A White Christmas in Virginia.

I spent this Christmas with my sister and her family down in snowy Virginia! Here are a few pictures from my visit along with a list of highlights...

Chocolate Pie.

Scrabble with Jenny.

The first big snowstorm since 1989.

Hearing Gretchen say, "I wished really hard mamma and I got everything I wished for!!" on Christmas Day.

Jonathan getting his RC hovercraft.

Clearing snow off of cars with a leaf blower.

Hearing Adaline ask for privacy in the bathroom.

Playing ACT with Gretchen before bed.

Snow angels.

Prepping for Santa's arrival.

Snuggling.

Oliver sharing, (after all that crying) that he was angry that he couldn't bring his train to bed.

Watching Gretchen be an angel in the Christmas Pageant.

Silent Nights & Time-Outs for adults.

Watching Jenny create her money-saving strategy. Amazing.

Dinosaur Train!

Watching the Sound of Music. Twice.

Watching: The Digital Story of Nativity or Christmas, 2.0.

Running errands with Jenny. Our solo missions are few and far between these days. I treasure those ordinary moments.

Oh, I sat next to NBC's Washington Correspondent, Lisa Meyers on my flight home. Fun!

I'm sure there is lots more but, I'll leave it at that for now!

See you next year! xoxo

Art for art's sake.

A few weeks ago, I received a call from Robert at Burlington College who is teaching a seminar on photography as a vocation. He had invited a number of Vermont based photographers to visit his class to share some of their own photography related experiences. He called JDK looking for someone who could provide his class with an alternative perspective on the industry. FYI: There is almost nothing I despise more than public speaking--I'm a behind the scenes gal! After some thought, I accepted the invitation. Thankfully, I'm comfortable talking about what I do. The twist was talking to a group of college students. I wasn't 100% sure what was going to be useful and relevant to them. The day of my college visit came. I ended up being so busy at work that day that the idea of speaking to a class seemed like a welcomed change from my non-stop work day. I filled the hour pretty easily...showing images from past projects, sharing stories of shoots gone awry and answering some questions along the way.

About a week ago, I received another call from Robert. I was invited back to the same class to review some of the work the students were producing for their final project. I had the opportunity to see some great images and hear the students explain the rationale behind their concepts. Some photography classes teach students how to push a button but, the kids in this class are considering what's in their photos, why they've captured it and what it means to the audience.

It was refreshing to experience photography out of the context of JDK. I love photography--my job wouldn't exist without it. When things get as busy as they've been, it's easy to slip into auto pilot and work to get the image you're supposed to get--the one that's going to work the hardest for the client. Art that sells something and art for art's sake are two very different things. This visit was a nice reminder to relax and enjoy the experience of seeing an image with no commercial motive.

Productivity.

Principle 6: Devote Time
No matter how capable or gifted we may be, it’s an illusion to think we can do it all. We can do anything, but not everything. At every moment, we’re presented with infinite possibilities — we really could be doing anything! But freedom to do whatever we set our sights on comes at a price, and the price is that we need to constantly make choices about what really matters to us. These choices, at the most fundamental level, always boil down to how we allocate and spend our time. The value of our achievements is primarily determined by what we consistently invest our time in. We need to be aware of that every day, diligently investing the time in what matters and letting the unimportant stuff go.

Principle 5: Focus Your Attention
If the previous principle was about allocating time for the things that matter, this one is about how well you’re able to spend that time. Very often it seems we just can’t concentrate, even though we know what we should be doing, right? Resistance, procrastination, allowing ourselves to get sidetracked by distractions: these are formidable obstacles even for the most resolute people. Developing a strategy for overcoming resistance and dealing with distractions, then, is essential for maximum productivity.

Principle 4: Honor Commitments
Personal productivity is not about cramming as much stuff as we possibly can in our days. The feeling of being productive comes not from the quantity of tasks we do, but from honoring the commitments we set for ourselves. Doing what we said we would do is what we should primarily strive for. Tasks that keep being left undone in our to do lists are broken promises to ourselves, and are a sure recipe for frustration: no matter how much we do in our days, we’ll always look at them and feel bad about ourselves. Before trying to get more stuff done, make sure you honor your current promises (to yourself and to others): Be clear about them, drop those that you know you won’t be able to honor and then ensure that you really complete the ones that remain.

Principle 3: Develop a Sustainable Pace
We need to strike a balance between work and play — between engagement and rest, between creation and recreation. In the productivity game we should take our leisure time as seriously as our work time. Even if we feel energetic and motivated to work long hours, the most effective long-term strategy is to hold ourselves back when feeling too enthusiastic and follow a sustainable pace instead. Also, defining clear boundaries between work and rest is very important: “Work when you’re working, rest when you’re resting”, I often say. Whenever I forget this, I end up in a very ineffective ‘not-quite-working/not-quite-resting’ zombie-like state.

Principle 2: Keep Moving On
More important than setting big goals is to just keep going. Now, what does work for me is to constantly think about how to improve my life and define little steps to make it happen. Think continuous improvement. Take small steps and see how things change. Experiment. Sure, it’s perfectly fine to have a general direction, but don’t get too obsessed about it: circumstances will change — you will change. It’s in each step that you learn and adjust your direction. Assess your projects and tasks every day and make sure that you define next steps for all your projects. Make them small, but ensure you make progress every single day. Forget New Year’s Resolutions. Plan, review and adjust frequently.

Principle 1: Feel Good. Now.
“Being productive” only makes sense if you’re enjoying yourself as you work on the stuff that’s relevant. If you’re not, none of the things we discussed here really matters. Personal productivity is a state of mind: a feeling that you’re doing what you believe is important and that you’re happy about it — not that you’re making sacrifices day in, day out. For me, a good rule of thumb is that we should feel tired at the end of the day. Yes, tired, but in a good way: that’s very different from feeling spent or drained: it’s feeling that we poured our energy into the stuff we care the most. The feeling that our energy was put to good use. Going to sleep looking forward to the next day is, in my opinion, the ultimate measure of personal productivity.

Kugel: Recipe courtesy of Mike Gratz

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. fine egg noodles (skinny)

1/4 cup butter softened (not melted)

1 cup sugar

16 oz container cottage cheese

5 eggs

1 package cream cheese (the kind that comes in a box)

16 oz sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup milk

Cooking Instructions:

Preheat oven 450 degrees and grease pan.

Cook noodles and drain. Set aside.

Cream butter and sugar together.

Mix cottage cheese, cream cheese, sour cream and vanilla together.

Beat the 5 eggs in a bowl, then add to mixture.

Add butter/sugar to mixture and mix again.

Add noodles and stir.

Add milk and stir.

Pour into pan.

Bake @ 450 for 5 minutes.

Reduce heat to 350 and bake for 1 hour.

'Tis the season to be busy.

Last week flew by! I guess that's what happens during the holidays. Here is a quicky recap... I went to my first Hanukkah celebration at Stephanie's and tasted kugel for the first time. It was delicious...like dessert made with egg noodles! I'll try to post a recipe if I can get it. Later in the week, a small group of us went to Miss. Koritz's for her first holiday party here in Vermont where she has only been a resident for the past few months. She claimed it was a gathering to celebrate the holidays and simply eat her homemade soup. Well, weren't we surprised when there was a roasted chicken with roasted potatoes/veggies AND a lovely salad with toasted pine nuts AND homemade peppermint ice cream AND a cake! Overachiever. Laura, I feel Christmas here in snowy Vermont!! Friday night was JDK's annual holiday party. The party took place at The Firehouse Gallery this year. Marin, Nelia, Steve and I met before the party for a glass of bubbly and then off we went! There was lots of great food, dancing, and some ridiculous photos taken throughout the evening in the photobooth stationed in the gallery. Can't wait to see those pics. We stayed up much too late but, somehow (I blame the late night pizza) I made it out unscathed the next morning! Phew. Saturday, I was up early to meet Laura, Dana and her mother for a quick wedding dress sesh at Sewly Yours. I swear, Dana could belt a trash bag and make it look great! After some brunch at Penny Cluse we all went our separate ways. Later that afternoon, Isaac and I went to see the movie, The Tourist (3 out of 10 stars). Skip it. After my bike ride home, (I'm still waiting for my new ride to arrive) I called it a night. Zzzz... I spent part of Sunday Christmas shopping and the other part decorating for the holiday party Steve and I are throwing this Friday. The Christmas lights only electrocuted me once. Yes, really. It's going to be awesome time! Get ready to have some fun. xoxo

Choppin' down our tree!

Steve and I set our alarms for 9am this morning so we could grab a quick breakfast at Sneakers before starting our journey to find this year's Christmas tree. Here are a few pics from our time at the farm.

We found the one pretty quickly.

I started the cut. I guess I should have started it a bit lower because we ended up leaving a few branches behind on the stump-oops!
Laura, Steve and I spent the afternoon putting the (colored) lights up and placing the ornaments. The tree looks great! I'll post a couple of pictures once the house is decorated. See you soon!

Family Time.

Last week, we all descended upon Fort Wayne, Indiana for Thanksgiving at Dad and Jane's-all 9 of us! Chaos. Dad cooked up the turkey and Jenny and I attempted a few new recipes he had selected from Julia Child's cookbook. The joke of the trip came out of my dad's mouth. He kept identifying himself as Julia Child's (or Jane's) assistant, Jacques. As he was whipping up some heavy cream he hollered, "just call me Jacques the Whipper!" Wah waaaaah. Dad had some stiff competition coming up with the best one liners with Gretchen, Adaline and Oliver in the house. I guess Adaline knows that animals are friends, not food because she stepped in during our Thanksgiving Dinner planning sesh to say, "Run turkey, RUN!!" She's two. Kids are funny.

Monsieur Rick & Madame Jane

Oliver was in good spirits despite his broken leg. He even managed to get on the b-ball court!

On Saturday, we piled into 2 cars and headed out to the gingerbread house exhibit to find some inspiration for our gingerbread house craft project. I think it was a hit although it was hard for some to grasp that the gum drops were keeping the walls together and shouldn't be eaten. There were a few minor casualties. Look at that determined gaze on Miss Adaline's face...she has radar lock on an Oreo cookie.

Here is one of our favorite ginger bread houses!! This picture doesn't do it justice though.

Next, we headed to the Embassy Theater to meet Santa (!!!) and to see the christmas tree exhibit. They always do such a nice job making things look festive. Gretchen got to see the tap dancers perform which left her wide eyed and speechless.

On my final night in Fort Wayne, we decided to celebrate Penelope's 5th birthday. Penelope is my sister's pooch who was vacationing at doggie daycare in Virginia during our trip to Indiana. That didn't stop us from making fancy hats in her honor! Yep.

Mmm...

Gretchen volunteered to blow out the candles...

And Jenny and I in our post-party pic...time for a glass of wine!

The drive home with Laura was long-18 hours. But, she and I had lots to discuss. We had pretty much solved all of the world's problems by the time we reunited with the Green Mountain State. Good trip but, glad to be home. xoxo