Once she got into digital photography, she was able to take incredible pictures of her beloved beach year round. Being a creative individual, one day she brought along a Santa hat, a red and green striped beach towel, and some candy canes. She staged a holiday scene with the hat on the back corner of her beach chair and the towel draped over the arm and onto the sand with a few candy canes placed on it.

Last week she sent me a preview of this year’s Christmas card. Her entirely unique photo Christmas card for 2008 shows the back of Santa’s beach chair sitting in the shade of a palm tree, looking out across the sunlit sand to the turquoise ocean where he seems to have gone for a swim. How delightful…and how “her.”

So, while I’m freezing this December putting up my outdoor Christmas lights, I’ll have a clear picture of how my cousin is toughing it out on a balmy beach. She always did make me smile.