Christmas Pictures

This is crazy early because fall has only just begun, so don’t hate me for this!!! But, in spirit of the first official day of fall (YAY!) i’m posting about Christmas Cards. Some of you may not want to think about it, but Christmas will be here before you know it. For us, we always try to get our Christmas pictures done with before Thanksgiving. I know, I know, it’s out of the spirit, but you’ll see why… Christmas pictures for our family is a MULTIPLE HOUR fiasco. We tell my brothers that we are taking Christmas pictures….cue the whining.

It takes a lot of prepping…boys want to look pretty.

Girls don’t want to be looking this creepy.

 

Most years we take the “school picture” photo. Do you remember in grade school they always make you tilt your head and lift you chin and you just look like a fool? Well, we do. And we like to make fun of it.

Or you get squinty eyes.

We have to use “back-drops” AKA dad holding a sheet and mid-picture drops it on our head.

And eventually, you will get there.

Merry Christmas from the Middletons 2010.

And the next year, you’ll wear different clothes.

You’ll always get someone goofing around.

You’ll get one you think is cute, but someone else hates.

You’ll get the family’s “typical picture.”

You’ll get some other random poses, and when looking at it you’ll wonder what the heck you were doing.

This specific year we thought it would be a good idea to incorporate our sports into the picture. SO we tried more poses.

And we finally get one.

Merry Christmas from the Middletons 2011.

The next year maybe the same-ish colors, but switch kids. We took these pictures when I was home for Thanksigiving break my freshman year at OU. My parents usually end up sending our Christmas card out waaay late, so this is when we finally decided on starting earlier in the year.

    

We always try different poses, different places, different angles, different lighting, etc. to make sure that we can get ONE that is acceptable.

 

Merry Christmas from the Middletons 2012.

And then when we procrastinate and don’t do it during Thanksgiving break, it’s too cold to go outside. This particular year we went with the military green and black for the boys.

“Really, we have to check the lighting in every angle of the house?”

This one was just too awkward and blurry…it happens.

This one just….no. We tried to go with the cute presents in front look, but it didn’t work. Rick looks gigantic with that present and Ryan looks goofy.

Personally, this was my favorite. It was cozy and casual.

Merry Christmas from the Middletons 2013.

And let me just tell you this. We have our Christmas cards. Well, they aren’t sent out, but they just have to be addressed for this year. YAY! No fuss, no hassle!! And we had them done in JULY!

We started with the generic pose.

And then I was taken out of the family for a shot. 😦

 

And we took different poses here as well.

 

And we took some just the kids. Don’t make fun of me!!! I know i’m short 🙂 

And some of just mom and dad.

Now I created a couple options for our Christmas cards. Mom and dad couldn’t agree (go figure) so dad’s sending out his and mom’s sending out hers. His and hers Christmas cards.

Merry Christmas from the Middletons 2014.

What we’ve learned from Christmas pics:

1. Start as early in the year as possible. If you are anything like our family when taking Christmas pictures, you will be so relieved when you’re done before the season, with one less thing to stress about.

2. Have everything prepared beforehand. Know where you are going, who is taking the pictures, what you’re wearing, what poses you want to do. It will just go so much more smooth when everyone has an understanding of what to expect. 

3. Look for clothes in your closet. We don’t want to purchase a bunch of new outfits for a snapshot picture that most everyone will throw away in two weeks. We use whatever we can find that we have in our closets, and if we need something else, we can go get it. Also why we start planning early!

4. Utilize Costco’s website. If you have never used Costco’s website and you are a member. USE IT! We take our own pictures, upload them to Costco’s website. And get 50 cards for $16.00 with tax (don’t quote me on that), envelopes and all. So cheap and they have many options for greeting cards.

5. If you have pictures from a summer vacation, use them. Our card this year is from our Orange Beach vacation back in July. And we’re done. We don’t have to worry about it, no whining males. It’s great. Plus it’s a little different than what we normally do.

6. Don’t be afraid of bribery. Tell your kids if we can get this picture done in an hour, we get can dessert tonight, or whatever your kids/family like! It works, and bribery can be key sometimes. My brothers are 13 and 15, and we bribe them still. Or maybe it’s just the male species….:)

Good luck, friends. I hope your Christmas cards turn out wonderful for 2014!!!!