This is a wonderful brief tutorial on how to take better pictures.

Some of the easiest things you can do that result in better pictures include:

1) Moving in closer to the subject. You see a lot of family photos where the background takes up as much space as the people, when the real subject of the photo is the smiling faces of your friends or family members.

2) Moving the subject from the middle. We have this natural tendency to center whatever we're photographing, and moving the subject off to the side of the picture (but not too close to the edge) in certain situations can result in a much more visually interesting photograph.

a few holiday photos

Happy new year, friends! After a full week off, it's back to work for me tomorrow. I have New Year's Day off, so it will be nice to kind of ease back into the work thing.

I will miss you, extra sleep.

a recipe

Here is the chicken chili recipe I found that's been getting rave reviews from the Rockies to the Great Bear Ski Hill:

Chicken Chili

1 lb. chicken
Olive oil
2 cups chopped/roasted Anaheim peppers - canned or fresh
2 cups chopped tomatillos - canned or fresh (if you can't find tomatillos, you can sometimes find tomatillo salsa or can use a jar of any sort of green chili salsa)
4-5 cups water or chicken broth
1 large white onion, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional: jalepenos

Cube chicken and cook in olive oil
Sautee garlic & onions together
In a large pan, add chicken, tomatillos, Anaheim peppers, chicken broth, garlic & onions
Let boil for 5 minutes, then simmer for an hour

Clark: Hey, Kids, I heard on the news that an airline pilot spotted Santa's sleigh on it's way in from New York City.

Eddie: [after a pause] You serious, Clark?

Merry, merry Christmas, all! It's really cold here in South Dakota, so we're sipping coffee, cozy in our PJ's, relaxing and trying to warm up.

Last night, we had a chili cook-off and made sugar cookies.

'Tis the season to be merry.

From my favorite holiday movie, Christmas Vacation:

Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, kiss my ass. Kiss his ass. Kiss your ass. Happy Hanukkah.