Enjoying the Moment

Ahhh, the annual right of passage as a family…the infamous Christmas Card picture.

Each year we try to get the kids together and capture some “magical” moment that will make for the perfect culmination of the year, a personal moment to look back at years down the line and smile, and an image(s) that will sum up our family adventures for family and friends in a few (significantly less than I have ever been able to do on my blog) words.

Each year, I am positive that we will never get anything better than the previous year. And each year, I wonder why we do it…until the cards come and we begin mailing them out.

This year was no different except that instead of me, Jenn & Pap-Pap (our resident photographer who basically holds his finger down and shoots roughly 100 pictures a minute because “one of them is bound to be good”) all trying to orchestrate the madness, we worked with our friend Kat to get legitimate family photos.

In arriving, we realized how infrequently we ever get a picture that includes all of us at one time. We also realized how difficult it is to get a picture that includes all of us at one time. The last time we had an organized family photo taken was 3 years ago (with Kat) when Grace was about 2 months old.

We had big hopes for these pictures…and then we arrived. As soon as we got out, the kids realized that they had been unleashed into an awesome playground. There were leaves everywhere, there were trees to run & hide behind all around and there were daddy-long-legs to potentially come home with us and be our new pets.

What there wasn’t…two kids eager to sit down, pose and smile for the camera.

As soon as Grace was willing to sit for a picture, Nolin was off…and the same held true when Nolin was ready to take a picture. At this point I think both Jenn and I realized that the opportunity to get a nice family photo just probably wasn’t in the cards. Kat just kept laughing and taking pictures.

When it was all done, the kids found a mud puddle to jump in which just about summed up the photo shoot. Jenn and I looked at each other and said, if Kat can get just one decent picture it will be a success.

Turns out it was a success. Before we saw the pictures Kat said they were great, but the candid shots were her favorite. When we got them it was difficult to choose which photo to use because there were so many good ones.

It made sense. Each year we typically end up using a “candid” shot because they are the best. It took someone else “watching” our family for me to realize that in the era of digital photos, cloud storage and social media, maybe we spend too much time focusing on the perfect moment, that we can overlook many of the truly perfect moments that are happening all the time.

So as we head into 2016, here’s to less stressing about the small stuff, enjoying the moment and many more great adventures…
  When Family Photo Time Turns Into Picking Up Daddy-Long Legs…