Christmas Card Photo Shoot

November 27, 2011

It dawned on me that if I wanted to get family holiday pictures, I had a fairly limited window of opportunity this year. Often there are two photo shoots to get the right shot for our Christmas cards--one where at least one child is in a sullen mood, or at least an onery one, and then one I schedule after hopelessly throwing in the towel, where we actually manage to find a good shot with all of them looking pretty darn pleasant simultaneously. This year, since Bree was only home from college for a few days, I didn't have time to do a re-shoot if I wanted all three of them in the picture. We'd have to get it right the first time. Luckily, the kids were in on my sense of urgency (they may or may not have been reminded by Doug to be as cooperative as possible), and I'm really happy with our results. Even though Nicholas good-naturedly grumbled under his breath just a little bit (he feels he can't be taken seriously as a dude if he doesn't grouse about family photos), and Danielle had to throw in the obligatory 'goofy face' every now and again, and Bree said to me at the outset, "Mom, you are limited to 100 frames and three scene changes," they all knew that it was important to me to get a good shot of all three of my favorite people, together.