A Christmas Photo in Two Takes

Every year, the trek to the photo studio for the annual family Christmas picture is a major undertaking. It needs to go on my WH's calendar weeks in advance. It has to be the first appointment of the day so that we don't end up with a long wait and grumpy children. It must be perfectly timed so as to fit into work schedules, preschool schedules, napping schedules, eating schedules. Everyone must be freshly bathed, all clothes must be pressed, every hair must be in place. Speaking of clothing, all of the outfits must coordinate with each other ever so subtly, without being too matchy-matchy and without clashing with the studio's background colors. (Would I go so far as to check out the studio's Christmas set in advance of the appointment in order to make clothing decisions? Yes, sadly, I would.) And some outfits are not donned until we actually arrive for the appointment. (I mean, have you seen what car seat straps can do to a smocked dress?)

It's the equivalent of coordinating a shuttle launch, really. And each time, when it's over and I walk out with the pictures in hand, I feel like I've prematurely aged 5 years.

For the past two years, Baby Girl has been the dealbreaker. She's good for one shot, maybe two and then the waterworks start and the nose starts running and everything gets really messy, really fast. So, this year, I went as far as to tell the photographer, "You get one take before my daughter loses it." His eyes darted at me with a look that said "Lady, I do this ALL DAY. I think I know what I'm doing."

Sure enough, two minutes later, Baby Girl started crying and didn't stop for the rest of the session. They pulled out stuffed animals and balls, and they recruited other staff to come in and make funny faces at her. She would have none of it. The photographer even looked up at me and uttered, "you weren't kidding about her." At some point, when the rest of us couldn't really take it anymore, I asked if we had one shot we could use. Thankfully, we had two.


So here it is - our own little Christmas miracle - I mean Christmas photo - the neatly pressed version.
























And then there's this. The more relaxed, slightly wrinkled, much closer-to-reality version of us.