As my early Christmas present to you . . . please enjoy these awkward family photos.
Okay, pretty clearly the Little Kid got his mom's smiley gene. Our eyes crinkle and our cheeks dimple. The Spouse and the Big Kid are sort-of-smilers. (And it's getting worse now that the Big Kid is a tween.)
Again, Mom and Little Kid are cooperating, and Dad is actually cooperating. Big Kid - not so much.
This one isn't bad of Big Kid and might have been a favorite if Little Kid wasn't so intent on standing ramrod straight. "Look at me! I'm on a box! I'm almost as tall as my mother . . . WHEN SHE'S SITTING DOWN!"
This sums up the boys pretty well. Little Kid says, "Look at me! No, seriously - LOOK AT ME, because I'm waggling my eyebrows at you in a comically adorable way." Big Kid says, "Please don't look at me. And, also, can we please go home now?"
We settled on this one. Little Kid is doing his cheesy (but sincerely cheesy) thang, and Big Kid is sporting his patented "I am twelve and therefore way too cool to be into this" look. In other words, it's an accurate depiction of our boys at this particular stage.
I'm a big fan of realism.
The photographer also attempted (somewhat foolishly) to get a shot of just the boys. This one would have been cute if Big Kid's big melon (made bigger by the Justin Bieber 'do) wasn't casting a shadow on the Little Kid's face:
Midway through the shoot, the Little Kid decided to adopt the Big Kid's non-grin, meaning that we got a lot of images like this:
We went with this one:
Photog even managed to get a picture of the 'rents, and it ALMOST looks like we're happy. (Believe me, we weren't - photos were taken in the middle of a particularly bad "house week," lots of added stress, and then family photos on top of all of that. What's the phrase? Fake it 'til you make it? Well, it worked, because we're in a much better mental place, collectively, and now we have this memento of a darker time that we can laugh at, EVENTUALLY. Still a little too soon.)
We're on a roll, in terms of actually getting photographed together - also had our picture taken at the "65 Roses" wine and food event benefiting Cystic Fibrosis:
Yes, it looks like I'm knocking on his chest. I have no idea what that was about. Hiding a sloppy manicure? Spouse's expression clearly says, "Let's get the red carpet thing over with, so that I can start eating and drinking and bidding on silent auction items that I don't actually need."
That's two - count 'em, TWO - photos of us posing as a couple, in a span of two months. This is unprecedented. Hoping to continue the trend.
Merry Christmas from the family.
2 comments:
Love the FUMC Olan Mills shots. We had the photo shoot from you know where with them. Let's just say it involved a toddler, a box digging into mom's lap, a broken computer, and a photographer in training. You get the jist.
Alicia, I think everyone had the same experience! My neighbor and I had a complaint session afterwards re: the photographer's utter and complete refusal/inability to tell you, "Your hair's out of place" or "You look like the broad side of a barn, so turn your shoulders a bit." Then they blow sunshine up your you-know-what: "Oh, you look so BEAUTIFUL in that shot." Inevitably, Mom ends up taking one for the team and selecting a picture of her that she's less than thrilled with, because it's the only one where everyone else has their eyes open. :)
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