We left on Christmas to drive to the mountains of Tennessee.  Jason and I had the bright idea of driving through the night so the kids would all be sleeping.  That was a terrible idea!  We used to be awesome at road trips because we lived across the country from our families.  The drive there reminded us that we are older than we used to be!  It was gruesome and took us twice as long as we had planned, but we got there safely and that is all that matters.

For our vacation we rented a cabin in the mountains.  The view was absolutely gorgeous!  We had a three story cabin with a deck on every level and even the bottom level looked down onto tree tops.  There was a hot tub, a foosball table, a pool table, and a fireplace.  My favorite part of vacation was sitting by the fire place playing our son’s new chess game which he got for Christmas or reading our books.  We also visited the Great Smoky Mountains National Park but there was crazy traffic in the park so we didn’t explore too much.

Our cabin:

The view from our middle deck:

Playing games:

Two year old attitude (we told her she couldn’t have any more candy):

Our baby is 3 months old already!

Out to dinner:

The kids loved being in the hot tub in the cold mountain nights:

The jetted tub:

Waking up our son with a snowball (he wasn’t happy about it):

Some sleet/snow/rain mix:

Our drive to the National Park:

We got home from vacation in time to celebrate New Year’s Eve at home!  I thought all of the kids were going to make it to midnight but both of the girls fell asleep with less than an hour to go.  Jason and I rang in the new year with our two boys.  Our “Cheers” was with yummy sparkling grape juice and we had noisemakers and midnight kisses too!

Many blessings to all of you for the new year!

We hope all of you enjoy your New Year’s Eve celebrations and all the best for a terrific 2012!

We’re on Vacation Until the New Year!

We are away on vacation until the new year and will have limited access to internet or email.  We’ll process any orders and respond to emails as soon as we return.  Thanks!

The instructions on this tree say it can grow to be 40-80 feet tall!  We are going to try to plant it and see what happens:

We had elves helping the kids with coloring pages, letters to Santa, and other Christmas crafts such as picture frames and ornaments:

Every year the hot chocolate station is a huge hit!  We have whipped cream, marshmallows, and chocolate chips as toppings:

I didn’t do my Christmas baking yet but the desserts from the store were still yummy:

Balloon twisting and face painting!

Instead of reindeer and Christmas trees, the boys asked for lightsabers and swords:

Santa arrives!  The kids looked so amazed and excited:

Darth Maul meets Luke Skywalker:

As my friend Wendy said, nothing says Christmas like Darth Maul!

A pretty elf with her elf hat:

Yummy (and messy!) food:

The Darth Mauls and their lightsabers:

Pictures with Santa are always a blast!  Some kids are really happy to be with Santa, some are really NOT happy, and some could care less   Here are some smiles to start off with:

Just hanging with Santa:

And then the classic Santa crying pictures!  In this one, I love how she is checking him out and not liking what she sees:

Bet you can’t guess where her mom is standing:

1 out of 2 isn’t too bad!

Matching Santa hats:

More pictures with Santa:

Santa and Rudolph:

Santa isn’t just for kids!

Santa reading “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” to the kids:

When the story was done, this little girl walked up to Santa and asked him to read it to her again.  So sweet!

Thanks again to everyone who joined us, and Merry Christmas!

It was especially heart-warming for me to see how important the food drive was to our kids.  They would talk to people about how we were collecting food for those who didn’t have enough money to eat and about how we need to share our blessings.  They were excited to help in any way they could, from collecting food to counting the items to carrying all the bags and boxes of food.  Their enthusiasm and involvement makes me so proud and gives me great hope about the people they will grow up to be.

As we ended this year’s food drive, the word hope seemed to come up more and more for me.  I feel a little overly sappy saying it but really hope is what helping others is all about.  By giving food to the less fortunate you don’t just give them a meal, you also give them hope.  And by giving them hope you also help to give them a better future.

“Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.”  -Christopher Reeve

Just to give a frame of reference to the picture above, the letter “H” in “Help” has 102 cans!

The bidding for our annual food drive this year is over and WE HAVE MET OUR GOAL!  We really wanted to collect more food items this year than last year though we had set quite a high standard by collecting 1066 items last year.  Then, on the last day that we were accepting bids, we got a few large bids in and we were able to meet and surpass the number we collected last year!  Thanks to all of you who were generous and kind enough to send in a bid and get involved.  The top eight bidders have bid to donate a combined total of…

THANK YOU again to everyone who sent in a bid!  That is just absolutely amazing!!!!!  The top eight bidders who have won a holiday themed mini session with the disc of images are:

1. Andrea

2. Sara and John

3. Jessica

4. Lauren

5. Mary

6. Chelsea

7. Denise

8. Heather

Half of the bids were for more than 200 food items each!  That’s so amazing and generous!!  Some people sent in a bid but also said they might donate even more on the day of the sessions so we will share the exact numbers and the total amount of food items that were donated after the food is collected.

I will be emailing the winning bidders today so that they can choose their time slot for a mini session this Saturday, the 12th.

Thank you so very much to the generous winners and to all of you who took part of the bidding!  Anyone who still wants to drop off food or Publix gift cards can do so as well.  Just email us for drop off info and location.  Anything you can give is great.  As Mother Teresa said, “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”

This year we’d like to do even better!  Once again we will be having our food drive in the form of an auction.  Last year we had people bid on how many food items they would donate and the top five won free fall themed mini sessions with the disc of their images.  This year we’ll have even more winners so we can collect even more food for the hungry!  On November 12th, Jason will photograph EIGHT mini studio sessions with a holiday theme, perfect to use on your holiday cards.  Starting now people can bid on how many food items they will donate to win one of these mini sessions with the disc of images.  Send us your bid by emailing jasonangelini@aol.com and putting “Bid for Food Drive” in the subject line.  We will be accepting bids until midnight on Sunday, November 6th.

The food items must be non-perishable goods in cans, boxes, or plastic jars.  Please do not count any packets, bags, or pouches as part of your bid.  Also, the food pantry has asked that there be no glass jars please.  Some great ideas are cans of soup, canned fruits or vegetables, canned tuna, peanut butter in plastic jars, boxes of mac and cheese, boxes of rice, or boxes of pasta.  You could even donate part of a Thanksgiving dinner with canned green beans, canned cranberry sauce, a can of gravy, a can of jams, a box of stuffing, a box of instant mashed potatoes, and a box of cake mix with a can of icing.

We will also be accepting Publix gift cards for those of you who live out of town and want to win this as a gift for someone here in FL, or for those of you who just don’t want to carry around all those cans of food.  Every $1 on the gift card counts as one food item so with a bid of 100 food items you could donate a Publix gift card for $100.

The mini-session can be any type of session including engagement, maternity, baby, etc.  However, only one family can be included in a session and the bids must be made per child for every child who will be in the session.  For example, a family session with a mom, dad, and two kids could bid 100 cans per child.  Their donation would then be for 200 cans total.

We have a minimum bid of 50 food items (again, remembering that is per child).  The eight bids with the highest total number of food items will win a free holiday themed mini session with the disc of images.  We will announce the winners here on the blog on Monday, November 7th.  The sessions will be on November 12th with time slots starting at 11:15am and ending at 3:45pm.  The winners will get to choose their time in the order of the number of food items donated (most food donated gets first pick and so on) and they will bring their food items with them to their session on the 12th.  The session and disc are completely free to the winners but if any prints or products are ordered from these sessions we will donate all of the profits from those orders to Feeding America, a hunger relief charity.

There is such a great need for food right now in our community and beyond.  As we approach the holiday season, the season of giving, remember those who wonder where their next meal will come from.  For those of you who simply want to donate food items or grocery store gift cards to be given to the food pantry without being part of the auction, we’d be happy to accept those donations as well.  Friends, family, neighbors, other photographers, vendors, or anyone else who might be reading this, please get involved and send in or drop off a donation.  Whether it is one can or one hundred, we can all give something to help the hungry.  For everyone sending in bids to take part in the auction, be generous in your bids!  Think of how beautiful your holiday cards will look with an image taken by Jason on them.  How much would you pay for a session with a disc?  Consider spending that on food instead, and add extra as your donation to charity!  Send in your bids to help feed the hungry and get some great images for yourself at the same time!

We work with such kind, generous, amazing couples and families so we know this food drive is going to be a huge success.  We are so excited to see the good we can do together!

Here is a preview of our new Splash Page at www.jasonangelini.com:

The new Wedding Site:

And the new People Site:

We are still making a few little changes but now that everything is live and on line we were excited to share!

You can also see that our blog is updated as well!  This is officially the first post of the updated blog .  We’ve made many changes since we (or actually since our son!) first started blogging our weddings and sessions back in 2005.  This is the first time that the blog isn’t written in the voice of one of our kids.  We also have new features like the Share and Enjoy buttons!  Read the header at the top of the blog for more about the changes and new features.

We hope everyone likes the new sites and updated blog!  Thanks for checking them out!

And we also received the WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Award for 2011!  It is our second year being recognized for being in the top 5% of local wedding professionals demonstrating quality and service excellence from the WeddingWire Network!

A HUGE THANK YOU to all of our amazing brides!  We are grateful to all of you for allowing us to do what we love.  Thank you for inviting us into the special moments of your lives and allowing us to capture your memories.  We are so blessed!