December 28, 2011
This was a Sunshine State Christmas for us. We got flights up Miami for the holidays about a month and a half ago and I’d been looking forward to the trip ever since then.
The weather here is perfect right now — sunny, balmy, 80 degrees. Warm enough to make you happy but not hot enough to make you sweat.
We’re not huge Christmas people. Seba and I normally don’t even get each other gifts. I mean, we do. But more on random occasions when inspiration strikes than because we feel the pressure of a looming red date on the calendar.
But when I got to my dad’s house, I started getting in the spirit!
He had this adorable Christmas tree up. Charlie Brown, baby!
And it was filled with presents! We’d agreed not to buy each other anything, but happily, we all broke the rules. Which was convenient because if only one person had broken the rules and purchased gifts the others would’ve felt really bad.
There was even more under this tree when we first arrived. But my dad and I are the same in that we cannot stand to wait to give people their presents. So of course when he said, “Can we celebrate Christmas early?” using the excuse that we had to drive up to my Grandma’s and it would be inconvenient to take all the presents up there, we started digging into the stockpile.
And then every day we opened a few more 
My dad spoiled us rotten with Godiva — all for me, Seba doesn’t like chocolate. Neither does my dad, so that made it obvious who the culprit was when in just four days I opened the empty box and sadly asked, “Who ate all my chocolate?”
He also gave me a gift certificate and along with some other Christmas shopping money I received, I went and did some damage at the mall! My main purchase was a pair of Helmut Lang shorts. I am crazy obsessed with them because they’re gorgeous. This was a big deal, as they were expensive (even though they were bought on crazy sale at less than half their original price!) and used up the bulk of my Christmas gifts, but also because I never wear shorts. 99% of the time, in life, you’ll find me in dresses or skirts.
But this year I’m challenging myself to break out and wear more separates. I want to make bolder fashion choices and not always stick to such a routine.
Hence the reason, in tandem with the beautiful, beige, linen shorts, I bought the world’s ugliest pair of crazy patterned hammer pants from Forever 21
To every ying there must be a yang.
And my dad spoiled us rotten in another way…he’s cooked for us quite a few times while we’ve been here! My dad is an amazing chef but works a lot and normally doesn’t have the extra time to spend in the kitchen. This holiday season he whipped up a couple incredible meals for us. Simple but delicious. See Exhibit A below. Note: that is not my steak. I am weirdly weird and don’t eat steak. I enjoyed chicken breast with that meal.
I gave Seba a fantastic and possibly relationship-destroying gift this year — noise canceling headphones. Now, when I talk to him, he looks back at me blankly, points the headphones then shouts at eardrum exploding levels, “I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” You know, because he can’t hear himself either
But he’s been wanting those headphones forever so my dad and I went in together and got them for him. It was nice to give Seba a gift he was really into, he’s a hard man to shop for.
Did you receive or give any gifts you’re extra excited about?
December 25, 2011
Happy holidays to all! I hope you’re enjoying this time of year as much as I am. While I’m not one for religious celebrations, I do appreciate any good excuse to hang out with people I love dearly and tell them how much they mean to me.
I am a cheese MACHINE and I adore writing to my friends and family and getting a little sappy. So much so, that sometimes they write back in response to me pouring out my heart, “Kyle, were you drunk when you wrote this?”
No. No I was not. I just love you, get over it.
Speaking of people I love. Seba, of course, and Ashley Ambirge and Leo Druker. In July of this year I traveled with Ash and Leo to Paris to photography Claudia and Manu’s adorable city hall wedding and it was an all around amazing trip. So much so, in fact, that I gave them a permanent standing invitation to accompany us anytime, anywhere. You’d think I would’ve learned after the first time around, that they’d take me up on that offer! And I’m happy they did People who say yes to life make this world so much more fun.
So the four of us hopped on a few flights and met up down in Frutillar, in the South of Chile.
Our first day, we took our tiny rental car out to explore the area, over the river and through the woods…
I absolutely adore the South of Chile. It’s beautifully idyllic in the Frutillar region — we were told that the main exports from this part of Chile are agriculture and salmon so we passed by a lot of farms.
I believe it was Ash who said, “I wouldn’t mind being one of those cows.”
These ones certainly had some amazing views of one of the many volcanoes around these parts.
I thought it was absolutely hilarious that Ash was on vacation with three professional photographers and she followed us around taking pictures with the camera on her cell phone — not even a point and shoot, not even an iPhone camera!
Seriously, how gorgeous is this place? This is a view of Lago Llanquihue and I believe that’s the tiny town of Puerto Octay and Volcan Osorno that we’re overlooking here.
Going on a road trip with me is a NIGHTMARE. A. I have to go to the bathroom constantly — yet I continue to drink massive amounts of water. And B. I want to stop every second that I’m not already stopped to pee, to take pictures.
We drove by this little beach area and I asked Seba to pull over.
We would’ve been idiots not to take advantage of this little chunk of peace and quiet in this crazy world we live in. I felt serene looking out over the water. I never feel serene. I am the opposite of a serene person.
I’m sorry if your retinas were temporarily blinded by my white legs. They don’t see the sun too often and when they do, they wear SPF One Billion.
I’d like to draw your attention to Ash trying to jump the stream. It was a wide stream. With rocks on the other side.
This is what you get when you do something stupid on vacation with photographers Your major wipe out is not only recorded, but then blogged about — probably in multiple places, I’m assuming Leo will post about this as well.
Even though the water made my toes turn into icicles, I still stand by the fact that my way was the way to go.
Seba always looks mean in pictures, no matter where we are or what we’re doing — but I promise, he’s actually enjoying himself here, immensely!
This was our last stop as we made our way up closer to the giant volcano so we could take a ski lift up it to get as close to the top as we were going to get.
The views were already breathtaking and we still had several hundred feet to go!
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December 21, 2011
I can’t believe I forgot to post this gem when I put up Vale and Stanley’s Day After session! Since I don’t have time to write an actual blog post I’m glad I can give you something to feast your eyes on in the mean time.
Also, this picture only happened because the horses ran away from us when we went over to take a picture where they were grazing together. Damn horses. But this is so much better than my original idea
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