January 2016 - Letters to Our Children

--After you read my letter, click the link to see Terri's letter to her children. If you keep clicking from there, eventually you'll be right back here!--

Augusta County Virginia Family Photographer

Little Rylan,

You are officially a year and a half now. These eighteen months have passed so quickly. You're getting taller, and you are gaining a little weight, but you're still pretty small. You've almost outgrown 12 month clothes now. Your hair is staying blonde, and it hasn't been curly for a few months now; we're still waiting to see if it will become curly again.

You are adventurous, rarely scared, adorable, and feisty. You like to make people laugh, and you know when you're being cute/funny. When you don't get your way, your temper immediately surfaces. You yell and throw a little tantrum. Most confusing is when you seem to do that for no reason, like when we give you something that you've asked for.

You still like playing with whatever Mason is playing with, but more often now, the two of you have fun together. (However, you still bite him when he does something you don't like.) You know how to make things fun, like turning Mason's giant Tonka truck into a riding toy. You copy things now too. For about a month, you have held up your thumb, pretending you have an "ouchie" in the exact place that Mason had one, so that we will kiss your thumb. And when you want, you are also generous in giving kisses.

To you, UPS = Dada, and Steelers = Poppy. You say "bye" nice and southern like: "Bah." But usually it's repeated a lot, like "Bah bah bah bah bah bah bah, Dada." You're also good at growling for animal noises or for scaring people. Here are some more of your often used words: bok (book), brrr (bread), wawa (water), Mac (for all Cars characters), cracker, please, trash, hop, truck, tractor, cold, shoes, juice, cheese, coo-coo (cookie; both for real cookies and Cookie Monster), coat, seat, and tree.

I love you, cutie.

Love, Mommy

Click here to go to Terri's letter!

Tutorial: How to go Christmas Tree Shopping

tips for cutting down your Christmas tree with your family

What are some of your favorite holiday traditions? One of mine is going to pick out and cut down a Christmas tree every year on the weekend after Thanksgiving. For many years now, we've gone to Francisco Farms in Greenville (technically Staunton, I guess) to get our tree. Since a lot of people are new to buying live trees, I thought you might need some help figuring out the best way to go about this process. So if you need some steps to follow, feel free to copy our Christmas-tree-buying-steps:

Argue in the car about how it's going to be too dark to see the trees by the time you get there, because you left so late. (Or just leave earlier than we usually do to skip this step.)
After parking, hurry to get a saw.
Take a quick picture at the little wooden-Christmas-tree-with-a-cutout-for-your-head thing.
Try to remember what kind of tree you had last year and whether or not you liked that kind.
Find the right part of the farm that has the type of tree you want to get.
Look over all the trees, running from one to another as you think you see a better one in the distance every time.
Realize that the first good one you saw was the best one.
Take a test picture to see if the tree is photogenic. (Really, that's my real secret to finding a great tree. ;) )
Take a picture of your husband making a tough growling face while holding the saw up beside him. Then get your husband to take a picture of you with the kids, since you're never in any pictures with them.
Watch your husband cut down the tree.
Watch your husband carry your tree back to the car. It's most fun if he holds it straight above his head.
Pay the nice Christmas tree people.
Watch as your husband grabs some rope/twine/whatever-it's-called to tie the Christmas tree to the top of your car. Unless you have a truck...then that part of the process is much easier.
Don't forget to grab your free ice cream cone coupon for Kline's (which we forgot this year. Waah!) and sign up to win a free turkey.
Sit in the car, content and relaxed, relieved that everything went so smoothly.
Halfway home, start to get a little stressed that the tree fell off the top of the car and you didn't notice. Turn the mirrors in the car to very strange angles to try to make sure the tree is still there.
Ask your husband if he got the tree stand out yet, and try not to mention that you reminded him before you left.
Watch your husband bring the Christmas tree in, tell him which way to turn it so none of the bare spots show, and show him which branches need to be cut off at the top/bottom.
Turn on Christmas music and decorate the tree all by yourself, unless you can con the kids into helping this year. (After all, your husband DID do all that other tree work earlier).
Sit on the couch with only the Christmas lights on*, cuddle with your family, and smile. Done. :) *Coffee and hot chocolate are an optional addition to the last step.

A Family Film: Thanksgiving with the Mancinis

For as long as I can remember, my parents have hosted Thanksgiving at their house. My grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins were always there. Either before or after the meal, we go around the table for people to say what they're thankful for. There is always so much delicious food that everyone leaves completely stuffed. When we were little, all of the kids ("the cousins") would have an entertainment time where we would show off our latest talents or school projects; believe me, it was all very impressive. ;)

Through the years, the cousins have grown and now some of us have families of our own. But for the most part, everyone still tries to come together for Thanksgiving at my parents' house each year. We have added people to the guest list as our families have grown; my in-laws have been a part of the celebration for close to 10 years, although they had to miss this year because of work schedules. Usually we're able to Skype or Facetime with some of our family who live too far away to be there in person.

One relatively new tradition added to the Thanksgiving-day schedule is the Turkey Trot 5k race that the Waynesboro YMCA puts on in the morning. We have done it for a few years now, and most years I have run it while pushing a stroller. This year, Josh and I didn't run; instead, we passed that joy on to Mason, who ran his first race: the one-mile Gobbler Trot. My parents ran the 5k together after that. Mason won a prize for being the youngest runner, and my mom won 5th place in her age group.

I knew that, because this holiday tradition has always been so special to my family, I wanted to document the day. Instead of focusing on photography this year, I decided to try to document with video. I am so glad that I did, because I was able to make a family film that we'll always be able to look back on to remember what our Thanksgiving was like at this point in our lives. I hope that, when watching this, you can feel what it's like to be a part of the Mancini family Thanksgiving day tradition.