Christmas Card Photo Challenge

Getting the perfect Christmas card put together this year was way more of a challenge than I expected. I started researching some poses and ideas from the Internet and got set on the idea of having small white Christmas lights in our photo that would light up our faces and use something involving the phrase "Merry and Bright". Yes, this is what we would do. What I didn't count on was the fact that I have two 18 month old boys who have no interest in holding still, posing and smiling, and found the lit lights to be slightly scary and uninteresting. I was certain they would be fascinated by them. Wrong. We even ordered a wireless remote so we could set the camera on the tripod and snap photos ourselves of the 4 of us. Ha! A couple of weeks ago I planned what we would wear to church so we could come home and try some shots throughout the day while we looked nice. I about lost my mind. First of all, post-church is almost always a cranky time for them for whatever reason. So that was pretty much a bust. No matter. I decided we would get our perfect shots after naps when they were fresh. We tested lighting and I set up our scenes. They may have been more rested, but they still had no interest in posing for photos with scary lights in front of our tree. We tried group shots, individual shots, inside, outside. I was getting so frustrated. It was just another moment of great expectations and vision that was quickly deflating to hopelessness and frustration. I looked through the hundred shots that night and actually found a couple of family shots that would probably work. Good of BJ and me with the boys looking stoic, but not angry. I figured I could get individual shots throughout the week. I had a couple potential ones of Pierce, but Blaine the mover and shaker would not do it. Finally one evening with BJ home, we threw on their new sweaters, did our goofiest voices and moves and got some pretty good ones. The final product may not have been perfect, but it was close enough! I know I'll be happy for the 348 attempt pictures we have. They are pretty funny!

And the final product...