Every year since before I was even born my parents have hosted a Christmas Eve open house party that draws quite a crowd. And every year since I was old enough to remember my mom has sent tons of Christmas cards to our family and friends which also serve as invitations to the holiday shindig. The cards were always from the whole family so it never really occurred to me send my own. But the year I bought my condo I felt like it was time to do just that.
My first card was a photo card with pictures of Piper, baby Ares and Chris and me. I just chose pictures I had taken throughout the year, mainly because I procrastinated and didn’t have time to stage a cute family photo.
Last year, with a house of 4 furbabies and Chris in our little pack, I wanted to try and get a photo op with all of us dressed in festive colors in front of our tree. I quickly realized that the kitties were not going to have it but I thought we could get the dogs to pose with treat bribes, at last for one good shot.
I enlisted my mom to come over and take the picture one Sunday evening and got everybody ready in Christmas attire. I wore a green sweater, Chris wore a red shirt and Ares and Chaos rocked holiday gear. We sat down in front of the tree and smiled and…..the dogs were all over the place.
This was in the days before I blogged so even though I often took pictures of the boys, I wasn’t always asking them to pose like I do now. It was hard for them to focus with my mom over to visit and Chris and I on the floor with them. We tried giving my mom treats to hold up, having her say their names in the baby voice and snapping her fingers but it started to become exhausting. That perfect shot I had envisioned never did become a reality.
We ended up choosing one of the bunch and I also added 2 other pictures taken earlier in the year. But I was going through the bloopers photos I couldn’t help but laugh, not only at the pictures themselves but also at myself for thinking we would get that magazine cover shot. Where was my brain on that one?
I already knew that I was not going to repeat last year’s mistake so this year I hopped online on Black Friday weekend to troll for a good deal. Walgreens was offering 50% off and I found a card that would showcase 3 photos I really liked. It took me a little while to scan through all of this year’s pictures in my massive photo library, but I found a cute shot of Ares and Chaos taken this summer on my parent’s deck. Their personalities just come to life from their facial expressions. I was also happy to have a photo of both Piper and O looking at the camera! This almost never happens so that early fall day when we had the back window open I jumped at the opportunity. And since Chris and I had our engagement shoot in October, I had to use a cool shot of us taken in front of a lake. I was really happy with how the cards turned out and so glad there wasn’t the added pressure of trying to pose us all together.
Last year I had our cards signed Happy Howlidays, although almost no one even noticed! This year I signed them Happy Pawlidays so I’ll have to see if anyone recognizes it. If nothing else, it gave me a giggle to send them that way.
So after a little trial and error we have found that our holiday cards are best done using existing photos or new photos we all take separately. If the family photo deal has worked for you, send in your tips for getting everyone to take a stunning shot. But if you are like us, no worries, the best cards are the ones that make people smile, no matter what they look like.
Happy Pawlidays!
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