Wisemen Seeking

This year, I have had a Christmas card dilema. I'll tell you why; my friend Meagan has a card party every year the first weekend of November where the ladies make and address their Christmas cards in marathon fashion. Lots of food and conversation- always a great time. Love it. This gets me thinking about my Christmas card sooner than is typical with my usual last-minute style. Anyhow, my dilema began mainly because my last year's card unintentionally made an impression. Ben was a baby and I was inspired by another friend's picture to dress the kids up like the nativity and take a picture with Ben as the baby Jesus. I figured it would be the last chance I would get to have a genuine baby Jesus in our picture and I would have it to display forever in my house. I liked how it turned out, mainly because it was my kids and Ben was just the perfect little baby Jesus floating in the middle. So I sent it to Shutterfly and it became our Christmas card. It also seemed a fitting end to a year where we had been served by so many during a lengthy hospital stay. I was suprised when people started receiving the card and calling me because it was a true "Christmas Card" I guess. People I haven't heard from for a long time really appreciated the image and what it represented. So, I have felt a self-imposed need to keep the spirit of that card going with a new image with the kids while they are still young enough to be compliant. But, I just couldn't figure out what and where. The card party came and went and I still had no idea what to do. I finally got an idea going before Thanksgiving and by the weekend, had the image I wanted (for the most part). This year Mark was there to assist me which was incredibly helpful - especially because the county park was the location! I took my children, their costumes, baby Jesus (borrowed from Jessica), a manger (an old crate borrowed from Nancy Holdaway) and Donkey (borrowed from Shrek!) tromping out through the brush. We were quite the spectacle with hikers going by about every five minutes!

The kids were great sports for the most part, but I think Abe was really digging deep by humoring me. Mark thinks I do not need to make Abe do this again. I think, "When are you too old to dress up like a Wiseman?! Never!" As Abe put it - "Sure Mom, YOUR friends will think it's cool, but MY friends will think I'm a dork!" Aren't we above all that?! We'll see. It is not a relaxing photo shoot by any stretch of the imagination - but I LOVE doing it! I love putting the costumes together and getting creative.

.

There was a lot of candy involved this year - as you can see. Ben was the first to get a sucker in his mouth. He pretty much had one the whole shoot. By the end, everyone had candy in their mouth and Abe was seriously over it. I can't knock him, though. He truly sacrificed for his mother on this one!

Below is one of our last pictures, the kids were done!

Can you guess which one I am using?

It was kind of cool because I ended up with some flare on the lens that seemed to land on our baby Jesus for many of the images. Funny what Mark would call "torture" - I call fun!