The Great Christmas Card Debacle of 2010

Although I would love to have a family picture taken in the outdoors with a cool photographer, I am cheap.   The last three years we have gone to Jackson's elementary school where you get have five minutes with a photographer.  The cost is $10 and you get a CD to use your pics in any way that you would like, so It's right up my alley.

I realized another reason, this year, for waiting until the future for a real photography session.  Co.op.er.ation.  Seriously, I stressed WAY too much over this little picture.  There were hair cuts and figuring out how we were going to coordinate and purchasing a sweater for the little one who had nothing to match the rest of us.  Plus, this was all only a few days prior to our trip to Maryland so I was too busy to be fussing over all of this.

The time came and we were as ready as we were going to be.  We got there on time only to find out that they were running 45 minutes behind schedule due to a few uncooperative children.  (Can you imagine?)  Of course, I had scheduled our appointment after Barrington returned from work but before Grant's bedtime.  This meant we would finish our session 15 minutes before bedtime.  WELL, since we started almost an hour late...  You get where I'm going with this, right?

Here are a few of the "highlights" of our night:
Luke was the main culprit during the majority of our shoot.  The photographer made the mistake of touching him while trying to position him and he retreated into his shy unresponsive self.  He refused to smile regardless of bribes.  Chuck-E-Cheese with his best buddy wasn't even a reason to smile.

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While Luke was being a grumpy goose, I did my share of screwing things up while trying to talk and make little people smile.

 

Here is Barrington and I obviously thinking opposite thoughts and yet both making for a heinous picture.  Luke is still in his statue form.

They introduced holiday balls to spice things up and tried a new pose.  This just made Luke more mad and made Grant want to get up to throw and chase the balls.

By this time I had a brilliant idea (even though we were probably over our allotted time by double.)  I thought if we did a pose that was more "fun" Luke might get into it.  My mother's instincts paid off because he was having great fun.  Jackson, on the other hand, was not having it and wanted to be in the pile, as you can see.  Grant was also more interested in his toy.

When I received the CD there wasn't one of the 30 picture that had everyone smiling.  I ended up asking to have some heads switched and we came out with a couple of decent choices.  I would have used this one because it is one of the best pictures of me in recent history and I think Grant's head switch looks great:

Of course, Barrington hates this picture of himself.  I don't blame him, it is an odd angle.  And, apparently, "It isn't all about me."  I'll just have to crop myself out and use it for my Facebook profile pic.

So, this was the compromise.  I think it is obvious that Luke is Photo shopped.

So,  Merry Christmas to you.  You'd better frame our card when it gets to your house.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was low key.  

I got an early start and headed into downtown Detroit to run in my first 5k.  Jessica, a friend who had decided to run months ago, was wonderful enough to keep her commitment even though she was a few months pregnant.  (Something that she didn't know when she signed up for the race.)

As we neared the parking garage, traffic stopped and then we saw runners crossing right in front of us.  The race had begun and we were trapped.  There was a brief discussion of abandoning the whole thing and driving back home after we were freed, whenever that would be.  

This is what we looked at for, what seemed to be, an hour.

However, after sitting for about 20 minutes the police kindly let us back out (after the many cars stranded behind us).  We made our way to another parking site and decided we would walk to the starting line to see if we were too late.  (This was after a nice woman let us park for free because we didn't have cash.  We NEVER would have made it, if we had been forced to find an ATM!)

These are some gentleman that we passed on our way to the race.  They were coming back to their car as they had already FINISHED!  

 As we got to the start there were men disconnecting the Start sign and taking it down.  We decided to go for it anyway.  

So, we ran our hearts out.  Since we began the race at least 30 minutes late, the spectators for the parade were already staking out their spots.  I cannot tell you how many people cheered us on.  One man with a microphone kept telling us that we could do it.  I'm pretty sure that all the people thought we started on time and were super slow. 

It was an adventure, that's for sure.  I did get to see many beautiful parts of Detroit that I hadn't seen before.  On the other side of this river is Canada.  It is kind of fun to see another country just across the water.

I ran for all but about ten steps of the race.  My time was 34 minutes, which I was happy with.  (I did run three miles today in 30 minutes, so I'm still working on getting faster.)  

(I have no idea what is up with my camera these days.  It is so blurry.)

Then it was home to cook a Thanksgiving dinner and hang out with the family.  It was just us, which I think made the day a bit sullen.  It would have been better had there been less contention between everyone but I think we all just needed to get out, plus Grant was just getting over Croup.  I was tired from being up with him and I  felt a bit left out since it seemed like everyone I knew had an invitation to join others if they didn't have family around.  I invited at least 5 families during the weeks prior to join us but everyone seemed to have plans.  

As dinnertime approached, the mood lightened up.  The boys helped me make a pie and Luke was a fabulous table setter.  He was SO interested in what was happening and couldn't wait for everyone else to see his great work.  

Dinner was yummy.  

(No, I don't know how to turn off my flash!)

After dinner, we broke out the window markers and drew a tree on our mirror wall.  We wrote on little "leaves" all the things for which we were grateful.  (Luke and I seemed to be the only ones who were into this for more than a minute, but we had fun.)

After dinner, we delivered some cookies and cards that the boys made to some friends and to the fire fighters to thank them for protecting us.    

And there you have our little Thanksgiving.