Tradition 3: The Christmas Card Picture

For those of you who receive our annual Christmas card picture and letter, you probably think what a perfect family.  They look perfect in their picture and their letter is written without a single punctuation error and they all seem to be doing well.  Let me tell you, it is one of the most stressful events of the holiday season.  From picking out clothes, to finding a neighborhood kid to take the picture, to Kevin not wanting to smile for the camera, to debates about how many chins my dad has in the picture, to my mom wanting us to look natural in a very posed position, to the lighting.... you get the picture.  And then there is the letter which probably goes through 20 drafts to determine just what to say and how to say it and to make sure that everyone has just 6 lines written about them.  So don't worry, while our picture and card turn out great, we are probably just as crazy as your family when it comes to getting it ready.  I decided to give you a little peak into what goes into taking the perfect picture.

Dad figures he might as well entertain himself while we test the lighting.  Oh ya, it was raining too which means we had to take the pictures inside which is always more difficult!

 

Mom wants to see how her outfit looked, then quickly realizes that Kevin is not dressed appropriately, so the rest of us goof around while she helps him find a shirt (next 3 pics).

 

 

We took some shots, but then we all kind of gave up and goofed off for this one.

 

Someone then suggested we take the picture on the stairs, 

but after realizing Kevin and Dad took up most of the area, we nixed that idea.

 

Next location was the porch, it was covered from the rain but still looked outside.  

Of course we had to take practice shots.

Looks like Dad and J.J. are comparing pimples.

 

Dad wanted a picture with all the boys, but of course Kevin goofed off in all of them.

 

 Mom joined in, but as you can tell from the boys' faces, 

they weren't too happy about more group shots.
 

It is hard to find a pose when everyone (minus me and Mom) is the same height.  Kevin and Brian tried to hunch/squat to fit in, but that didn't work.

 

I think me and Mom and Dad were reprimanding Kevin here, because he would not smile!

 

Kevin got annoyed and just turned around and walked out of the picture.

 

 We decided we needed a breather, so Dad took one-on-one shots

with some of us which actually turned out!
 

 

J.J. commented how we were a rather dysfunctional family when it came to taking pictures.  Kevin and I made signs as a joke.... only thing is I can't spell, so even dysfunctional is spelled wrong!

 

We got a few shots in, but finally were at wits end and called it a day! 

 

The funny thing is that we ended up choosing the second photo we took as our picture.  It turned out great as usual, but I guess I wouldn't have had anything to blog about if we didn't take the rest of the pictures!

 

 FINAL PRODUCT!

Danis Family 2012

J.J. - Lisa - Kevin - Mom - Dad - Brian