Only a few more days until Christmas! For the most part, my clients have sent out their 2010 Christmas Cards. I have been waiting to post these, just in case! I have to admit that half of my 50 are in the mail, on their way to mostly my family members in Utah, Ohio, Arizona, Missouri, and Georgia. Wish we could all be together for the Holidays, but I know that once you see the smiling faces of my children you will feel the love!

We had the trip of a lifetime over the summer, trekking cross-country to visit my paternal family in Central Eastern Utah. We have taken the trip two years prior, but we added a new addition since then and had one less helper, my cousin Chelsea. Every other summer we either go to Ohio or Utah. Really don’t know how I am going to fit Ohio into wedding season this summer, but we do plan on going to Florida for a week with my younger college age siblings. Anyway, we usually try to incorporate our travels into our Christmas Card each year. We were able to see as much of Yellowstone as we could with three kids under the age of six. They were good and we had a blast. Stopping in Jackson Hole is always a highlight for me with the Tetons off in the distance. Wyoming was the place we took our first family vacation out of state when I was growing up, which really was only 7 years ago. For those of you who have never been to Utah, you are missing out. My wife planed our trip beautifully, however, we never planned for our bike rack to give us as many problems as it did. We did not make it to Rushmore this year because of it, but I must say Devil’s Tower was quite memorable with the 100+ degree heat and my wife and I trying to ratchet our bike rack without causing a scene. Katie, my wife, you are incredible and I would travel across the universe with you as my co-pilot. Actually, she drives and I man the GPS, she isn’t really a fan of him nor maps in general. We compliment each other wonderfully because I can’t drive without falling asleep unless I am traveling well beyond the speed limit for the adrenaline rush. During mountain travel my wife sleeps and I drive. Nothing like driving in the mountains without guard rails and realizing that there are hundred foot drops on each side of you.

Of course I took my camera; I won’t get into how many images I lost with the crash of 2010, don’t worry no client images were lost. I do recommend Carbonite Online Backup and numerous external hard drive. I just might need to get another one just for 2011. 30mb per images is a lot when you take thousands of images in a day! This was a pretty big year for Anakin starting kindergarten and getting to ride to school with his grandfather and riding the bus home. Rivalee is growing into herself and truly is our little princess, attitude to spare. Jasper, well Jaspy as well call him, is currently cutting teeth and I don’t have a whole lot of positive things to say about him, other than he love his daddy. It is pretty cute when he climbs into my office chair and proceeds to slam him ‘bam-bam’ fists down on my keyboard. Need less to say, my computer is on lock down with the kids around.

Katie and I are still going to school at Concordia Saint Paul finishing up our Bachelor’s degrees. I did get my Associates this past spring from the University of Wisconsin-Marathon County, which marked the half-way point in my educational journey. I am not looking forward to the 100+ page synthesis project I have to write over the next 15 months.

That being said, I look forward to another eventful year full of amazing clients, beautiful weddings, and smiling faces. I have been so blessed this year, I can only imagine what next year will bring. I officially only have a month until Wedding Season starts, February-October this year. From my family to yours,

Merry Christmas + God Bless,

James, Katie, Anakin, Rivalee, & Jasper

PS: Christmas Card to follow – These are just a few I have been working on for my loving friends!