One of my favorite Christmas traditions is creating/sending
the family Christmas card picture. From
my very first Christmas at 6 months old, my mom began taking a family Christmas
card picture, and it is a tradition I have continued with my own family. I love watching us grow and sharing those
memories with friends and family. I
remember as a child my mom would dress us up, often in matching or coordinating
outfits, plan her background, and pose us to try and catch the perfect smiles
for her picture. She would shoot through
an entire roll of film, then we would drop it off for developing. Four to five days later she would anxiously
pick up the pictures and flip through all 24 (or often the 27 exposure BONUS roll)
shots in hopes that she caught the perfectly cute picture. Usually, along with a perfect pose or two,
she had 22 outtakes that either made you completely crack up or shake your head
and groan.
For the past four Christmas seasons, I have found myself in
the same shoes my mama used to wear… outfits and back drop planned, then cross my
fingers and hope that my kiddo(s) cooperate for the perfect Christmas card
picture. I’m so thankful for the digital
age, where my pictures are now available for immediate review, however I still
tend to end up with 25 outtakes to 1 perfect picture.
This year was no exception, and was of course, a little trickier
considering I was trying to coerce smiles out of two children at the same time. At one point while we sat in front of the
Christmas tree with both boys in matching jammies, (a) politely and matter of
factly announced, “I’m done with this.”
(A) and I looked at each other and completely cracked up before we
turned to him and admitted defeat for that photo session.
A few days (and 3 photo sessions later) I sat down to choose
the pictures that would go on this year’s Christmas card. As I looked through the large amount of
outtakes, I couldn’t help but giggle and realize, that is where life really
happens… in the outtakes. Most days my
boys are not wearing coordinating clothes, honestly, most days they aren’t even
clean by the end of the day. It is rare
for everyone to be smiling at the same time, and it is extremely rare for them
to be sitting still. Most of the time, our
life doesn’t look like a perfect Christmas card picture, but that is ok. We may not have our act together, but
together we have a home that is filled with laughter and stories, love and
support. We answer 5,935,672 questions
per day and clean up close to that many messes.
We discuss the importance of healthy food and making the kind of choices
that would make Jesus happy. In the
outtakes we find teachable moments about safety and obedience, we make memories
that will last for years, and we learn to grow in patience. In the outtakes you see our real life- the
messy, beautiful chaos that makes a family.
Maybe someday I will get really brave and create a Christmas
card completely from the outtakes… but for this year I will still send out the
adorable picture where both kids are smiling and we look like we have it
together… and for now, I will share with you some of the outtakes.
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| This one had great potential... until you realize we are missing a kiddo- he jumped out of the picture just before it was "clicked" so he could peek in the window of another house in this Christmas village. |
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