Tree.

I admit that I am incurably shutter-happy. I annoy people and I don't really care; such is my affliction.

One of the best things about having kids and watching them grow is documenting it through photographs and I am obviously relentless. I know for a fact that there are parents who are even more intense about it than I am; I do my best to keep a low profile. Most times the camera is low and out of the way and I never have it up to my face. I simply take pictures in quick succession and hope that even a small percentage of them turn out. Don't get me wrong: I have a pretty good intuition about light, perspective and framing. I guess that's called an "eye". I wish I didn't get it crooked as often as I do, but what can you do.

But given all that, I find more and more that one of my main motivations for documenting things like holidays and traditions is so that I can go back and compare the photos to previous years and see how much the girls have grown. It's simply amazing to me.

When we bought our Christmas tree last year, Sonja was wearing her hair in pigtails for the first time and Haven wasn't even crawling yet. I like realizing how things have changed yet how every stage is fun and rewarding in its own right. It's not about looking back and pining for when they were smaller so much as recognizing that it's all just beginning.

Happy tree decorating, Everyone.