Our Christmas Card …

If I had endless piles of money, I would send out five hundred Christmas cards. Alas, this year I had a budget and could only send eighty.

I hope you’ll count this as a virtual Christmas card to each of you, from my family to yours. Because no matter who you are, if you’re reading this blog, I want you to know that I appreciate you and sincerely hope you have a Merry Christmas!

This isn’t our actual card, but is the picture from our card. We used my friend Michelle’s beautiful green barn as our backdrop. It was freezing cold AND windy (a nightmare for someone with bangs) so we cranked this puppy out with a tripod, the auto timer and me running back and forth for about five minutes because I’ve misplaced my camera remote.

I’m proud to say I took this picture. Every one is standing up straight, looking at the camera and smiling. And miracle of miracles, they even held hands for the picture. It might be cheesy, but it means a lot to me. We are in this together, after all, and that gesture of holding hands shouts FAMILY and TEAMWORK!

My kids all look so crazy big in this picture. I know Owlie only comes up to my waist, but in every other family picture we’ve taken since he was born, I’ve been holding him. This is also the first family picture where it is very apparent that Big C is actually bigger than me. Hannie B has clearly left the awkward tween years behind her and fully embraced beautiful teen girl borrowing her momma’s clothes (nice scarf). And my handsome RedDog is on the verge of a major growth spurt.

Family pictures tug at my heartstrings. I love having this visual reference of each of us together, another year older, another year together doing hard and wonderful things side by side. I love comparing year to year, seeing the growth and change.

How about you? Did you get a family picture this year? Was someone making a face? Those are always awesome!