One of My Own: Blushing Clouds

I was going to save this for later, but then I thought " What am I waiting for?" Anyway, this was taken from my window in my bedroom. It's like the clouds have a crush on the sun or something... Clouds, I know how you feel. ;)

Maroc: A Magical Site in Marrakech

I found this picture this morning while browsing through Bloggers in Morocco. It's of the magical, beautiful, most amazing place I can think to be right now, Jamaa El Fna. I have no idea who took it, but I found it here. I've asked who the photographer was, but it doesn't look like this blogger is very attentive to his blog right now. Anyway, it's a magical picture, I love it. I wish to be there with all my heart. Soon inshallah, that dream will be reality. I'm so excited!!!

One of My Own: Christmas Morning

This is what Christmas Morning is all about. Three very happy, very smilie little girls. I love that, seeing little kids smile. It's a wonderful thing to see and a wonderful feeling to know that I helped make them happy like that. They got everything they wanted, I got what I wanted, and actually everyone got what they wanted, and we all had fun throwing paper at eachother and making eachother laugh. Needless to say, we had a wonderful time although, we started WAY late.

Check out my Holiday06 set on Flickr for more Christmas photos and also the photos from the rest of my holiday season.

One of My Own: Oh Christmas Tree

So I was awake at 9:15 this morning, and it's 10:07 and my brother has still not brought his butt across the street. Go figure. So we're waiting for he and his girlfriend to get here before we open presents. Hurry up, Jeremy!!

Ok so while I'm waiting, I'll post a pic that I took this morning at like 4:15 or something, when we finally were done wrapping and had brought everything down to the living room. Look at the twinkling lights!! And all those presents! Should be a *wonderful* morning. *BIG SMILES*

Family: Christmas Traditions

As the tradition goes, Christmas morning, we wake up and make sure everyone is awake(including the brother who lives across the street) and gather in our living room, we read the Christmas Story out of Luke 2 (which can be torture for small children, sadly), and open presents. That last bit, opening presents, can be good, bad, hectic and wonderful all at the same time, but we all know it can be our favorite part( yes, yes, beside eating, but that comes later). It is my favorite part, not because I get things, but because we are all together and being a family. Sure, some of us are a little grumpy, tired and really want to go back to bed, but we all still are enjoying ourselves. We get comfy, exchange gifts, throw wrapping paper at each other, laugh- a lot and are all in the "spirit if Christmas". Love between the family is really shown on this day, and that is what makes it one of the best holidays of the year.

2 yrs ago we celebrated partially at home, and partly at Alexian Brothers Hospital because my mom was sick with rapidly spreading cancer. We brought the same dinner we were eating at home to the hospital for her to enjoy too. The best part of that day was seeing her smile when we brought it in on Nortaki blue flowered china, her Christmas present. She enjoyed her Christmas dinner with her whole family. We packed into her hospital room in in shifts. The kids living at home, then my oldest sister's family, and finally my oldest brother's family. We all saw her and then rejoined in our house, her house. We enjoyed each other so much that Christmas, even though we were away from her, we still had Christmas just the way we would have if she was there.

Last year we spent our first Christmas without her. We tried to keep it together, keep each tradition just as she would. But still, it wasn't the same. She was the one who always made it the best holiday ever. She MADE Christmas, and every holiday, like no one else could. I see more and more that it is definitely true, the saying: " You don't know what you have until it's gone", so so true. We all took her for granted, what she did, who she was. We never realized how much she did, and how she did it. But what I think was our saving grace is that we each learned from her and loved her more than most people who take others for granted. It's not possible to ever recreate the feeling she gave us on Christmas or everyday for that matter, but I have learned that every thing she had taught me each day and each time I helped in the kitchen and each time she showed me something, was all preparation for when we wouldn't be together anymore. And I'm thankful for that. She was a wonderful, "Supermom", and I'm glad that she taught me most of what she knew. It helps me to be able to keep her memory alive, in my mind and in the minds of my brothers and sisters.

Now this wasn't a blog to damper spirits on Christmas Eve, only to tell you to be sure to enjoy every minute with your love ones, especially your mom.

It's one of the hardest things for me to do now, spend Christmas without my mom. With time it is getting better, but still it will never be the same. I miss her, we all miss her, so much, but we are ok, we have come a long way in 2 yrs, we have come to realize that we have each other and we can love each other and it's ok.

We have changed the tradition this year. We will be sharing our day with my dad's new wife, Esther. We are attending a service at 10pm and tomorrow morning we will just say a prayer. Graciously sparing the children from having to sit through all of Luke chapter 2 and will and then open presents. Also, instead of me trying to handle all the decorating and cooking myself(the same way mom did), Jeremy(and Beata), Jennifer(and Scott), and Hope are cooking and Esther will also be doing something small. The point is that we are all helping each other, working as a team, the way we should. Oh, how we've grown :)

One tradition I don't ever intend on giving up, wrapping presents until all hours on Christmas Eve. I think It's my favorite tradition ever. I used to do it with my mom, but Hope has been the one to take her place. I enjoyed it very much with my mom and still do with my sister.

Well, enough of my going on and on, time to wrap something ;)

More tomorrow~

One of My Own: Christmas Shopping

I thought I'd share a picture I took on Wednesday at Oakbrook Mall. I thought it may festivize(yes, I just made up that word) my blog a little. The clarity is not perfect or anything, but I still like it. Thank you, Hope, for suggesting I take this picture. I think it turned out relatively well for a night shot with no flash and a tired hand. Haha, I shopped so much that day, but I had just bought something for my habibi so I was quite cheery, even though I was tired.

Anyway, it's Christmas Eve, and I'm thinking I better tend to some of the presents awaiting wrapping paper and bows.

Ps. I'll be posting a Holiday '06 album on Flickr soon. Right now, the mass uploader isn't working right *grrr*.

One of My Own: Starbucks

This is one of my favorite pictures that I have ever taken. Mostly because it's of the Starbucks logo(I'm addicted to Starbucks, for those of you who don't know). There isn't really a story behind this picture, except that I was in downtown Indy at Starbucks in Monument Circle. I was drinking a Green Tea Frap and staring at the reflection in this window. I love sunlight and sky shots and my first thought was to take a picture of the sky in the reflection of the window but then I noticed that it would be cool to grab the logo as well. This is how it turned out, and it was great because I got the monument as well.

This Is It

This is the moment I've been waiting for, for a while. Finally I have made the desicion to leave my MSN Spaces blog to the dust and create a blog with a little more sophictocation, or so I hope. For now it will be plain black to set off whatever pics I may post, but later I'll spruce it up a little, once I figure out how to work everything in the HTML dept. I may need to get my boyfriend or my brother's help in that, considering they know quite a bit about such technical things. Thankfully tho i'm learning from them and I can do a bit on my own, but it's nice to have them to ask when I get "lost".

Anyway, now that I've been rambling on for a while with no real aim, this blog is to "show off" my photography, old and new, and also maybe some pictures I find from various websites of photographers I respect, or at least who's work I find cool.

To kick it off, because I'm in love with Morocco, with all things Moroccan and with an amazing man, you guessed it, who's Moroccan :-D, I'm going to post some pictures that I have collaged of Djemaa el Fna in Marrakech, Morocco. They are beautiful shots!