Sometimes you want to keep it real, and
sometimes you want to make it look like you have it all together. Christmas
card 2016 looks pretty idyllic. But if every picture tells a story, this
Christmas card is telling a tall tale!
The vision in my head wasn’t clear to begin with.
Some years I know exactly what the photo will look like, and sometimes I’m a
little looser with the project, and since a big part of Christmas this year for
me was learning to let go of perfectionism, I was making myself be okay with my
lack of vision.
I saw another photo displayed in my
house that was taken in our yard, and I thought that angle would be great. My
son went to the UK last summer, so everyone has a Scottish plaid scarf. That
started to form an idea. I have adorable kitten heel red plaid shoes, maybe
plaid is our theme. What’s a Christmas greeting that rhymes with plaid? (That
sounds a little like perfectionism doesn’t it?)
In any case, when you have a barn in
your backyard, you do have a head start on the location for the shoot. And I
knew we had a bale of hay in the barn we could use as a seat, and a plaid wool
blanket we could sit on (perfectionism! called it!)
As has happened in the past few years,
with our older kids working, and involved in school activities, we had one,
three hour window of time, exactly two weeks before Christmas! A nail biter! We
bailed on church that morning even though it was my turn to teach Sunday School
because of a blizzard that was supposed to last all day. We still tried to make
a plan for the day, and I told everyone to show up in a dark sweater and a
plaid scarf at 2pm. At 1:55, with my make-up perfectly applied and everyone
dressed in a sweater, Jeff came in from his first pass with the snowblower,
sweaty, and unbelieving that I was still planning to go through with it.
Unfortunately, although he had been out
in the storm for over an hour and was pretty clear on how nasty it was, I had
no idea it was anything but a picturesque Michigan snowfall. He said it was
sleeting. I said we were dressed. I may have cried. I for sure yelled. Marriage
is not for sissies.
In the midst of this, our youngest, who
has special needs is not coping well at all. He does best with a plan, and the
blizzard changed every single plan we had for that day. And he does not
entertain himself well (read: at all). So he was melting down. Ears turning
red, voice going up a few octaves, and decibels.
But this is go time. It’s now or never.
We grabbed the plaid blanket out of the car. We rubber-banded the cellphone to
a tripod. We put that rigged up contraption inside a rough tote so it wouldn’t
be sleeted on. Within seconds of being outside I realized my husband was right,
this was NOT Christmas photo weather! We were being soaked! The sleet hurt. It
was polar vortex bitter cold. There was no last minute throwing off the coat to
look cute in a sweater. We used a self-timer and got a few shots, none of the
them great, but there was no way to really know because despite the snow, our
own family meltdown was rapidly occurring!
Back inside I used a Groupon and
purchased pictures from PhotoAffections (with whom I have no affiliation, or
sponsorship). I chose one of the designs on the first page without scrolling
through all the options as in past years, and set up my card in less than a
minute (take that perfectionism!). I sent it through that night, and by Tuesday
morning, no kidding, I had the most beautiful box of 100 cards delivered. Oh
happiness!
Then all we had to contend with was
that our computer reverted our mailing list back to 2012, and had lost all
changes and additions since that time. Oh well!
Right now I’m telling myself no card
next year. They’re expensive, it’s hard to get us all together, and my youngest
just doesn’t thrive well in family photo situations. But my memory’s not great,
so who knows?
If I had one piece of advice for a Christmas Card that will be a winner, I'd say stick to one photo, don't be lured into thinking more is better. And also that that one photo might just come from the middle of a meltdown, and it might just be okay. So that's two pieces of advice. But I think that second bit applies to life too, if you think about it!
