Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish everyone a VERY Merry Christmas! I know holidays are tough, especially this year. I hope everyone is with someone that cares for them, no matter their situation. <3

My yearly Christmas tree photo. Themes are a thing of the past, we stick with multi colored now.

Weekly iPhone Roundup {12.4 - 12.9}

 It's been a pretty eventful week to say the least. There's been lots of traveling, gift wrapping and tacking stuff at home. I literally went somewhere every day this week and I hate it. I would literally be happy staying home all the time, which is usually the way it is when we're not Christmas shopping.

Drove home from work/Perryville Monday, made it halfway to Poplar Bluff Tuesday, all the way to Poplar Bluff Wednesday, had to go to Annapolis super late Thursday for wrapping paper and nametags, then back to Annapolis today. Yikes! I mean, I could've had to drive to Cape twice this week, so honestly I'm pretty lucky, but it makes the weeks fly by when you're always doing something or on the go.

Other than the horrible ordeal Tuesday night, earlier that day I set up our new Brightspeed internet. It was supposed to be good to go last week, but after talking to tech support for over an hour, they finally told me to wait until Tuesday. Luckily things went well Tuesday and it only took me like 5 minutes to get set up. So far so good, fingers crossed. It's only 3MB download speeds, but that's better than the .3 that we were getting from HughesNet. At least this is consistent and we're finally able to actually watch some of our streaming services!

With HughesNet we used to be able to watch YouTube with no issues. I mean, we had to pause a lot, but it still worked. We also used to be able to stream Netflix and sometimes Shudder, on the very rare occasion Hulu, but not often. I literally logged into all our streaming services and every one of them played, thank God! Here lately Netflix wouldn't even load up all the way - Hulu wouldn't even open! It's unreal to get to watch stuff now, I love it. 

Wednesday when we went shopping we hit up Five Below, Dollar Tree, Petsmart, Marshall's and Walmart. I wouldn't say it was super successful, but we did get a few more things. We're SO far behind this year and it's killing me. Like I'm literally getting so stressed out over it all. We're wanting to come home through Cape Monday and then go to Farmington later next week and hopefully wrap up our Christmas shopping. I'm hoping and praying that's the case.

Christmas present wrapping is like killing my back this year. Like, it legit makes me feel like an old lady, lol. It's probably because I sit like a shrimp all day when I'm watching tv or playing a game. It's really my own fault. Plus I prefer to sit on the floor all day every day, lol.

Anyways, I think that about sums up the week. Hope everyone had a great week!

Saw these guys Sunday in Perryville. They had this interesting truck that appears to be very heavily customized and modified. At least they're in the Christmas spirit with their little hats, lol.

A lighted Christmas ornament lantern my mom made.

Bath & Body Works order that arrived Monday. These are gifts for 4 different people. They had an awesome sale and all their full size scents were like $4.25!

First Christmas present that got wrapped this season!

A Bud Light mug that arrived Monday for my step dad.

All the presents we wrapped Monday.

This picture of the gloomy highway is from our failed trip Tuesday.

You can see how eerie everything looks.

Cloudy, rainy and foggy by the old drive-in.

The fog got considerably worse by the time we went home.

This is the Patterson Church we were broke down next to.

This was from the drive home Wednesday night after got done Christmas shopping. It was super rainy!

Butterbeer barrel with flavored candies inside. This was very much an impulse purchase because LaVaughn and I are both HUGH Potter fans. The candies kinda sucked, but I love the barrel. This was from Five Below, btw.

Still can't believe I found this HUGE bottle of Torani sugar free salted caramel syrup at Marshall's for $6.99! The tiny bottles from Walmart are $5, this is like 4 times as much and Walmart doesn't carry this flavor. Definitely my favorite purchase.

Facebook Messenger video chat with my mom (top left) and LaVaughn (bottom) Wednesday night. I'm obviously the top right.

Max pretending he doesn't see the security camera, lol. It's an easy way to tell he wants inside without hearing him bark first.

Christmas Tree with presents under it, which I adore.

I still wish I had the lights on around the door, dammit.

I love tree pics, but John Redcorn really throws the pictures off, lol. I still love him, though.

Christmas present wrapping Thursday evening.

My travel buddy. Max loves going for rides.

He had his face plastered next to mine just before I snapped this pic, jerk. Sorry for the no makeup face.

Taking Christmas Photos With Different Lenses

I was bored today and longing for Christmas decoration photos and even though it was still a smidge too light outside, I went for it. I'm in the process of trying to find my favorite lens for taking ornament pictures, but I'm struggling. Since the 105mm lens rarely leaves my camera, I just assumed it would be the best, but I don't think it is. 

I used my 40mm macro last year for most of the photos, which is one of my faves, but I honestly don't think I've touch it since I got the 105mm. I think I'm gonna dust it off next week and see how it looks on the 750. I've already used my 35mm a couple times this week and I'm honestly still so impressed with that lens. I'm kicking myself for not using it today, but hopefully next week sometime.

I'd also like to add that we were able to get tires on the car yesterday and thankfully made it Poplar Bluff to Christmas shop. It wasn't the best, but we did get a few things. The most exciting part was getting to try the new Beyond Chicken from Panda Express!

Anyways, here are some pics with a few different lenses, enjoy!

Tokina 11-20mm 2.8 lens:

Love the wide angle lens for getting pictures of the entire room.

It's kinda trippy.

It would be so much better if it was dark outside.

See, the effect isn't the same.

The tree is still beautiful, but it's too light outside.

New Rudolph ornament.

Last one with the Tokina.

Nikon 105mm 2.8 lens:

The 105mm has great depth.

But I don't think it's aperture is wide enough for the look I want.

High ISO Santa.

I like the warmth of this picture.

Nikon 85mm 1.8 lens:

The 85mm lens is so smooth!

And so crisp.

You can't hardly beat this lens.

The only downside is the ratio. It's around 1:7 and you need a 1:1 for good ornament pics.

Great present pictures with the 85mm lens.

This is one of my favorite ornament pictures. I feel it captures vintage Christmas.

The ornaments that I painted.

I think they look nice.

Back to the Tokina for s minute:

Waited a couple hours and took some more of the tree.

See how much better the Christmas tree lights look when it's dark outside?

I tried some high ISO settings here and thing they make for some vintage Christmas tree photos.

Something about this Christmas tree takes me back to the early to mid 90s.

These pics would've been better if the lights around the door were on, oh well.