Don't say cheese. Say honey.
As you know I meant to take a bunch of cute candids of the grandkids over Thanksgiving.
I envisioned a perfectly sharp and heartrendingly adorable photo of the four of them smiling into the camera, all faces wreathed in joyful abandon, nobody frowning or looking at the ground.
I'd planned to caption it Merry Christmas! For you.
That didn't actually happen. I cooked for two days, and then we ate -- sort of, if you don't count the throwing up at the table incident (no; not me) -- what I'd cooked, and then it was too dark to take pictures.
And I was too tired anyway. Instead, to relax I went outside and installed multicolored lights on the porch railing. I love the seamless segue from Thanksgiving to Christmas.
But on the next day -- Friday -- we all embarked on a planned photo shoot to take the annual Christmas card picture of my daughter Stephanie's family.
This is something TG and I did each year when the kids were much younger: around Thanksgiving we'd go somewhere local and pose up and someone would be pressganged into snapping our picture and I'd pick the one most flattering to me, and we'd go with that one for our card.
I insisted on said arrangement for lots of years -- favoring many eager recipients with an updated picture of our branch of the Weber clan just in time for Christmas -- before, around 1995, finally giving up.
That's because whenever I would suggest it was time to capture the annual family photo, TG would begin acting as though he'd rather be kicking a radioactive can on Pluto.
Miserable. He doesn't like posing for picutres. And it shows.
Consequently it has been awhile since all of us -- if you don't count a couple of casual snaps taken over the last decade or so -- appeared all together in any sort of posed portrait.
So I packed up the tripod and the Nikon D7000 and the remote control so that I could operate said camera without being behind it, and we set out for downtown Columbia.
It was a very cold day, highs only in the mid forties, but there was considerable sun so naturally we scheduled the shoot for late afternoon.
The light, don't you know. There's love in the air at that time of day.
My grandchildren -- all except Dagny -- served as standard-bearers for the time-honored tradition of wearing classic argyle, which I thought was all kinds of cute.
Melanie and Allissa got new pale-pink tights and new black dressy shoes for the occasion.
I am prejudiced but I think the Bixlers are the cutest little family. They love being together and it shows. My son-in-law has never balked at posing for the Christmas photo.
But it's no pose when I tell you that everybody had a good time. It was cold and we worked fast, but there was merriment in the air. (I don't do Black Friday; I only do the First Day of Christmas.)
We'll pose up again in a few weeks when we all gather in North Carolina to celebrate our Melanie's tenth birthday.
I'll make sure to get plenty of sweet pictures of double-digit girl, our precious Melly Belle.
Meanwhile be patient until Monday, when I share with you the results of my Christmas card shoot with Audrey and Dagny. To tide you over, there's a sneak peek on my Instagram if you care to look.
And that is all for now.
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Happy Thursday ~ Merry Christmas
Reader Comments (8)
I like these! So, you have 3 daughters and one son? 4 grandchildren?
Since I don't do instagram, probably won't be able to see, but will give
it a shot! You are an awesome photography, and have many beautiful
family members. :)
Oh yes, that is such an amazing photo. Mother and child looking lovingly at each other. A winner for sure! :)
I couldn't leave a message at the instagram site, but that is an amazing shot. Audrey is just gorgeous and of course Dagny is adorable!
I enjoyed all these pictures - your family is very photogenic and you're so good with the camera!
How creative theses shots are. The whole family is awesomely photogenic. I love the "stage set" one where everyone does his/her own thing. I am not good at taking portraits - unless I just randomly snap. However, once I took a family shot for our son, Jim, and all the kids looked cherubic except Jack, then about 8 - he was sticking his tongue out. It was my best shot. Happy season to you, Jenny.
they're wonderful!
Beautimous!
Awwww!! LOVE these!!! What a cool location!
And it certainly helps to have gorgeous models!!
hughugs
more Dagney please :) great photos!