A day at the falls

Today Ralph was able to take a day off so he humored me and agreed to go out and shoot some pictures.  We decided to head towards Niagara.  We took our passports with us and ended  up going to the American side of to see if we could get some different shots of Niagara falls.  This is the first time that I have been here.  It was really windy and cold. We couldn't remove our gloves for a very long period of time because it was so cold.  This made it challenging when setting up our camera for each of the shots that we took.  Sadly Ralph had forgotten to put his battery in his camera so he wasn't able to take any pictures at this point in time as he didn't want to walk back to the truck to get it out of his camera bag.  We didn't stay here long as we found the wind quite challenging.

Since the day was so overcast I decided to process some of the pictures in black and white as there really wasn't much colour.

In the background  you can see the Canadian Falls.

All bundled up!! I have two vests on and a downfilled jacket.  Lots of pockets to store filters and other camera gear.  I was having so much fun. 

We didn't have any issues crossing the border as we weren't on the US side for very long.  As you can see from the pictures it was really overcast making for some interesting shots.  The wind wasn't blowing as hard on this side of the river so it didn't feel quite as cold.

Since the sun was starting to peak through the clouds  We were lucky because there wasn't that many people visiting today so we were able to find lots of places to set up our tripods for the pictures.

I was using a 14mm wide angle lens which limited some of the pictures that I could take but was quite pleased with some of the shots.

I really like this picture that Ralph took.  He used a Neutral Density Filter allowing him to smooth out the rough water. 

Christmas Eve Day

The alarm went off early this morning (5:30) as we wanted to go downtown and get to the market well before it got busy.  The roads were slick but we took our time.  We were downtown by around 6:30.  This was the perfect time to get there as the crowds weren't yet wandering around.  We spent a nice leisurely hour at the market and then enjoyed a coffee at Starbucks.

 

Afterwards we walked up towards the Eaton Center and admired the decorated windows at The Bay.  I used to look at these every year when I was working downtown.  They have done a really good job with the displays.  Most of the displays were animated which would have made it really nice for our grandchildren to see.  Maybe we can bring them downtown next year.

We walked through the Eaton Center as well and admired the huge tree that they had on display.  It was an artificial one about

3 stories high making it almost impossible to photograph.  We enjoyed practicing taking shots with Bokeh in the background.

After that we enjoyed a nice leisurely breakfast before walking back to our truck.  It was a fun morning.

Feeling blessed

Today we celebrated Christmas together as a family.  We met all together at church and listened to a really good sermon.   I am so thankful that we are able to do this together as a family.

Afterwards we went home and prepared coffee and snacks.  It was really nice to relax and spend time together enjoying each others company.  Everyone was in good spirits.  We don't often have the chance to do this and we love the times that we have together.

The time flew by, but we enjoyed every minute of the time spent together.   I look forward to reading my new book and am sporting some beautiful jewellery created by the kids.  The look of pride on their faces when they gave them to me is something that I will treasure for a long time.

Kristen Speelman - the wife of our nephew Robert, created this wall picture for us to give to Laura.  She was thrilled to receive it.  Kristen did an amazing job.  We love the text that was written and it will look beautiful hanging on the wall.

We love our grandchildren with all our heart and thoroughly enjoyed the time spent all together.  They were so good today.

Unwrapping gifts was fun.  You should have seen Hailey jumping up and down when she saw her new sweater from Under Armour. 

After a fun afternoon together, Brody was exhausted and also developed an sore ear.  We really hope that Laura caught it in time with the ear medication.

Our beautiful girls humoured their Oma by posing for pictures by the tree.  Thank you girls.  It was fun.

Christmas Family fun

Today we had the vanBolhuis family Christmas. We had a wonderful time together.  It was so nice to see everyone enjoy themselves and relax. We missed Kelli, Liz, Laura and Jay and the children but they were in our thoughts and our hearts.  I love this gathering of family.  As we grow, we don't see as much of each other, but our love is strong and we are here to support each other.  We are truly blessed as a family.

Merry Christmas to all.

Cheers everyone.  We hope you all arrived home safely.  Have a blessed Christmas.