Christmas Lights Photography

As I talked about in my Christmas Lights 2008 post, I did a bit of Christmas lights this year. After I got them all done back on Dec. 18, I took a bunch of pictures of me and Nate's handiwork (would you expect anything else?). I was completely dissatisfied with the pictures, so of course I went right to Google to find out how to take pictures of Christmas lights. Some suggestions were obvious (no flash, use a tripod), others were arcane with f-stops, apertures and manual white balance, but almost all said 2 things: shoot the pictures at dusk and set the white balance to tungsten (aka incandescent bulbs). Shooting at dusk means you get both the lights and the background. The trick is to bracket your shots over time and then pick the best ones. (Much easier now that it's just pixels instead of film). The white balance setting accounts for the fact that all those bulbs (or at least all of mine) have little tungsten filaments in them which glow yellow. Using the tungsten setting gives everything, like the snow, a cool blue glow and makes the sky look awesome. If I remember my physics correctly that makes sense since blue and yellow combined make white.

I headed out at about 4:15 PM on Christmas and after choosing some prime spots, I started shooting at about 4:25 PM. I knew this was too early since I was still able to hold the camera and shoot without a tripod. As it get darker, I kept shooting every few minutes. It was cold enough that I had to wear gloves and the driveway refroze, but luckily neither me nor the camera ended up on the ground. I managed, too, not to get run over when I shot from the street. I even got a compliment on the lights from a driver who missed me. The one element of the lights that I seemed to get a good bracketing on was the inflatable Nativity, which I talk about in my Christmas Lights 2008 post. Below are the shots over time with the time stamps. I think I like the 5:01 PM picture the best, but the one before that is OK, too. You can see that by 5:10 PM, I was just getting the lights.


For those of you who don't celebrate Christmas, I suppose these techniques would work just as well on a Menorah or whatever holiday decorations you put up.

Christmas Lights 2008

This year, I put up more Christmas lights and decorations outside than I ever have in my 7 years here in Bethlehem. Some of it certainly was the fact that we had a warm weekend when Nate was here and a warm day that I took as vacation. (OK - warm meaning in the 40's for those of you not in the Northeast) I think too that since last year I didn't get to do any lights because the weather was cold and wet and, with a torn ACL, I really wasn't up for climbing on the roof. Maybe subconsciously this year I wanted to spruce the place up since all we hear is bad news about economy and since Kenny hasn't done as much here since he has been focused on his new house. Whatever the reason, Nate and I had a blast doing the lights and decorations. Here is the finished display. (My Christmas Lights Photography talks all about how I took the pictures, so I won't repeat here.)


Nate did all of the lights on the porch and the shed and most of the work on the inflatable Nativity. I did the net lights on the shrubs, the lights on the stairs, the toy soldiers (which NatesMom and I got many years ago), the luminary bags and the electrical, as well as helping Nate with the Nativity. Kenny got the luminary bags in an after Christmas sale a couple years ago for $1 for a box of five. They are all electric and you can string up to 30 bags together. I spent a lot of time working on them but they came out looking pretty nice. I used a combination of timers and light sensors so all I had to do every night was the Nativity. For an added fun touch, I replaced the regular bulbs in the driveway lamps with red bulbs.




The most fun part of the display is the inflatable Nativity. I've been kind of anti-inflatables in the past. They usually are snowmen or Santas and always seemed to be deflated or blown around when I saw them. But when I went to Lowes (see Is the Christmas Season Over?), they had the inflatable Nativity with life size Mary and Joseph for 50% off. I've looked for a life sized Nativity in the past, so I decide that if it was still there a week later when I had Nate to help me carry it, I'd buy it. It was, so I bought it and Nate got a trip to Longhorn Steakhouse out of the deal. Nate's take on the set was a little different - he wondered what it meant that the only inflatables left were the religious themed ones. The set consists of the inflatable manger, Mary and Joseph who are heads with clothes, attached to metal pipes. Baby Jesus is attached to his "bed". Everything gets screwed in the ground and has held up pretty well despite snow storms and wind. Nate and I had a slight physics failure by not attaching the guy wires at 45 degrees which caused the manger to fall over backwards, but that was remedied by attaching a bungee cord from the manger to Joseph.

I've gotten some nice compliments on the display and even though I spent a bit to get it all right this year, everything from the decorations, to the lights to the electrical should last for many more years.

Christmas 2008 Pictures

Every year, for a long time now, Nate and I have gone to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. We have appetizers in the afternoon, a big, pseudo-fancy dinner around 7 and then get ready for Mass. We try to take a picture before we head out to Mass, especially now that we are both in suits. The tripod and remote for the camera make the whole process much easier. Here are this year's pictures from dinner and before Mass:

Merry Christmas!

From me and Nate, we hope you have blessed, peaceful and joyous Christmas! From our house to yours, a Bread Wreath that was part of Christmas Eve dinner:


May Christ's blessings remain with you long after the presents are opened and the decorations put way.

Bethlehem became the link between heaven and earth; God and man met there and looked each other in the face. - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Easiest Sausage Stuffing

I like turkey. I like stuffing. I like sausage. On holidays, when I cook I try to combine these by making sausage stuffing and cooking it in the bird. (Yes, Food Police, I check my temperatures so I don't kill myself or Nate). I have found easy and complicated, tasty and not so tasty recipes over the years. This year, Google coughed up what has to be the easiest recipe EVER.

1. Cook 1 lb sausage
2. Reserve 1/2 c. of the drippings
3. Mix drippings, 1 1/2 c. hot water, sausage and stuffing
   
4. Stuff in turkey & cook

I can hear the food purists out there gagging since not only is it prepared food, the recipe is from the Kraft website. I understand, but I'd rather hang out with Nate and rest up for Midnight Mass, than spend all day cooking on Christmas Eve. Besides, there will, as always be fresh bread.

A Christmas (Bread) Story

Yesterday, as often happens, I decided to make bread. I figured since Christmas was less than a week away, I'd see if I could find a recipe for a Christmas Bread. Most of what came up was recipes for Stollen, which is like fruit cake, or Panettone, which is kind of cake like and has to be cooked in a special pan or paper liner. After exhaustive searching (and by that I mean I actually went to page 5 of my Google search :)), I found a recipe for what was essentially a Christmas Challah. I like making braided bread and this recipe had brown sugar, butter and cinnamon rolled up in the braids.

My first mistake of the day was starting at about 1 PM when I had to be at Youth Group at 5:30 PM. Bread cannot be rushed (trust me I have tried and it never turns out well). Then the recipe called for vegetable shortening (aka Crisco) which I had read as vegetable oil. Luckily my neighbor Monica had Crisco so I could get the dough started and put up to rise. I knew I needed to go to ShopRite for more butter, brown sugar and confectioners sugar for the icing. ShopRite was a zoo - by the time I got back it was after 3 PM and I knew no way was this bread was getting made before I left for Yourh Group. So I let it rise (which was slow due to the eggs and shortening) and then punched it down a put it near a cold window before I left at 5 PM.

When I got back at almost 10 PM (we ran a little late since it was a Christmas party), I walked in to the house and thought "Monica must be baking". But no, what I smelled was dough and, as you can see in the picture, it was thinking of taking over the kitchen! I punched it down and divided it in 6 to make the braids. It was a bit tough to roll out - a little over rising will do that. The recipe said to make a rectangle, smear it with butter and add brown sugar and cinnamon. It was big on detail or quantities so I just guessed. I got everything rolled and braided and in the oven by about 10:45.

I guess my guessing about the filling wasn't quite right because at about 11 PM the smoke detector went off and the kitchen smelled of burned sugar and butter. I got the exhaust fan going and opened a window but about five minutes later Kenny was knocking on my door to see if everything was OK! I assured him it was fine, just me in the kitchen.

The bread survived fine and I iced it and topped it with crushed peppermint candy this morning. Monica got one of the loaves for the Crisco and the late night fire alarm. The bread tasted good too - maybe the crust was a little over done, but I can adjust that next time - which hopefully will be during daylight hours!

Happy Immaculate Conception!

I'll admit, I saw this post on the Ironic Catholic Blog, but I figured it was so good I'd share it too. In honor of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, here is Bobby McFerrin singing Ave Maria with the crowd at a concert.

Is the Christmas Season Over?

Today is the second Sunday of Advent. Thanksgiving was only 11 days ago. The only Christmas decoration I have up is the wreath Dad sent me. I just got my first Christmas card (Yea - N&V!). Despite all that, when I went to Lowe's this weekend, ALL of their Christmas decorations on sale for 50% off! At first I thought maybe it was just a one day sale, but no, everything was marked as clearance. (For honesty's sake, I will point out that I did check the prices - I am my Mother's son after all). I guess when you start selling Christmas stuff just after Halloween, maybe it's time to put it on sale.

I've long ago given up trying to convince people that the Twelve Days of Christmas starts on Christmas day. But could we at least sell Christmas decorations and gifts until December 25th? Sigh......