Christmas Card

Since all my Christmas cards should have been received by now, I can post the card and some of the many out takes from the various photo shoots we had to endure in the hopes of getting a decent picture! I really felt the pressure this year to come up with a Christmas card photo that lived up to the adorable photo of Lily with all the Santas last year. After months of trying to think of a cute concept, I finally decided to go with a Texas theme and have Lily wear a cowboy hat and boots (thanks again, Aunt Karen, those boots have gotten so much use!) with her Santa dress! I thought it would be kinda funny for our first Christmas in Texas -- but you would not believe how hard it was to find a black toddler-sized cowboy hat, on the cheap, in Texas! No one I knew had one that we could borrow so I had to go to the western wear store and buy one (which I returned after we got the photos!).
Now, all I needed was a way to get Lily to cooperate for the pictures and most importantly, wear the hat. The genius (and somewhat controversial) solution -- bribe her with M&M's! Chip thought this was a terrible idea and a definite low moment in our parenting technique. I just knew I had to get pictures and had a short amount of time to do so! And ya know what, it worked like a charm!

My original idea was to have her in front of the fireplace with the fire on and it all decorated for Christmas.

Here she is with a mouth full of M&M's and a pile of candy sitting next to her . . . and you can barely tell that the fire is on or that she is wearing a hat since it blends in with the background!

Showing me her candy -- notice the green M&M's on the horse's head? :)

Yummy

I was starting to question the M&M's. I mean they got her to stay in one place and wear the hat, but all the pictures are of her eating

Getting better .. . .

These were kinda cute

Next day, new backdrop. Still have a lap full of candy

I liked this one and used it on the back of the card. I just wish her hand wasn't out like that!

Getting tired of the hat

We went outside to mix it up some

These pictures were the best as far as being able to see her whole outfit

Lily found a pine cone under the tree

Deep in thought!


After looking through 100's of pictures, this is what we came up with! I liked that I could use multiple pictures and I think it turned out good enough. Now I have to start brainstorming for next year's card!

Merry Christmas y'all!