Merry Christmas To All

It's time to shut things down for a few days as Christmas time is here.  Large gatherings have never been my strong point, and though it's nice to see members of the family, I still manage to sneak away from the pack for a little alone time with some Christmas decorations.  In this case, we're going back in time to a jolly fellow who was created by yours truly way back when I was in elementary school.  Every year since, he has found his way onto the family Christmas tree put up by my parents.  He may not be the most attractive member of the family, but he is always a welcome site come Christmas time.  He may look a little sad, but I swear, he's happy to be hanging in our tree,  I used a large aperture to blur out the other decorations and the lights, and also did two different versions.  One horizontal and the other vertical.  The horizontal shot allowed me to get in some of the golden Christmas decoration into the right hand side of the photograph, while shooting vertically allowed me to get some more of the lights, as well as the reddish decoration you see in the bottom left of the photograph.  Just a couple of ways to get a little more colour and variety into the images.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/20sec, ISO 1000 at 48mm and the second photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/25sec, ISO 1000 at 51mm.  Those with sharp eyes might even be able to spot me in one of the photographs.  While you're all looking, allow me to wish you all a Merry Christmas.