hap-hap-hap-happy holidays

Today's Picture of the Day was approximately one year in the making. Last year, right around this time, I had just accepted a new job, the one I have now. Right after Christmas, my mom and I came down to Atlanta to find an apartment. When we first got into town, I drove her by my office, so she would know where that was, and would keep that in mind when we were thinking about commute times.

The office building was still decked out for Christmas, by which I mean that there were these giant ornament balls outside the building. As if the building were a Christmas tree, and these ornaments fell off, I guess. It made it easy to point out the building to my mom, and because she likes things like that, she was pretty impressed. "We should get a picture of you with those ornament balls before we leave," she said.

Then we went into the mad dash of apartment hunting. Finally, I found one, signed the lease, etc. On our way out of town, we decided to drive from the apartment to the office to time my commute, and to get a picture of me with those Christmas ornaments.

So we drove to the office…and the ornaments were gone! It was only a few days after Christmas, and it was like Christmas had never ever happened. At that point, I started to have a few doubts. I had only seen my office building with those Christmas ornaments in front, and without the ornaments, things looked a little less shiny, a little less attractive.

Okay, I made the part about having doubts up. I just wanted to give my story a little dramatic tension. But anyways, it was sad to have missed my chance to get a picture with the Christmas ornament balls, but it taught me an important lesson. Don't postpone your chance to take pictures with large seasonal decorations.

That's why when my chance came around again this year, I didn't hesitate. Well, I kind of did. Instead of getting my picture taken with the holiday ornaments during the unseasonably warm December we've had, I waited til the day before vacation started, when the temperatures plunged to 20 and 30 degrees. That means that in the Picture of the Day below, I am so so cold. And as a result of being cold, my photographer and I didn't really want to play around and figure out the best angle for these pictures. We just took two and ran back inside where it was warm.

One sad thing that you learn when you're up close and personal with the ornaments is that they're all scratched up. But here you go, Mom. Here are pictures of me with those ornaments, one year later.