Holiday Cards

So, it’s officially after Thanksgiving, into December, which means its’ the holiday season.  That also means many people are ordering and mailing out their holiday cards to friends and family very soon.  Last year, when the girls were 3.5 months old, we did our first holiday card ever and it was adorable!  I had a fabulous picture of the girls lying down on a blanket looking at each other in these super cute Burberry-like shirts.  I loved it!  It was so much fun taking the picture, ordering the card, getting personalized return address labels, etc.  This year, though, it is a completely different story…

Getting a picture for this year’s holiday card has become the bane of my existence.  Literally, since October 1, I have been desperately trying to get a great picture of the girls together.  I started out trying to get them both looking at me smiling, but trying to get two 13-15 month olds to both look at me and smile seems to be all but impossible!  Then I figured I’d settle for a picture of both of them looking at each other like last year’s card.  However, Kayla has decided to “run” away from the camera the second I take it out.  I used to try to get them to say cheese, but now I sneak a camera out as if I’m in mission impossible and try to snap pictures without the girls totally realizing what I’m doing.  But, that doesn’t seem to be working either.  I have even employed my fabulous babysitter, Emma, to try to take some pictures for us.  Every Tuesday I remind her to use my camera or her phone and try to get a decent picture.  Last week she happened to have taken some great pictures of the girls outside, but none of them felt like holiday card material.  And, now that Zoey is walking too, it has apparently become a game for my girls to run in opposite directions, away from me, the second the camera comes out.  Zoey’s much better about looking at the camera and smiling, but she tends to laugh at Kayla and then follow her lead, just run the other way.  Kayla has some kind of sixth sense as to when I’m even thinking of taking a picture!  You can see on her face that she’s getting ready to run before the camera is even in my hand!

So, it is with great regret that I have decided NOT to do a holiday card this year.  It’s just not fun anymore!  I told one of my playgroups the news yesterday and they did not take it well!  In fact, Ali tried to prove me a wrong and take pictures of the girls.  I hate to say, “I told you so,” but I totally told her so!  Zoey sat in a chair and the second Kayla saw the camera she started hysterically crying and going limp in the chair!  Me, Jamie, Charlene and Ali all started singing, trying to get Kayla to smile for the camera, and I have to hand it to Zoey, she looked adorable, but Kayla would not stop crying!  It reminded me of the professional pictures I had taken of the girls at their first year birthday.  We had 100 gorgeous pictures of Zoey smiling and laughing, posing for the camera.  We had zero pictures of the girls together, one pretty picture of Kayla but she’s not smiling and then another picture of Kayla in hysterics because that just summed up the experience! 

Anyway, Ali, thanks so much for the effort, but I am NOT doing a holiday card this year.  And really, all I want for the holidays this year is for my girls to start letting me take pictures of them together again!  Well, that’s one thing I want, but I actually have a huge list of other things too!  Either way, I hope everyone is starting o enjoy this holiday season!