So This Is Christmas

I have found myself guilty of browsing social media & looking at others' posts about the fabulous crafts they do with their children; the gorgeous photos of everyone dressed in just the right outfit, wearing huge smiles & staring so fondly at the camera; or choosing the perfect Christmas tree on a beautiful day that looks Christmas card worthy; and I have found myself wondering "why can't we capture moments like that"?! The fact of the matter around here is, we don't usually have those "picture perfect" moments. Or if we do, we're too caught up in the moment to photograph it! It never fails, every time I set out to get good pictures, something inevitable comes between them & my vision- one child is in a terrible mood; someone spilled food all over their holiday outfit; so on & so forth.
Friday night was the Grand Illumination downtown & Leah had Cotillion's Holly Ball. Three of us were going to be dressed up & already downtown that night, so I tried to devise a plan to get Ty down there after the dance to take pictures of all of us in our Christmas attire (possibly to use as this year's Christmas cards)! Great idea in theory, not so great in real life. It was 8:30 p.m. by the  time we arrived and Ty had been with my sister, brother-in-law & nephew for four hours & he was thirsty & getting tired. I tried bribing him with a treat from Starbuck's if we could just get one good photo of us all. Well, you know how that goes-the smiles were nothing short of a flat out grimace & he complained every step of the way! We took some photos, but I left feeling less than satisfied. Ugh!

(Holly Ball dance)

 

Saturday we went to get our Christmas tree first thing in the morning. Drew came home from the gym & said he thought we should go then to try & beat the rain so we wouldn't have a soaked tree when we finally brought it in the house. We tried to get the kids motivated to get dressed & ready so we could quickly head out. 30 minutes later, after many threats & some shouting, we were out the door-and the rain started!! A woman in front of us turned down a tree showed to her & we gladly accepted it-the first one we saw & off we went! I think that was a first for us!! I wanted to ward off the whining that I knew would be in our near future if we stuck around! And pictures, I took only one on my phone.
Yesterday we went to meet a friend (who is also a professional photographer) to have family pictures taken. We haven't had ones taken since Leah was 3 (& Ty wasn't even born)! The day didn't start off too great-kids were complaining about what they had to wear & then, when we were about 5 minutes from her house (in an area we were unfamiliar with), we ran into a road closure! No detours were posted,so we tried to find our own way & ended up being 15 minutes late (I loathe lateness)!! I really thought that it wasn't going to work & good photos just weren't in the stars for us this year. It worked out though, as Dawn knew about the road closure & it actually pushed all her appointments back. The pictures are amazing & I am going to have such a hard time deciding on one for our Christmas card.
In the end, we were able to get some fun moments captured & I continue to tell myself, especially during this chaotic time of year, that I need to not stress & just enjoy all that there is to be grateful for. 
I hope you all are enjoying the everyday & special moments at this time of year also!
~Stephanie