Christmas Surprises and Impromptu Vacations

Happy 2012 Friends!!

I don’t like admitting it, but usually New Year’s Eve and Day are anticlimactic for me and I feel like sometimes the anticipation of New Year’s celebrations are better than the actual celebrations themselves.  Not this year!!  My husband, Michael, and I went to Chicago!  My Christmas present this year was a Contax 645 film camera!!  And… in an unexpected turn of Christmas Surprises… my grandpa-in-law (we will call him Grandpa Wendell from now on!), asked me if I would like to have is Graflex 22!  I was so excited and it ended up being one of the best surprise Christmas presents ever!  Grandpa Wendell then went on to say that he took photos of Richard Nixon with it for his local newspaper.  It means so much to me… and in addition to the vintage camera, there is an awesome camera box/suitcase, an old time flash, really fun to read instructions and best of all… there was a roll of film still in it!  I lifted up the little window to see what exposure it was on… and it looked like there were 8 photos already taken.  So Michael and I decided at 9:47pm on December 30th that we were going to drive to Chicago to finish Grandpa Wendell’s film off for New Year’s Eve/Day!  I haven’t sent in the photos yet… I want to finish off another couple rolls before I do… but I can’t wait to share what I have taken on one of the best of the best New Year’s yet!!

Above photo from my Canon 5d.