It will truly be a Christmas miracle if any of our cards make it to their destination before Christmas, requiring a feat of magic that will necessitate full participation from all actual wonders of Christmas like the newborn Savior, and all fictional wonders of the season in the form of some industrious elves and enchanted reindeer. I swore that this would be the year where we had the cards done and ordered before Thanksgiving, complete with mail merged addresses so that we don’t have to address them ourselves, because everyone knows you start meeting deadlines better when you have a baby, right? To be fair, we did actually get the photo done before Thanksgiving! The day before we went out of town, to be exact, and only because we have good friends who agreed to come in and put up with my camera micro-managing to snap some pics. Babies introduce an element of chaos into photos, an unpredictable time bomb loaded with projectile vomit and other choice bodily functions, not to mention moods and attitudes that can change on a dime, a nap schedule that Must Be Respected, and a propensity to become so engrossed in a leaf by their feet that they WILL NOT look at the camera. The result is that, en route to some winners, where we at least looked crazed and happy in the direction of the camera like this……were some delightful out-takes that I know you’ve been dying for.

Thus, I bring you glad tidings and awkward moments. A solid 75 % of the photos were reflective of a large percentage of parenting, ie, Trying to Make the Tiny Human Happy In Their Surroundings. Henry’s face = how James feels during every photo shoot I inflict. Henry is not interested in the camera. Henry is interested in glaring at the ground. How dare it. HOW DARE.In spite of the terrifying glee on his mother’s face, Henry is not amused. Must suck in lips to avoid smiling! MUST NOT LET PARENTS FOOL ME INTO SMILING AT THE CAMERA. And just when you think there might be a tiny smile……gotta stop and do a diaper check.

Still, that kid is my favorite photo-bomber.

Out-takes from memory lane here: 2015, 2014, 2013. Apparently we had it together in 2012. And by that I mean just recycled wedding photos.