Christmas Card Pictures

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Yes, yes, yes. Beyond the religious meaning of Christmas (which is of course most important) comes a lot of little preparations for the season. The first for me every year is getting a tree. Then of course you need to decorate it. Once that is done, I take a deep breath for about five seconds before I move my mind to the next item on the list. Next, are Christmas card pictures. Okay. I prepare as much as I can. I buy their outfits as soon as they come out in the catalog and also scout out and purchase Christmas cards before November even hits. Call me crazy but if I do it this way- the outfits and cards themselves do not bother me. Now the Christmas picture. Yes. This is where the drama begins.

When I think back to my childhood Christmas picture- I think of pure torture. Being one of five girls, it took the perfect storm for all of us to be looking at the camera at the same time. We didn't have digital cameras back then so my Mom would shoot like five rolls before the photo shoot was over. When we got them developed, there was seriously always only one picture that would work. The rest were littered with kids looking the wrong way, looking at their sister, laying on the ground, eyes closed, some crying, and some of us had our fingers in their noses and/or pants. I will name NO names here. But now that I am older, I am so glad my Mom an Dad went through that craziness so we have those pictures to look at now.

This year, things actually went pretty smoothly. Damien was out of town and I would have loved his help- but I also knew that if I did it fast, it wouldn't be that bad! All in all, it went really well. Sure there were some high energy moments where I was telling them to just 'sit and smile' but I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome of the photo shoot. The picture on the top of this blog is our 2009 Christmas Card picture. While I LOVE this picture of my kids- there were some honorable mentions I just had to share. So without further adieu- here they are in no particular order!

I asked Michael and Claire to pose for me to see if the shot would be a good one and wanted to check the lighting. So far- so good. We have smiles.

This is probably shot #13 or so. Claire is 'over smiling' or you might want to call it 'forced hysterical laughter'. Yeah. This one isn't going to work. Plus- Emily is about to fall out of the chair.

We are starting to have more significant problems but surprisingly- the boys are holding it together! Emily is slumped to the side and Claire wants to help her. Still haven't gotten a good shot yet!

Matthew is fading fast. Poor guy. He is in the awkward smile phase anyway so I am trying desperately to make him smile. Man, if you could have been in the room. I was saying things like 'Oh, man! A bird just pooped on my head!'. Yeah. Still not working. This is when having Damien there would've helped. He is the one who has things 'poop on my head' so they look at the camera. He has also been known to do a few Do'h like Homer Simpson which gets a good natural chuckle from the kids.

Seriously? Really? I am starting to doubt the success of my venture. But I must press on. Michael, my little love. He will give one or two natural smiles then falls victim to what I like to call 'cement cheeks' where he can't seem to move his face anymore. It gets caught in this 'smilish pose' but also looks like he might be sleeping with his eyes open. And Matthew, or goose as we like to call him, is totally in the squinty eyed smile phase. I love it though and it was the smile he used in the Christmas Card Picture!

Cement cheeks and squinty eyes strike again!

Almost had it- but alas, Matthew needed to check if Claire was smiling.

Turns out, I got my Christmas Card Picture a few shots back and the kids are DONE with this process. Kudos to Michael and his cheeks for hanging in there. And where the heck is Emily? Merry Christmas to all and to all a good picture.