Tonight we gave Kate her big Christmas gift from us, a miniature digital keyboard. Since we'll be leaving town in a few days and it can't come with us, we thought we'd let her get a few days in playing with it. I make it sound like this was a well-thought-out decision, but actually, the thing wasn't in the house for 10 minutes before we decided amongst ourselves that it would be way more fun to let her open it and watch her play with it than it would be to wait. We're probably going to need to get better at keeping secrets if we're going to survive Christmases as the parents of older children. Still, it was worth it, because I kind of needed some immediate payoff after what I went through to get the thing. Today, friends, I made my first Christmas season trip down the toy aisle at Target, and it really didn't go well. First of all, I started at the whole wrong end of the department and ended up working my way from the older kids toys down to baby toys, which took forever. Rookie mistake. But along the way I got more than an education in what passes for a children's toy these days. For instance is it just me or do Bratz dolls look kind of slutty? Because that was the first word that came to mind, and that aisle was so busy I was afraid I would be assaulted if I so much as set foot in it, not that I wanted to. All in all, I breathed a sigh of relief when I reached toddler and infant toys, where I meant to be all along, and was once again in familiar territory. I think I can safely predict that I will be doing a lot of shopping for Kate online in the future. From some place that sells dolls that come with actual clothes.

The good news is that Kate really likes her keyboard and I really like the volume control button. So everyone is happy.

On a completely different note: Since perhaps some of the people doing this project know a thing or two about photography, I have to say I am really frustrated with my Canon Powershot right now, and I am wondering if anyone has any tips for me. Overall, it's a good camera, but its single greatest weakness in my opinion is that it takes terrible pictures in low light. If you are shooting in anything less than natural daylight and there is even the slightest bit of motion, the whole picture becomes a blur. Meanwhile the flash is so strong that photos look like they were taken in the headlights of an oncoming truck if you use it. Since it's getting dark early now, and the light inside our house isn't the best, I feel like 80 percent of my photos aren't turning out. So do any Powershot owners (or anyone else for that matter) have any tips for me on settings I could adjust to help with this? I know the camera gives me the option of custom setting a lot of its features, but I haven't spent enough time learning what they mean to really make any good decisions for myself. I just want to benefit from your hard-earned knowledge. Isn't the Internet convenient?