Christmas, Part 1

Christmas has been huge this year. It always is, particularly for my kids. They usually get to celebrate by opening presents about six different times. At their mom's house, at my house, at multiple sets of grandparents' houses (they have four sets). It always seems like they open presents for about a week.

This year we started the celebration early with Jordan's sister, Rosie and her significant other, Don. They came from St. Louis on Saturday, the 23rd. They were tons of fun to have around. It turns out that Don and I are amazingly like-minded (keep the faith, brother). Oh, yeah, and they brought a case of wine with them.

On Christmas Eve, the four of us went to Chris and Autumn’s for dinner. Like me, Chris loves to cook and apparently has a tradition where he invites a select number of couples over for a fancy Christmas Eve dinner. More power to you, man. I always end up doing all of my wrapping and such on Christmas Eve, so I was more than happy for him to do the cooking. It was a great spread, and the company was fantastic. Hopefully they will include us in their tradition for years to come.

My lovely wife, Jordan with Chris.

Here I am with Chris’ lovely wife, Autumn.

Petrea with her Papi...

Petrea had a great time putting her finger in Jordan’s key lime pie and then sticking it in my mouth.

My Wife is In Love...

Too bad it isn't with me. No, Jordan is truly, madly, deeply in love with David Duchovney.

Last year we discovered NetFlix in a big fat way. Since then, we have practically stopped watching TV altogether. Seriously, about the only thing we watch is James Woods’ new show, Shark, thursday nights on CBS. We try not to miss that one. Here's the scoop...

With the kids, and jobs, and the new house, and dogs, and photography, and everything else that goes along with modern life, we find it really hard to sit down on a regular basis and watch TV. Almost every night there is something way more pressing that needs to be done during “prime time.” Enter NetFlix.

With Netflix, we can order an entire season of a show and watch every episode, from the beginning, on OUR schedule. AND there are no commercials. AND the shows are in widescreen. AND the shows have great digital sound. But my most favorite thing about watching the shows on DVD is that if by some chance the planets align and we have the time to pull an all-nighter and watch six episodes of something back-to-back, we can. I'm tellin’ you, television nirvana.

So we started out with CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. You know, the one in Las Vegas. We worked our way through all of the seasons of it. Then it was on to CSI: Miami. Bada-bing! We tried watching Northern Exposure (I loved it, she didn't). Next up, Numb3rs; another crime show on CBS. Devoured it.

And then something happened. I sheepishly asked Jordan if she would like to watch a few episodes of the X-Files. These were DVDs I actually owned. I figured there was no way in hell she was gonna watch some quasi-UFO-crime-something-or-another show with me. Boy was I wrong. Turns out, J has a serious thing for David Duchovney. I mean like she's ready to bump off his wife kinda serious.

I'm pretty sure Jordan would throw me to the curb in a heartbeat to run her hands through DD’s hair just once.

You’re welcome dear.

Random Image Wednesday

Today I'm posting a few images just because I like them.

You're thinking, “How is this different from every other day?”

Well, it isn't.

This is one of my favorite images of Jack. I think it captures his personality just about perfectly. It isn't new, but I love it anyway.

Snow! IN MEMPHIS!

Nah, not really. We can only wish. But you would have thought it was real from the looks on these kids’ (of all ages) faces.

I shot an event for the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art yesterday. The free event for the people of Memphis featured carolers, face-painting, "stained glass" ornament-making, dreidel play, carriage rides, tons of food, and of course Santa Claus. The place was wall-to-wall people. I think the thing that the kids enjoyed more than anything else was the snow machine at the front door. Have a look...

Halo 3

I'm not a huge gamer dude, but this looks like a compelling reason to upgrade to an Xbox 360. Click the images for links to the trailers.

Random Images

It's Thursday. Not much is going on. I'm trying to get another magazine out at the office before the holidays. I figured I would post a few random images.

The first one I shot while in Mexico on my honeymoon in 2004. There was a storm coming in from the East coast of Cozumel.

The next one I grabbed with a point-and-shoot while we were in Florida on vacation a couple of years ago.

I took the next one while I was in San Diego on business. I highly recommend visiting San Diego if you get the chance.

This one was shot through the windshield of my car while tooling around Memphis.

This last one is of Ya Ya, one of the pandas here at the Memphis Zoo. It became the cover image for an issue of the Rhodes College alumni magazine.

Thanksgiving, Part 2

As promised, here are a few more images from Thanksgiving.

Angels Among Us

Jordan's mother, Lynn, is a saint. I'll tell you a little bit about why I think so.

I have already talked about how our dog, Cooper was killed over Thanksgiving. Jordan, the kids, and I were not there when it happened. I was pretty upset about that initially. I felt like we had always been there to take care of him, since he was a pup, and somehow, in his most dire moment of need, we were not able to be there for him. I hope that those of you who are not dog lovers can try to understand that those of us who are really love these animals like they are people. Cooper was as much a member of our family as either of my children. Lynn Hutton is a dog lover. When none of the rest of us could be there, Lynn was. She was the one who found Cooper on the road and had the horrible task of bringing his lifeless body back up to the house. As I already said, I regret that I couldn't be there to help, but in our absence, I feel certain that Lynn was the best person for the job.

Something cool about Lynn is that she also writes a regular column—Cross Currents— for one of her local town newspapers. It's a religion column, which makes sense, since she is a minister with the United Methodist church. Occasionally she will weave little bits of the goings-on of her family into her column. I felt sure that this event would make its way to print somehow. As she is a much better writer than I am, I will let her speak for herself. From the latest edition of the Halls Shopper News...

Angel in a Pickup Truck

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. (Hebrews 13: 2 NRSV)

There really are angels. I met one the other night. The truth is, I didn’t recognize him as such. It was only much later, when Jordan asked, “Did you get his name?” and I admitted that I had not, that her stepson Jack said, “Maybe he was an angel.”

Jack is eight years old, all boy, and not given to flights of fancy. (Well, he is a Star Wars fan of the first order, but he understands the difference between movies and everyday reality.)

Startled, I turned and looked at him, considering that possibility. “It is true that he was driving a white pickup truck,” I admitted, which in my part of the world might be considered an appropriate angelmobile.

The reason this angel appeared in our lives is a sad one. Once again, in eerily similar circumstances to the last time, we lost another dog at our house. Cooper, Jordan’s border collie-Australian blue heeler mix, left the back yard and went across the road. He didn’t make it back.

I was dog-sitting when Cooper and Emma asked out, and following the usual protocols, I put Emma on a chain attached to the run. Cooper, being the more trustworthy of the two, was released on his own recognizance. Emma asked back in quickly, but no Cooper. I started calling and whistling, going from door to door, growing more and more uneasy, and finally started out the front door to see if he had gone next door. That is when I saw the white pickup truck stopped across the road with its lights shining onto something in the road. There were other cars stopped, trying to pass safely, I suppose. I was off at a dead run, hoping against hope.

When I got there, a man came toward me from the pickup. “Is he yours?” he asked softly.

“My daughter’s,” I managed. Then, “No, it’s not!” In the darkness, the fur didn’t look right; the texture was all wrong. (It would be much later before I figured out why.) I knelt and checked the tag. It was Cooper, after all. I half-lifted, half-dragged him out of the road, and ran for the house again, to get something to carry him home in.

When I went back, the man was still waiting. “Can I help?” he asked, and the two of us carried our sad burden and placed it gently in the garage. He turned to leave, and it was the first time I had really seen his face. Brown hair, brown eyes, maybe a beard. I was in shock, and already dreading having to tell Jordan. But his heart was in those brown eyes, and I saw compassion and understanding there. I wanted to ask his name, but introductions seemed bizarrely out of place. I wanted to shake his hand, but I realized my own hands were covered with blood, and so refrained. I thanked him again, and he was gone.

Conveying the news to Jordan was even more painful than I had imagined. It was not until the next morning when she started asking questions about who had helped me. She went to the subdivision across the street and set about tracking down the white pickup. It took two false leads to finally find the angel.

His name is David Owen. He and his wife Angie have a dog, a Boxer. A friend driving down our road saw Cooper, and called David to make sure his pet was safe. David decided to come down to the scene and do whatever he could to help.

He was not a passerby. He left the comfort of his home, got in his truck and drove to the scene, not because he had any stake in it at all. He just knew that an animal was hurt, possibly dead, and that somewhere a pet owner cared about that animal. He parked out of the road and shone his headlights onto the scene to warn approaching drivers. And he waited.

It was a kindness that in some small way began the healing process in Jordan’s broken heart. Someone who didn’t know and love Cooper had gone out of his way to be caring. A stranger (read, angel) understood how devastating such a loss can be.

Jordan said later, “He did the right thing. He did what was not expected, not required, not easy, but right.”

There are angels among us. One of them is named David.

Thank you, Lynn. Thanks for raising a wonderful daughter, for being a great mom, and being one of the many angels among us.

If you would like to read Lynn's column in its original form, you can do that here.

Thanksgiving, Part 1

I figured it was time to post a few images of the other members of my household. These were all taken over the Thanksgiving holiday.

First, this is Jack. He's 8 and the greatest little boy a parent could ever ask for.

Next up is Emma. She's our blond, and boy is she. Since we lost Cooper, Emma has been the beneficiary of all of our displaced love.

Here's a little detail I shot of an old rusty plow, just for good measure (note: the plow does not live with us.)

Check back soon for part 2.

December

It's December already. Where the heck did this year go? 2006 has been pretty good to us (with a few notable exceptions), but I think 2007 is going to be even better. Look for some great new stuff from KB Photography in the coming year. I want to share some of the new developments, but for now they have to stay a little hush-hush.

The image above is from a tree right outside my office window. This is what it looked like just a few weeks ago. Most of its leaves are gone now.

Only 24 more shopping days left.