The most stressful day of the year--getting the Christmas picture taken! October 23, 2015

 
                         Waiting for the photo session to begin...

                                       Lily always manages to get into the big picture...

                                     
                                                      Jack....

                                                   
                                                                  Getting placed....

                                         Someone apparently pulled Lily's hair....

                                         This was the goofy photo.....

                       And then, Lily made herself the subject of all of our attention, as always!!

                         
                                                        And, a change of clothes....


Last year, I didn't get our Christmas picture taken until the day after Jack came home for Christmas break (he got in late the night before), which I believe was on December 22nd.   I had to get him out of bed to get his hair cut,  waited for people to come home from school and work, and then we went up to the Picture People, which is where we always get our Christmas photo taken. Unfortunately, even though we had an appointment, we waited for at least two hours.    I worked hard, but the cards didn't go out until December 23rd, which means they were lost by anyone who received them on the 24th (who looks at the mail on Christmas Eve?).

I can't believe that many people wait to get their picture taken.  I used to try to get ours taken by December 1st, but Jack didn't come home for Thanksgiving, and I wasn't thinking about the Christmas picture in mid-October when he came home for Fall Break last year.

This year, though, I was thinking about it.   I told Jack to get his hair cut at Notre Dame in early October, so it wasn't too short for the picture.  I got matching shirts for the boys at the GAP, and Anna and Lily wore Lilly Pulitzer dresses they already had.    And I made an appointment at the Picture People at the Montgomery Mall for Friday night, right after work.  

I say every year, this is the most stressful day of the year, which I guess is a good thing that my stress level is pretty low.  I think I always make a big deal of this, because I have so few photos of me and my siblings as children.  In fact, I think I have about 5 of me.   So, I always said that if something happened to me, I wanted to make sure that my children had good photos of themselves growing up.

To be honest, it is definitely less stressful getting this annual Christmas picture taken than when they were young, because the intricate planning and buying of matching outfits could all go terribly wrong if someone got upset about something and refused to cooperate.  I remember a lot of bribing, which usually involved promising to get them something sweet after the photos were done.  So, it has definitely improved, but the feeling of dread, for some reason, hasn't gone away.  PTSD, perhaps.

Anyway, I have also learned that I have to be fairly hands-on with the photographers.  These photographers are unbelievably nice, but they do have an agenda, which is to get a few shots, and hope that when presented with a few shots, parents will in desperation buy whatever is presented to them.  But with 5 children, that increases the odds that someone will not be looking, will have his eyes closed (Timmy!!), or just not be smiling.  So, I have learned that I have to keep on pushing for them to take numerous shots and poses (it is just digital now, right?) and we always buy several poses, so I think it is all good.

Anyway, this year, our appointment was at 5:40, and we were out of the place by 6:30.  We always go up to eat while they are developing and printing out the poses, and then, in the old days, Chris and I would go back and order the pictures, which would take up to an hour deciding all the various things we wanted.  It was torture.  There were many years when we would literally be the last people out of the mall.

About 3 years ago, I got smart, and let Chris do it by having him order only 25 cards.  Then, I can go back, look at the shots on the disc, and order the one I like.   He pretty much knows what to do, but f he decides on a pose I don't like (like this year!!), I can go back and order the cards with the pose I like.

So, another year down.  I will show you all the photo we decided on later.  One of the joys of getting your Christmas picture done early, is that you have time to kill before you have to worry about sending out the cards.   But, I have included some of the "behind the scenes" shots while we were waiting to get the shots!!