Smiles

Christmas '99

{Max's First Christmas}

{Also - the first and last time I tried to do "Christmas Card" photos}

Twelve years ago I rushed my family out of bed on a Saturday morning. We shoveled down some toast, threw on the clothes I had laid out, tamed hair and piled into the car, hurrying to make it to our favorite backyard before the sun was completely up in the sky. We pulled into the parking lot a few minutes later than I had hoped for, but six minutes late still felt like on time. My photographer, really a sister, was waiting for us in the parking lot when we arrived. It was early enough that the frost coating the grass had only melted when the rays of sunlight had broken through. It was cold and I didn’t really want to take our first family pictures in jackets. I envision that we take these things in matching sweaters, like us in our natural state, but with a smidge more effort than usual. lol

The kids, while patient and good sports for the most part, were not as convinced. They looked at us like we were crazy as we coaxed them out of their warm outerwear to take a few photos by a stone wall or in between a cluster of trees where the early sunlight framed their faces with the soft glow of morning. It was beautiful, but they were freezing. We tried to get them to laugh, tried to entice them with a promise of a hot breakfast when we got home. Desperate to get some Christmas-card-worthy pictures out of that morning.

We got the proofs back and I was happy with them. The lighting was gorgeous; the backyard was beautiful in the early morning sun. But I looked at us and I was a bit disappointed. Max is looking a different way in almost every one of 36 photos. Argh. And it is obvious that not all our smiles are genuine. As much as I wish that were not true, it is. There will always be something slightly awkward: a false smile, hair sticking up, a slouchy pose or some one looking the wrong direction.

Thankfully, there was one photo where they look much happier, and even with smiles that appear genuine. But still, I look at the pictures and they don’t seem to tell a full story. It is hard to get a real snapshot of my family, as much as I wish I could have that, and that we could be dressed nicely in that picture if it existed.

{This is the one that was sent out}