Helms Christmas 2013

2013 was another nice Christmas for the Helms Family.  Due to some last minute changes, we ended up having a Christmas celebration on several different days in several different places.

Christmas for us started on December 22nd at a "Christmas Eve" service at Lake Pointe Church.   It was a really nice service that concluded with the traditional singing of Silent Night.  It was amazing to see 4500 people singing and holding up candles.  

We had our family Christmas the next day at home on December 23rd.  The kids opened up their gifts which included giant candy boxes.  

Josh got a "Flipeez" - a hat that has ears that flip up when you squeeze the end.

One of Triniti's gifts was an iPad mini.  I love Brittany's reaction in the background.  You can almost hear here saying - "What the heck, I never got an iPad."  

This is Skylin's reaction when she opened her motorized Razer scooter.   

Daisy got gifts as well.

Triniti also got a few items for her room.

Josh also got a lightsaber.  

Daisy did a number on the Christmas tree.  She ate so many cords and lights it is a Christmas miracle that she is still alive.

The next stop was Christmas at my brother Jerry's house in Holden, Missouri on December 24th (Christmas Eve).   In one of Shawn Jr's gifts was a Duck Dynasty lottery ticket.  As they started scratching it off, he hit on every number.  Brittany immediately suspected it was a fake ticket.  But it was not.  Shawn Jr won $100!  

Misty got a new North Face coat from my parents.  Her and Brittany were matching.

Josh and Drew had fun fighting with their lightsabers.

We had a scare when Aunt Pat slipped on the ice and hit her head.  We called 911 and the paramedics came.  They ran her through a few tests.  She has a good bump on her head but was alright.  

Noelle, Sky and Brittany all got footy Christmas PJs.  

Maybe not exactly as cool as these Christmas Jammies.

Skylin in front of Grandma Sherry's tree.

We took a few family pictures outside.

The Helms kids.

The Helms girls.

On Christmas Day we went up to the IOOF hall in Windsor and had Christmas with Misty's side of the family.  

This is Noelle holding baby Karter.  Ah, how sweet.   She was loving it until . . . 

she got baby spit up all over her new North Face coat.  So funny.

Throughout the Christmas season we had a constant visitor.  Rosie, the Elf on the Shelf.  She showed up doing all sorts of things.

iPhone 5S Camera Comparison

Over the years I have taken the same picture with various iPhones.  Below is basically the same picture with several different iPhones.   I have taken this picture each December with the iPhone I have owned at the time.  Some were taken in the same year.  

As you can see, their was a dramatic improvement in the iPhone camera at the iPhone 4GS.  However, the iPhone 5S was advertised to have a much better camera.  However, according to these pictures, there is not too much improvement in low light from the 4GS.

iPhone 3GS

iPhone 4G

iPhone 4GS

iPhone 5GS

Below is a side-by-side comparison of 4GS with the 5GS.  The 5GS is on the left and the 4GS is on the right.  Much can be done with contrast and other settings, but in terms of pure picture quality, there is not much difference.

5GS                                                                             4GS

For comparison, below is a picture with a Nikon D90 DSLR.  Both the iPhone 5S and 4GS compare favorably to the Nikon D90 image.  No wonder that people are moving to taking pictures exclusively with this smartphones.  

Texas Winter

We went from 75 degrees on Wednesday to 30 degrees on Thursday.  Later that day we were covered with a solid sheet of ice.  School was out on Friday and we have been stuck at home this weekend.