Doing the Next Thing

a nd Happy New Year, from our family to yours! S (15), C (13), M (10), A (5), & K (3) Glory to God in the highest!

I've had a Nikon D40 for over 2 years now. My sweet sweet WONderful brother-in-law bought it for me - and I told him from the beginning it was a better camera than I deserve! The picture in that last post just proves that I'm not using this puppy to its fullest potential. I love using natural light and turning off the flash - but if there's too much of that natural light, the pics end up all washed out. It's bothered me for-EV-er and I've decided to do something about it! Before I resort to using my cell phone's camera to take all my pictures, I'm reading the manual for the camera (finally -ha!) and watching some Y*u T*be videos on tips & tricks. If any of you guys have a D40, or some other SLR digital camera, I'd be interested to hear any tips you have for settings, lenses, composition, etc. Thanks!

I take for granted sometimes that my Littles know all the things I've been teaching the Big 3 lo these many years. But I discovered yesterday there are some ... shall we say ... gaps in their body of knowledge about Advent and the Nativity. So I did it ... I broke down yesterday and bought this: The Little People Nativity set. Family Christian Store had it on sale. It's not elegant. It's a bit cartoonish. But it's got A (5) and K (3) enjoying the Christmas Story for hours on end and sparking their interest in hearing the story from the Bible.