Christmas has come and gone and we are quickly approaching the beginning of a new year.  Jodi and I spent a couple days in St. Louis with both of our families for the holiday and we really enjoyed the time we spent with them.  One of my favorite gifts I received was a zip up hoodie that is super warm and comfortable.

While in town, Jodi and I visited the cemetery and spent some time with mom and dad.  It's hard to believe it's been almost 5 months since mom left us.  We both miss her greatly and we missed her at Christmas.

Jayson really enjoyed his Christmas with us and got a lot of new toys, clothing and other kid stuff.  It was quite entertaining watching him open all of his gifts.  Naturally, the clothing wasn't much of an interest to him but he really liked his remote control car he got from his dad and his new "big boy" Cars bed for his room.

Our intern will be starting with us in one week from today.  We are both anxious to have her start and help us with our marketing and design work.  She will be with us for 10 hours per week for 4 months so that should be adequate time to get the things we need done and help her learn some new skills.

My goal for 2016 is to cut back on the number of sessions we did in 2015 but increase our average sale. Ideally, I'd like to stay around 50 sessions per year.  We did 73 in 2016 and that was a grind since they all happen in 5 months out of the year. If I were retired and the photography was the only work I was doing, more sessions would be welcome but as long as I'm working full time I'd like to keep the number a bit lower.  We're making some changes that hopefully will allow us to achieve our goal.  I want to be at the point where we are telling people we are fully booked for the year and cannot get them in, making people realize they have to book well in advance to use our studio.