Family Christmas Pictures

An annual ordeal, family pictures. This time, though, we really lucked out. I was telling a friend that we needed a family picture to send to Grandpa and Grandma (they had to ask us explicitly to send one for Christmas because the last one they had was taken when Nathan was born and Marion was baptized). She offered to look up some fun poses and background ideas and take the pictures for free because she's not professional yet. If you can believe it, she got Jacob to smile his gorgeous real smile. She's good. We ended up with more than one good shot. I didn't think it was possible. Between the tantrums about not wearing the styleless outfits Mom picked out and which child gets to sit on which parent's lap, I thought all my hopes for a memorable picture were gone with that freezing cold wind blowing our hair around by the blue spruces. We did end up with good pictures, though, and another great example of nice things friends do for each other.