22 days until Christmas but who’s counting right?
and a million and 1 things to do in those 22 days….
Sometimes I think time flies faster when you have kids. It’s like one minute you are pregnant and the next they are running around getting into everything. Some days you feel young and lively with lots of energy, other days you don’t know how you get out of bed!
During the holiday season, everything moves at a whirlwind pace though. There is just this air of hustle and bustle around you, even if you yourself are moving at a snail pace. I looked at the calendar today and went into a state of panic for a moment. I immediately started making my “list” of things to do in the next few weeks before Christmas is actually here. I swear my calendar/planner looks like sticking notes threw up all over it. I’ve got them all over it with various lists from Christmas presents, my “to-do” lists, appointments that I have, appointments to make and grocery items I need. Add on top random little websites I must remember, recipe cards various people have given me and it’s a wonder how I keep things straight sometimes. My “organization” is clearly disorganized!
In the midst of the holiday season we are trying to squeeze in a family picture session as part of our presents to family. We haven’t done the whole family professional thing yet with all 4 of us. I justify it sometimes to others with the fact that we take a million pictures. I’m just not one of those mom’s that feels the need to take the kids into the studios for pictures of them every month or every 2 months even..heck not even every 6 months. I think most would be surprised how many pictures I take. I use my camera probably daily with the kids, recording movies and taking pictures. But for the holidays and at the request of some family members we are going to get them done. December 14th is picture day. We’ll have an hour with the photographer, she’ll take anywhere from 100-250 pics and I also get the cd with reprint rights. I wish we would have done them sooner, say in the fall and done outside shots but I’m excited about these. I should have enough time to get them done by the printer and mailed off for the holidays, if I don’t procrastinate! hehe
With doing the whole family portrait thing there’s always the issue of, what to wear. On my last outlet shopping trip I found a top that could be suitable for me to wear . While checking out the newly renovated LARGE Children’s Place Outlet I found some cute polo type shirts that happened to have the same color in them as my top. I even asked the sales lady to check for a size for me in the back because they were perfect! So, next is getting Patrick a new shirt to go with but luckily for him, that should be easier then the boys and I! I do have a change of outfits for the boys that I’d like to get pics of them with the “big brother” and “little brother” shirts. We’ll see how they cooperate for an outfit change though!
Another issue of the whole portrait experience are the haircuts. I got Braysen finally in a week 2 weeks ago and even Merrick got a little trim job. Yes, I already had to cut my little man’s hair! *cries* Braysen’s hair was recovering from a horrible cut. We were letting it grow out a bit to see if it could get to a length where we could “fix” it a bit. I had our neighbor down the street, who owns a salon nearby, schedule us in. She did a wonderful job with him and boy did she have patience with a terrible toddler that didn’t want anything to do with the haircut!! She trimmed up Merrick’s front a bit so it didn’t hang into his eyes anymore but that’s all she touched. We like his little rocker/skater/emo or whatever baby look he has! Lastly, I got myself into her yesterday afternoon for mine. She’s done my hair a few times and does my highlights. Normally at Christmas I redo my highlights but with the $ crunch, we are saving that money (for pictures as Patrick tells me). I went in there with the dilemma of “do I cut it off or do I keep letting it go longer.” I came home with it chopped off just about my shoulders from ½ way down my back. I love how easy it is to do and it’s cute, Patrick approves…but there’s of course a part of me wondering if I should have left it longer for the pictures. Oh well, what’s done is done and no I don’t cry over haircuts! My hair grows so fast that I regularly do this whole “let it grow out, chop it off” routine.
So now the photographer is scheduled, the outfits are picked out and the haircuts are done. Hopefully we are all healthy, happy and cooperative come that Sunday morning.
Oh what fun the holiday season brings…..a family portrait session.
(I’m probably going to spam my blog a few posts here over the next few days to play catch up! Plus, I feel the need to write since I’ve been so lacking.)
