Boxing Day in my house is the day of the traditional family walk – we take the dogs, anyone who has been foolish enough to join us for the holidays, and head to the beach.

Being the middle of winter, sunset is very early, and luckily this year we had a clear blue sky, allowing the beautiful light of sunset to flood the scene. (My only complaint is that being on the east coast of the UK, once you descend the cliffs to the beach below, you’re stuck mostly in shadow, except at the very edge of the sea!) I must admit, until yesterday, I hadn’t quite realised just how amazing this light is -

This shot was taken quite late in the walk, once we’d come back up the cliff and the sun was almost lost, just hitting the tops of these trees.

This was  a shot I took of our tree last year (during decoration  - it wasn’t actually that bare, honest!), but I felt it illustrated nicely the festive message I wanted to convey. So, merry Christmas to you all – my apologies for not posting terribly often any more, it’s on my New Year’s resolution list!

(It’s also a shot from last year because I broke my 50mm f/1.8 back in July when I was demob happy after finding out my degree result! Buying a new one hasn’t been the top of my priority list – a brand spanking new 27″ iMac – but it’s just the kind of lens that’s perfect for low-light Christmas tree shots. Plenty of bokeh!)

It’s traditional for us, as I guess most people, to take a nice long walk on Christmas Day (although this year my Christmas Day was actually Boxing Day. Curses). Since we’ve always lived by the sea, this usually means the beach, which can be hellishly cold in the middle of winter. This year I was wearing a t-shirt, a jumper, a hoodie and a big coat – along with hat, gloves and scarf. I think living in London has somewhat sheltered me from the elements.

So, this is Susie, our elder Boxer. We thought she’d died a couple of Christmases ago when she had a fit at the end of the garden – but she’s still with us, just. Unfortunately at over 13 I don’t expect her to make next Christmas, which is a shame because I prefer her to Roxy! (Don’t tell Mother…)

We didn’t make the beach this year, due to Susie’s ailing health. We live further away now, so it wouldn’t have been kind on the old girl to make her go all the way and back again, so it was just a quick one into Gunton Woods and back. Not that I’m complaining – made for some good shots, including this (my favourite of today) of pet senior.

You can see more photos from today in this flickr set.

A little festive cheer for today, it being Christmas Eve.

The decorations went up yesterday, and apparently so did my ability to operate the manual focus control, so I leave you with this out-of-focus and yet somehow “artistic” photo of our tree. (Mainly to avoid the embarassment of admitting we have an artificial one, but there we go.)

For those of you who don’t celebrate Christmas, well, to be honest neither do I  – at least not the religious aspect. Yes, another lapsed CofE Christian. But Christmas is still fun, and worth it even just for seeing the family.

Since family circumstances dictate that we’re not actually celebrating anything until Boxing Day, I won’t have any gorgeous photos of food (last time…this year) up until at least the 27th. I might try and resist, and save my depleting memory space for photos of the dogs down the beach on the traditional post-lunch walk. They’re gorgeous dogs, and the coast is pretty nice round here.

Another Christmas dinner, yet more photos of food – apologies, I will go back to something more interesting soon!

While I’m on the subject of food, however, thought I’d point out this really really scrumptious website. Not only does smitten kitchen offer some great recipes (I’m going to give the Chocolate Guinness Cake a go between Christmas and New Year), the photography is absolutely beautiful and far better than any food pics I am producing! (It probably doesn’t help my kitchen has horrid horrid strip lights in it!) Anyway, have a browse and make something, or just drool over your keyboard!

Just a note on my food pics so far, actually – all have been taken with my Canon 50mm f/1.8 II, which is a super cheap and super brilliant little lens. Wonderfully shallow depth of field thanks to that aperture, but I’m using it far too much at the moment! Must get the telephoto back out. I’m in Norwich tomorrow, so I might grab some nice architecture with it. There’s a lovely cathedral, Norman castle and just some funky buildings, so stay tuned.

It’s finally the Christmas season, so I thought I’d better get some pictures up on Flickr of this year’s celebrations. So far I’ve had a carol service, house party, two Christmas parties and a Christmas dinner, with another dinner tomorrow to follow last night’s. And all of that even before we’re halfway through December.

Christmas is a great time to take photos of food – there’s so much of it, lovingly prepared, that it looks as well as tastes gorgeous. Friends coming round, the house done up nice – all of it lends to great photos of happy times (unless, of course, you have a rubbish Christmas, in which case there’s probably not time between the arguments even to think about picking the camera up).

Hit the photo on left to reach my Christmas 08 set on Flickr; I hope you enjoy! (Also make sure to check out the A Very Christmas Flickr pool, which contains some great images.