Christmas Photos...

It's that time of year again...time to organize a busy family into one place at the same time (with the members all slickered-up, of course) in the hopes that we can take the perfect photo for our Christmas card.  Well, that's not quite right; I have long given up on the perfect Christmas card.  Better is the enemy of good, right?   After about a week of trying to organize schedules, I gave up (mostly because Moira was working every night last week).  Instead, I opted for the family collage style card, the kind with individual pictures pieced all together.  It is much easier.  I was able to dig around the computer to find decent pictures, and for those who needed a fresh shot, we took a few in front of the tree that worked out nicely......nicely for most everyone.

There is one rather cute little family member who is a bit tricky to photograph!  Miss Erin has a mind of her own when it comes to photo shoots, and she may or may not be cooperative with the photographer.  May not is the more likely scenario!

Having high hopes, I dressed her in a cute little Christmas dress with a hat; that was the easy part!

After assembling my photography crew, we went to work.  Here are some highlights of our photo sessions.  Yes, that is plural.

Session One:

When we started, she was not overly amused or cooperative.....

Obviously....LOL

Someone has an idea to lighten her mood with a candy cane!  That's a little better. It worked for a second.

 

So, one thing about Erin is she is genuine.  She will only smile if there is something to smile about! Pictures can be hard because she doesn't pose easily for pictures. We kept trying to get her to smile. This is not the easiest thing to teach.  When she finds something worth smiling about, she has a natural smile....but to teach, by saying, SMILE ERIN, uh, this is what we get....

And this.... 

We work a little harder on the smile, exaggerating our own smiles, with hopes that she will mimic us.  This is what we get....

 

Now she's getting bored and wanting the hat off.....

 

Okay, let's try the hat off.  Whoa!  Too much static :)

Not in the mood for a photo shoot, Erin???  Time to hide :)

Session Two:

Let's try this again.

Erin said, I do it! when it was time to put the hat on. 

Good try!

It was time to pull out the big guns.....time to get Molly Grace and Seamus to chase her around the house, which is a sure way to get her laughing! It worked like a charm.  Here she is running away from the camera LOL!

Finally, something to laugh about....

Peak a boo with Seamus...

In the end, we ended up getting some adorable photos...

 

 

Now for the really funny part!  After all that, which photo did we end up choosing for our Christmas card??!!  None of the above!  That's right.  Stop laughing!  When Mike came home from work I asked him to pick a photo and he said, "I really like Erin's three-year photo the best".  After looking at the photos arranged with the card, we all agreed, it just seemed to fit the card best.  Oh well.  Good thing I have a blog so I can show off Erin's Christmas pictures!