This may be one of our new family Thanksgiving traditions, even if it isn’t a super-exciting one. Last year and this year, we took advantage of the fact that my sister-in-law was with us, and had her take a photo for our holiday card. Last year’s turned out pretty well. And I’ve learned a lesson: while you may think it’s “hard” to get a good shot of two not-yet-4-month-olds…. ha! That’s nothing compared to attempting one with two nearly-16-month-olds. Witness, last year’s holiday card photo:
Cute, huh? Everyone more or less looking at the camera, even the dog. The kids aren’t exactly smiling, but they didn’t do that on demand so well back then, so I’d call it a success.
This year, well… most of them looked something like this:
It was raining, so my plans for being outside with lots of natural light were shot. I hate using the flash, so the shutter speed was slower than ideal. And, well, they’re two toddlers who had no interest whatsoever in cooperating for a family picture. I could have used some of the other individual cute pictures I have of the kids, but I wanted to avoid the “kids who live in an adult-free world” photo, and actually have all four of us in there. (Didn’t even attempt the dog this year.) Ah well. There was one acceptable shot, which has been uploaded to Kodak Gallery and ordered. I’ve sent them directly to my mom’s house, so I can write up addresses while I’m laid-up post-surgery (a week from today – yipes!).
The best shot of the whole day is one that we can’t actually use for the holiday card, but is possibly my favorite picture yet of me and both kids:
Not perfect, but as close as you can get with two toddlers. No good for holiday cards, though, since I don’t want to start weird rumors about the demise of me and M. 
Maybe I could photoshop him into the background…
Wow. I’m not looking forward to our photo shoot next week! haha! That last picture of the three of you is fantastic. I hope you’re printing and framing that one
Cynthia´s last blog post..The Holiday Curse
Oh my goodness! That’s a great picture of you with the kids
Too bad M isn’t there though.
I don’t even TRY to get one with all 5 of us in it. And last year, I did one of those collage ones … the twins in one part, Logan in another.
Oh,we are in so much trouble next year! Love the picture of you and your kids. So cute! Hope you had a great holiday!
Susan D.´s last blog post..The list is growing …
I love that last picture! And I agree with Nancy…this is why the photo collage cards are great. Even at 3.5 years, the chances of us getting both boys in a picture together is terribly limited. It takes the pressure off having one PERFECT picture
WhatACard´s last blog post..The Famous Mashed Potato Bar
We made the decision to do one of those multiple-photo cards from shutterfly…that way, we don’t have to try and get ‘the one’, because it never happens with our boys…we just use 4 shots taken throughout the year.
I love the one of you and your babes…I’m sure M wouldn’t mind being Photoshopped in.
We’ll be sending good scratch-it-off-the-list vibes as you prep for Chicago and the surgery. Good idea on shipping a bunch of stuff to your mom’s house. I wish Diapers.com delivered up here…it seems like they usually have good deals.
Congrats on the car seat turn-around. We broke the rules far more than you did! Riding forward-facing has made car trips much more enjoyable.
CarrieinAK´s last blog post..Turkey Day Ski
I dish out the cash and usually go to Sears for family photos. The photographer at our local one is a dad of twins, so he knows! He always manages to get great candids of the girls as they explore the set together. I guess it helps that our two usually explore together. This year, though, our friend took a slendiferous picture of the whole family at Thanksgiving, so I’m skipping the photo studio.
Sadia´s last blog post..Thanksgiving