Take a picture. It'll last longer.

Dan got it in his head that we needed to have that penultimate cheesy souvenir of the Christmas holiday -- Christmas cards with a family picture in them. Mind you, this requires a family picture, right? Which requires the family to actually get a picture taken, right? Which means that we all have to be in the same place at the same time, fully dressed and matching.

I wasn't taking bets on that happening.

I had it on my calendar for weeks, then ended up going to Ohio to pick up the stuff for the new website, instead of shoppping for matching clothes. I found myself the day before in Target, frantically looking for clothes that matched, and that The Brat found acceptable. Got home and realized that I'd bought something for everyone but me and, in typically mom fashion, went to the DAV and found myself a top the next morning, for the price of exactly $1.48. OK, so it didn't fit like I'd like, but the darn thing matched, and that's what I was going for, folks.

Dan wanted Christmas-y pictures, but their Christmas background was in the shed, so we tried this instead: candles that were supposed to give a generic "hey it's KIND of holiday" vibe. Personally, I think that we ended up with what looks like we're getting ready to call the Catholics to, as Jill says "get dem demons out yo soul," cause all it's missing is a ring of salt, and we could be on The Hot Guy Show, with Jill's husband. Note too, Seth's choice of socks and sandals. Oh well, at least it's not orange flip flops:


Next, they put us on the floor, with our brat-lings all around us. This is Jill's "I'm cool and you know it" picture, but I don't like it cause Seth looks a little green:



This one is better, not only because Seth is no longer green, but because you can't see his choice of footwear anymore. And Thomas, who proclaimed that he is "physically incapable of smiling," despite two oral surgeries, a year of braces, and hundreds of dollars being spent on his beautiful, straight, white teeth, at least has a Mona Lisa smile:



Next we have the "she's got the whole world in her hands" look. Doesn't everyone look just so very happy? It proves you can do anything with a camera, really:



Then they decided to make it black and white. I'm not crazy about it. It look a little fuzzy to me, and Jill looks like she's changing her race:


Then we went outside. This is not a park. It's a little grove of trees, behind which cars were whizzing by, probably wondering what the heck was going on with the photo op. Seth has now ditched the shoes, as has Jill. First, in black and white:



Then, in color. If you can figure out what's different in this picture, I'll give you some kind of award. And it's not the fact that I'm wearing shoes, an oversight that Dan pointed out:



We have a long history of weirdness in family pictures, from the first time we got it done, with the two oldest kids. Jill was two, and we had to keep stopping to let her go flying outta the room proclaiming "I gotta get outta here," or, as the photographer said, "her face is as red as your sweater." (Yes, we were again going for the Christmas theme. ::sigh::) We were a long time getting pictures after that, because Seth always had a broken arm or a goose egg on his head, but we did it again when he was four. Those are some of my favorite pics ever.

And then there were the fateful cruise pictures, when we cruised with my mom and dad. We were all dressed in our finery, and Dan went to go get Seth and get him ready. Took him forever, and when he finally showed up, he was wearing black pants, white shirt, black and grey vest, a bow tie, and ORANGE flip flops. Fluorescent orange. And since he was the youngest and shortest (though not by much. My sisters are elves) he went front and center with said flip flops.

Oye and vay.

My mom bought that picture, of course, because it was so "Seth."

So, let me know which of the pics you like best, cause the proofs have to be back at the end of the week. The odds of us getting pictures done again are pretty much nil, since the kids have scattered to the winds already.