The (Perfect) Christmas Photo

I am a perfectionist and can't leave well enough alone. I will do something as many times as needed until I think it's perfect, or as close to perfect as possible. Two weeks ago I took the annual Christmas photo of the kids to put on our holiday cards. It took about 45 minutes to get enough photos where they were all smiling, or at least looking, at the camera. It was a huge fiasco and I kept going until I was satisfied with one. After sending out a large batch I decided that the card should be a family portrait, and not just one of the kids. So this weekend I set out to try and do this all over again.



This was no easy task. I got ready almost two hours before everyone else. Then I washed and untangled daughter's hair and braided it all pretty and nice. We fought the whole time but I tried to maintain a Christmas spirit about it. Next, I convinced Oldest to get dressed in a nice shirt. Any shirt with buttons is considered a church shirt and he's not into it. Last, I dressed youngest in cute jeans, white shirt, and a Christmas colored tie. He discovered how fun taking the tie off was so keeping it on was a fiasco itself. Meanwhile, Hubby was still on the couch shouting at the TV. I convince him to get ready so that he can participate in a memorable picture with his beautiful family (not exactly how I put it but after several failed attempts at the nice way, I resorted to more "assertive language").


After setting the camera up on the "adjustable tripod" (baby highchair with adjustable height), we were all ready.




Here are my first practice pictures. Doesn't Oldest look so handsome! Never mind that he hadn't put his shoes on yet. He was such a good sport.






I wanted a few with just the just kids and this one represents most of those photos. Oldest is the only one smiling and looking, while Daughter intentionally does not look. For each photo, she intentionally tried to scoot her way out of it, just to drive me crazy. She was still holding a grudge about having her hair done. This was about our 15th picture.


















More practice photos, just wanted to make sure that we had the right height. Hubby was just having a blast.

Finally, the perfect picture! Oops, we're missing someone. We almost didn't catch it. Daughter of course, she slowly wiggled her way out of the photo, again.

I ultimately went with the photo on the left. I was not satisfied at first because Oldest had his eyes half closed and was chewing a piece of candy. But Youngest and Hubby were done with the entire process. But after looking at the picture though, I thought it was perfect. It makes me laugh. Daughter has a sneaky smirk, Youngest is jamming the 10th piece of candy I had given him to try and keep him still, Hubby was seething under his breath because he was missing the game, and I'm just praying that we are looking. Perfect!