How the whole day was spent

Yesterday was the big day for family pictures--you remember my mention of my ambitious plans and no time to see to those plans? (Yes, how could you forget, right?!) Because of other demands, my part in the family picture day kept getting shoved farther and farther forward.

"And so it continued both day and night."  (Does anyone recognize those words? They are from a familiar Christmas carol.)

The tree prop back at home after the shoot.

Finally, it was "D-day" aka the actual day of the family pictures.  My part in the pictures was (1) to coordinate our picture wardrobe  and (2) to ready the props and. Simple, huh?  Not really.

By Saturday, I did not know what to have us wear. I had worried and stewed about this in many quiet hours and still no revelation! I wanted  to coordinate using clothing we had but, since clothes are not purchased with an eye toward having to match with the rest of the family, it was tricky. I also needed to coordinate with the packages that were our props (my own little design issue).  Also, we were limited by what colors or items certain family members either did not have (for example: T does not have jeans and L and J had no casual pants except jeans) or would not wear (for example: can't see my husband in a scarf even if it would add red to his ensemble). So L and I went out in the morning, desperately shopping and plotting and planning, so we could fill in the gaps. As it turned out, I was the most difficult one to clothe and I bet I tried on clothes for at least two solid hours. In fact, I purchased one shirt that I had decided NOT to wear in the pictures just because I had worn it off and on for nearly those full two hours and I felt I had worn it to the extent that it was dishonest to put it back on the rack! HA! We were also limited by what we could find IN THE RIGHT COLOR COMBINATIONS in the time we had.

The wreath prop back home after the shoot.

On our way home from clothes shopping, we drove by the nursery and picked up a live/cut Christmas tree and a wreath of live pine boughs.  Lovely. That was the easiest shopping we had done. Earlier in the week, I had set out the tree lights and stand, so they were ready to go.

We arrived home and handed out clothes and instructions of what to wear.  I ended up wearing a pair of pants I ALREADY HAD and so could have saved at least an hour of pants-trying-on.  I handed out the few items we'd purchased in the right colors but, for the most part, we wore what we had. Then it was time for pictures.  Time just ran out to fine tune our clothing choices.

One hastily wrapped package.

By Saturday morning, I had wrapped three lovely packages as props but I did not have the two packages done.  I had shopped at several local stores for the right color of paper and ribbon. I wrapped the last two packages in the van as we drove to the shoot location. Do I have mad wrapping skillz or what?  It think it is "or what" because you can see the chop to the ribbon I made as we rounded a sharp curve in the road just as I snipped to make a decorative "V" with the scissors and you can see the crinkles of the paper, as I struggled with it on my lap, made little white marks, but who is noticing that, right?

The shoot itself went well but I have no pictures to show just yet. Everyone was in a good humor, at least at the shoot and at dinner, even if I had to strike some weird poses behind the back of the photographer to ensure some real smiles on the kids' faces.

We went out to dinner to celebrate or at least I was celebrating. Whew! Then, L and I went shopping again, this time for things she wanted/needed, because we had run out of time that morning to shop for those items. As L and I drove home last night about 9:30 p.m., L said, "Hey, Mom!  I've been with you all day today!"  With her soon off to attend college, what a great bonus that was for me!

So  if, despite my ambitious undertakings, the pictures make us look just like the common folk and mere mortals we actually are, it was still a good day to spend with the family.