
I used my zoom lens at its widest angle for the Christmas tree photo, but then I switched to the 35mm prime lens for the photo of Laura, so that I could get the depth of field look that I wanted. I used a long exposure and a tripod for the nighttime Christmas tree photo, but I did not need that for the daytime photo of Laura.
I also did a lot of post-processing work on the Christmas tree photo to get the colors like I wanted them to look, mainly because the light from the lamp on top of the piano at the right was somewhat overpowering things.
Photo: Each photo is a single Raw exposure, processed in Raw Therapee and GIMP.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 II
Lens: Sony FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS and Rokinon 35mm f/1.8
Date: December 23 and 24, 2023
Location: Williston, Tennessee
