Christmas break is over and I've got some funky New Year's resolutions (although revolutions would be more welcome) to announce. First of all, I'm going to try and blog more whether someone's reading it or not. Secondly, I'm going to be uploading bigger pictures. None of my readers is getting their Internet via a 14K modem anymore. New decade demands new size. So how about this:

Do let me know if images are taking ages to download, but I don't think it should be a problem. I hate small sized photos. Their only advantage is that they should prevent theft, but who would want to steal a grainy, greenish picture of my kid rubbing her nose? Exactly.

Third resolution... well, there isn't one. I'm trying to remain realistic and stick to promises I can keep. If I think of something I'll let you know. In the meantime, here are some random impressions from our trip to Belgrade.

Una among kids in my uncle's old office, waiting for Santa. The animators got the kids to play a board game and she took part even though she wasn't sure what it was about. And later she jumped and danced with other kids and did whatever they were doing and she ignored Santa and wouldn't sit in his lap.

Una, my uncle and Sponge Bob at the Ulica otvorenog srca event. You can see I wasn't her favourite person at that moment.

Boats on my aunt's ceiling.

...at least for the holidays. We haven't planned it, but sometimes life doesn't go according to plan. Perhaps it's best not to plan.

I'll be back in the new year. Hopefully with photos galore of snow-covered hometown. Until then, have fun and enjoy Christmas!

Una's big birthday party is tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow. But today was her birthday. The day was stressful and banal (we spent it waiting at the consulate for her to get a new passport) and it didn't leave me much time to think about giving birth to her two years ago. Which is not really important because I think about that very often anyway - it doesn't take much to get me going. Either the weather is just the same as it was on 11th December 2007, or something about the quality of light that reminds me of the atmosphere in our hospital room, or clementines - I remember eating clementines a couple of days after the birth and the girl I shared the room with telling me that citrus fruit is bad if you're breastfeeding. Now I remember that every time I eat a clementine. The day of her birth is deeply intervowen with the fabric of my everyday existance, I don't need an anniversary to remember it. But 11th December is still the biggest day of the year for me and I need to celebrate it with friends. It was the first day of her life and the first day of my new life with her. So it's a big deal.

People don't really celebrate birthdays here, especially kids' birthdays are usually a quiet family affair. That's a shame really, because I can't think of a better way to say, let us celebrate because we're thankful that we're alive and well and that we have friends to share it with. What other day in a year is more important, which other opportunity more meaningful?

Happy birthday, my darling girl. A million kisses from mama & tata.

Nomen est omen - since I had decided to call our Christmas cookie expedition The Baking Inferno, the whole thing did indeed go to hell yesterday. The cookies looked good. Here is proof:

Exhibit A

Spritzgebäck (by Sonja)

Exhibit B

Dark Shortbread (by me)

Exhibit C

Banana Cookies (also by yours truly)

I won't be including the recipes this time around because there's not much to be proud of. If you know what Spritzgebäck means, then you know it's not supposed to look like that. The cookies should have been nicely formed by a pastry press with a star-shaped nozzle. The dough chose to melt during baking and became flat and shapeless. However, these are the tastiest of the lot.

The "dark" shortbread was a recipe from last year's Brigitte Plätzchen supplement. It's not shortbread. It's pure cocoa with a little bit of flour and sugar. If you're a chocoholic, you might like it, but it's definitely an acquired taste.

The Banana Cookies are a variation of my great-grandmother's cookie recipe. Changed to include bananas, and because mashed bananas make the dough soft, I had to add more flour than the recipe suggested. The result: a bland, forgettable cookie with a hint of banana, soft enough to become crumbly long before Christmas.

Yes, a disaster. An edible disaster, but a disaster nevertheless. I suppose that last week we had been treated by a streak of what is generally known as beginner's luck. This week was a rude awakening. But we're not discouraged and promise to do better next week. Or at least to try.

How typical of me - my blogversary was on the 23 November and I didn't even remember.

In general, I'm not taking this blogging thing seriously enough. I have a few faithful readers, I enjoy keeping them up-to-date with what's going on in my life. The goals I set myself in the intro entry (see above) have so far not been fulfilled.

1. Beyond the few first articles, I haven't written much about going pro and what it means. Or what it meant. So forget about it. From the money I earn through photography, I can afford to buy Una a set of Lego twice a year. It seems to me that I'm further away from being a pro now than I was a year ago. I am willing, but not really able (my photo equipment is everything but professional) and when it comes to self-promotion, I don't know what to do. I'm here to take the pictures, not sell them. I probably need an agent.

2. I don't really see myself as an artist at all. What I wrote there seems very pretentious now. I think I'm a good photographer. And that's about it.

3. As for the ropes of child portraiture - I've learned a lot there, actually. But I am extremely limited by my camera and lenses and I think I've used up their potential to the fullest. I'll tell you one thing though. Photographing a baby is worlds away from photographing a toddler. Think smiling, cute, huge-eyed, non-moving vs. ill-disposed, screaming, running, camera-snatching.

4. I haven't written more than 300 characters about the technique so far. Probably because 90% of my photos are taken at available light, ISO 400, 50mm fixed focal length and f/2. There.

5. Haha, some off-topic posts every now and then! You be the judge. Although I still haven't started embedding YouTube clips of people farting in front of a flame. But I do promise to set myself more realistic blogging goals for the upcoming year.