The Bittersweet Process of Family Pictures

The obligatory family photo.

How often does one do this? Should we be matching? Indoors or outside? Do we put the timer on or ask a friend to help out? Should we go more traditional and hit up JCPenney or some other store that caters to such things? Is this pic for the front of our Christmas card?? If so, when do we have to take it so as to have them printed and mailed in time?

These are the questions we asked ourselves as we tried to take a family picture. We want our picture to capture our natural selves in a nonplussed way without revealing the stress, tantrums, potty accidents, and wardrobe malfunctions that actually lead to the final outcome.

And why do we do this? 

Well, there are many reasons why people the world over have been capturing loved ones on film or on paper for hundreds of years. My top three reasons are:

1. I don't have many family pictures from my childhood. Actually, there are none. There was once a scrapbook I haphazardly put together in high school that ended up in a storage wars competition I'm sure when we couldn't pay the storage company anymore and all of our things were no longer our things.  I have one really great baby picture. So I feel this need to take at least one family photo annually so when the girls grow up they will have them.

2. I really like photos. Storytelling is part of our culture, the way we pass down history and communicate ideas. Photos are a great way to do that! The magic of a camera inspires me. Who came up with this fantastic idea to make a lasting imprint of a memory? There are records that indicate the idea started in the 10th century! Mind blowing, right? What an invention. I very much enjoy telling our story through prose and through images.  I recently visited Mexia, Texas (pronounced Mah-hair) to see my Great Aunt/Cousin Doris. I learned so much about my family's history. I can write about, but I can also show the pictures and express so much more about that moment.

3. Our families are widespread. From Alaska to Maine and everywhere in between. We talk on the phone, we send letters, we see each other when we can. But having pictures to share with our family is a way to include them in our lives.  A way to stay connected. 

And so, we take the picture! It's not really an obligation. It's part of my family's tradition and story. And we can let the work of it get to us and be stressful, or we can laugh when the dog takes out our photographer.  

It's not even our dog. He is cute though. Riley lives in the backyard we used to share with our neighbor who was renting the front house. 

Playing around on a lazy afternoon Matt took some fun pics of the girls and I. We were so excited by one them, we thought about photoshopping him in! But it just didn't look the same. 

As you know, this year's budget was all to the new house, so we weren't planning on doing Christmas cards. However, this photo deal came with six free cards! So we sent six Christmas cards. And left it at that. 

Those girls started re-arranging the set all by themselves. They are lucky they are cute! The people working were all too delighted to let us take apart their set and play inside the boxes and move chairs and sleds around. Say cheese!