My kids are getting excited for Christmas. It's our last week of school before break. DS won the Ugly Christmas Sweater contest at church yesterday and DD will be baking cookies this week for a competition for her group (She loves baking!) We went to a Christmas production this weekend. It wasn't a stereotypical Nativity retelling so it was kind of refreshing and very well done. The young woman who had a solo as Mary was very talented. They have a Fine Arts program for the teens and they were REALLY good. I wish I had video to share of their numbers. Apparently they've won national competitions before and I know they require a LOT of dedication from them. It shows!! It's really starting to feel like that festive time of year. It's half 
and half 
.
I got interrupted with a package being delivered and getting stuck in a group text between my aunt, cousins and I. My aunt loves to crochet. She's ALWAYS making something new. If she's not crocheting she's sewing something or making some kind of craft. So my cousin sent someone's family picture where everyone is wearing basically a crochet tank top with a granny square on the front. My cousin wants to do family pictures. My aunt said no.
(Apparently she hates making granny squares.) Part of me hopes she secretly makes them and makes them all pose for a picture. It would be so bad it would be amazing. Epic! 
Have you ever done family group photos? Did they go well or were they a fail?
I have a couple so bad they are "good" ones. When my mom and step-dad had been married maybe a year or so they decided to take us all to Walmart for a family photo. We even got new clothes. (5 kids; that's a lot...) The problem? I desperately needed my bangs trimmed; so you can't see my eyes behind my giant glasses. My dress I chose? I looked like a 40 year old woman instead of a preteen.
Someone decided to curl my youngest step sister's naturally curly hair. No one knew how to handle curls back then I guess. She looked like an 80 year old woman. Needless to say; that picture does NOT have a place on the wall in anyone's house.
Several years ago when both my cousin's on my dad's side started having kids they decided we should get pictures of us and the kids together. The youngest wasn't old enough to sit up yet and the next youngest was in the cry over everything phase. For the most part we managed some good photos for having 5 little kids! I was so nervous though my fascial muscles were literally not cooperating. My smiles were so awkward! I couldn't fake it. We did those at a portrait studio and they earned their sales with us that day! Our grandma really liked them so that was all that mattered. We've since added another kiddo to the family so I think we should redo pictures. Maybe hire a photographer to do them somewhere in nature so we can get some good candid shots if the poses aren't so good.
When I was a kid my other grandpa used to set his camera on a tripod and use a timer to take a family group picture when we were all together or on the holidays. Those are my favorite ones. Maybe it's the setting of their Livingroom and backyard; but they look so much more personal.
DS's newborn photos were a riot because DD was 2. the photographer was my friend's mother so she sent me the good, the bad and the hilarious. We've got one where DH is holding DD upside down because she wouldn't sit still and smile and DS decided to start crying so I'm trying to soothe him with my yap open. It's bad! But it's real. We tried to get just the 2 of them at his first Christmas. DS dressed in a puppy costume in a wrapped box and DD next to him. The fireplace was lit for real so that made it a quick work but they were cuter at least. Neither smiled at the same time of course. It was an adventure! The best ones were from her catching the kids expressions because her dogs were barking at the glass door. Maybe we should have brought one inside.
and half .I got interrupted with a package being delivered and getting stuck in a group text between my aunt, cousins and I. My aunt loves to crochet. She's ALWAYS making something new. If she's not crocheting she's sewing something or making some kind of craft. So my cousin sent someone's family picture where everyone is wearing basically a crochet tank top with a granny square on the front. My cousin wants to do family pictures. My aunt said no.
(Apparently she hates making granny squares.) Part of me hopes she secretly makes them and makes them all pose for a picture. It would be so bad it would be amazing. Epic! Have you ever done family group photos? Did they go well or were they a fail?
I have a couple so bad they are "good" ones. When my mom and step-dad had been married maybe a year or so they decided to take us all to Walmart for a family photo. We even got new clothes. (5 kids; that's a lot...) The problem? I desperately needed my bangs trimmed; so you can't see my eyes behind my giant glasses. My dress I chose? I looked like a 40 year old woman instead of a preteen.
Someone decided to curl my youngest step sister's naturally curly hair. No one knew how to handle curls back then I guess. She looked like an 80 year old woman. Needless to say; that picture does NOT have a place on the wall in anyone's house. Several years ago when both my cousin's on my dad's side started having kids they decided we should get pictures of us and the kids together. The youngest wasn't old enough to sit up yet and the next youngest was in the cry over everything phase. For the most part we managed some good photos for having 5 little kids! I was so nervous though my fascial muscles were literally not cooperating. My smiles were so awkward! I couldn't fake it. We did those at a portrait studio and they earned their sales with us that day! Our grandma really liked them so that was all that mattered. We've since added another kiddo to the family so I think we should redo pictures. Maybe hire a photographer to do them somewhere in nature so we can get some good candid shots if the poses aren't so good.
When I was a kid my other grandpa used to set his camera on a tripod and use a timer to take a family group picture when we were all together or on the holidays. Those are my favorite ones. Maybe it's the setting of their Livingroom and backyard; but they look so much more personal.
DS's newborn photos were a riot because DD was 2. the photographer was my friend's mother so she sent me the good, the bad and the hilarious. We've got one where DH is holding DD upside down because she wouldn't sit still and smile and DS decided to start crying so I'm trying to soothe him with my yap open.
It's bad! But it's real. We tried to get just the 2 of them at his first Christmas. DS dressed in a puppy costume in a wrapped box and DD next to him. The fireplace was lit for real so that made it a quick work but they were cuter at least. Neither smiled at the same time of course. It was an adventure! The best ones were from her catching the kids expressions because her dogs were barking at the glass door. Maybe we should have brought one inside. 
