What our Christmas cards WON’T look like
December 2, 2009 by Shannon
It’s that time again — time for the yearly family photo in front of the Christmas tree.
Sheesh, what a chore.
Actually, it was a little less painful this year because my mom was around to take the shots. That way, Michael and I didn’t have to do the stand-up-sit-down dash to set the timer for every photo. But the fact that Grandma was around also made for a LOT of distraction. Kellan smiled a fair amount, but he also did plenty of squirming and face-making. I think he wanted to be done so he could get back to playing “band” with Grandma. She apparently needed some lessons in the proper way to hold a microphone.
So needless to say, there are a bunch of shots that WON’T make the annual photo card this year. But thanks to the miracle of blogging, those pictures won’t go to waste. Here they are for your viewing pleasure.
I'm thinking about sending an e-card this year with just this picture. I think it's hilarious.
Sigh. It's tough work being this glamorous. Where is my champagne? I cannot work under these conditions.
The Santa hat proved to be too much for Kellan's attention span to handle, prompting a blurried frenzy of hat-touching. (Note: I'm sporting my very best double chin. It's a nice one, don't you think?)
Yay! This one is almost kinda cute. Hmm. Maybe a little too cute. What is it about Christmas that makes me want to put ridiculous hats on my family's heads? And for that matter, why couldn't I pull my Santa hat down a bit? I look like I'm smuggling something under there.
In case you were wondering, this is what a complete lack of Christmas cheer looks like. Bah. Humbug.
However. As laborious as the family Christmas photo shoot can be, photo cards sure beat the crap out of handwriting dozens of Christmas cards every year. I love that once the shoot is done and the cards printed, all I have to do is stuff and address envelopes. In fact, I didn’t send Christmas cards for years because I didn’t want to write notes inside a bunch of them. And I couldn’t bring myself to only sign our names. (Don’t remind me about how many boxes of blank Christmas cards I have sitting around my house. I always had the best intentions.) Somehow, the photo card seems to make up for my card-writing laziness.
What’s your Christmas card policy? Do you send them every year, or only if you have time? Do you find photo cards cliche’ or do you find them to be a time saver?
Comments (8)
cliche - I’d rather get a form letter.
I only give to a few, so I select them individually - for the most part. (If I find a box that I like, I am not opposed to that route.) & We only sign our names…
These photos are hilarious, Shannon. I particularly like the one of Mike posing alone with the small chair. The past few years I’ve been sending out an email letter with a family pic or two attached. This is mostly to save on stamps and money and because it saves time, all of which I’m strapped for during the holiday season. Bad thing is that those without email (WHA?!@#?! Who are these heathens?!) don’t get our greeting :(.
I love the pics. Sometimes the ones that are the most fun are the one’s that didn’t turn out quite right.
A couple years ago my son had to make a music video for his music appreciation class and ever since he has spent many hours making “music” videos out of anything I record. So we send out DVDs of his video collages which are his sports games and slide shows of pics. I love it because I don’t have to do anything except put labels on the envelopes. Although now that he’s older, I do have to make sure the music is appropriate to send to the family.
OMG!!! So funny! I do love your holiday cards each year! And I love to send them too! We’ve been doing holiday picture cards but Matt doesn’t like to get his picture taken which makes things a challenge to say the least! I like the one of you all individually…Mike with the chair…you in your glamour pose and Mr. Scrooge! So cute! I can’t wait to see the final product!
This year I told JJ that I thought we should only send photo cards to people we haven’t seen in a while, as like a “here’s what Jossy looks like now” thing, a little gift. But, JJ says he thinks just the opposite, that we should only send them to our closest friends and family. So, I will now end up sending them to everyone…if I have time that is!
Haha… love the one of your hubby and the empty chair… haha! And the nice family shot of you all is gorgeous! You look great! And your little boy is too cute!
We’ve been pretty bad with Christmas cards, or cards of any kind for that matter. I’m bound and determined that 2010 will be the year of holiday cheer from the Thornton family. In the meantime we’ll just have to hope that family and friends know we love them, cause we do.
Photoshop has solved my Christmas card problems. All I need is one good picture of each of us, and through the miracles of computers, I can take the heads of each of us from the best pics and put them together in one! Kind of cheating, but no one has to know but me!