I want to send out a family picture along with our Christmas newsletter and have always wanted a picture in the snow. This year we have had plenty already so I thought it would work out perfectly. Sunday afternoon we headed to an area Bavarian house where they have a gingerbread house display and a high school group dressed in Dickens costumes singing Christmas carols. This would be a fun outing and also the perfect backdrop for my snowy Christmas picture. Of course the weather was so cold and in spite of being dressed warmly the children did not want to be outside (no, I didn’t want jackets on the picture). My Mom was taking the pictures for us while my Dad attempted to get the children all looking and smiling. The arctic air was nipping at our backsides and needless to say the picture didn’t look anything as I envisioned. Maybe we’ll make another attempt when it warms up a bit.
We also wanted to get a Christmas tree this weekend and traditionally trek out into the woods (on a tree farm) and after much thought and input from the kids cut down the perfect tree. Since the weather was not cooperating we could not bring ourselves to walk through the snow and cold for a tree. So we decided to go back to the tree lot we bought our tree from when we were first married. It took a little bit of convincing to get "George" to agree to this. At 7 he is already set in his ways. So I had high hopes setting out for our tree and had my camera ready for the picture-perfect moment. Little did I realize how much my son is like his mother wanting the perfect tree.
We typically get a tall and very full Balsam but this year wanted a Frazier which has stronger branches to hold the ornaments and more spacing between branches. We found the last one on the lot and while it wasn’t perfect I liked it. George however, had found the perfect Balsam that he liked and tried very hard to convince us of this. I struggled with it wanting him to be able to pick a tree but also wanting him to realize that he can’t always get his way. We got the Frazier and had a very unhappy boy. So much for a Kodak moment. We have lights on the tree now and thankfully George agrees that our tree does look better.
Monday we were celebrated my Mom’s birthday and I baked the Green Angel cake that she selected. It smelled wonderful and had cooled all morning. The children and I headed into town early to help get things ready so I had the older boys start packing up the van. "Repeat" carried the cake for me and put it on my seat in the van. Unfortunately I took a little too long getting myself down to the van and upon my arrival find a chunk missing from the cake! AHH! Who did this?!? (Every eye is on Tank). Of course it could only be one person and he looked like he had enjoyed every bit of that cake. After some discipline he was very remorseful and apologized right away. When arriving at Grandma's house he was very sad and couldn’t look at her. He almost started to cry but his Grandma was forgiving and made him feel better.
All of these stories from this past week only help me to realize yet again that with children things cannot ever go perfectly according to my plan.
First Christmas Card picture attempt
Our first attempt at a Christmas card picture
No comments:
Post a Comment