photovent 2010, day 25: beauty (and god bless us all, every one)

"Life is full of beauty.  Notice it.  Notice the bumblebee, the small child, the smiling faces.  Smell the rain, and feel the wind.  Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams."

~ Ashley Smith

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Today is my absolute favourite day of the year.  Christmas Day is awesome of course, with its feasts and presents and music and celebration, but for me, Christmas Eve is where it's at:  it feels like a day of stillness, of anticipation, of oh-my-goodness-what-Child-is-this-ness.  It's the night when kids try to fight sleep to catch a glimpse of Santa, when parents fight sleep to stay up late enough to get the presents under the tree without detection, before gratefully collapsing in their beds.

Christmas Eve is the o-holy-night. It's when everything wonderful goes down.

So, with that, I'm off to enjoy this beautiful, quiet, magical day.  A very Merry Christmas from our family to yours, my friends. 

Family Christmas card self portrait, photographed December 11, 2010.

And wherever in the world you are, whether you celebrate or not, here's wishing you all the beauty of the season.

The image at the top of this post is the 25th and last image of Photovent 2010.  You can download the pdf for it here.  And click here to learn how to use it to assemble a beautifully different photo garland.

Song: What Child is this (Greensleeves) as performed by the Vince Guaraldi Trio