A Christmas Tradition

 Every year we take a family picture.  We wait until after we put up the tree so it is a Christmas picture, with the family in front of the tree.  We try to pick a time when everyone is relatively happy so we have the best hope of getting a decent picture to send out in Christmas cards and to put on the wall.  Then we pull out the tripod, start the timer on the camera and hope the kids smile.

 We always seem to have trouble getting everyone to smile and look at the camera at the same time.  Since there is no one looking at the group while we are taking the pictures, we just have to hope that sheer volume of pictures will get us at least one that is decent.  Sometimes the kids have other things in mind.

 For instance, this year we set the timer on the camera.  Once it starts taking pictures, it will take 10 pictures with a few seconds in between pictures.  When we were looking at the pictures afterward, the first set of 10 you could see the progression of Ruth and Joseph moving in the pictures.  Miriam, however, was stock still.  She was motionless with a Mona Lisa type smile on her face, of course.  Come on, kid!  Just smile!

 The next set of 10 Miriam decided to be more expressive.  (So did Ruth.  Crying, of course!)  Miriam watched for the camera to take another picture and gave us some different crazy face.  I could ring this girl's neck!  Come on, just one nice picture would be appreciated!

 Now I'm sure you can imagine the stress mounting as we try to keep four kids happy and cooperating to take pictures.  Before the first picture is taken Mom and Dad are ready to be finished.  So after a few times of setting the  timer, we decide to be satisfied with whatever we got.

There was no perfect picture this year.  Oh, well.  That's what memories are all about.  And do you notice how much you can see the Christmas tree?  Since we have no intentions of getting a bigger tree, I think next year we will take pictures earlier so the stress of family pictures isn't a Christmas tradition!