I LOVE coming home for Christmas. It’s one of my absolute favorite things. My mom is a m a z i n g with all the decorating. As soon as I walked in the door this evening I just melted and the warm fuzzy feeling just flooded in. First off- it looks adorable with all the christmas lights on and snow falling. Then you walk in the door and everyone is excited to see you, sometimes you get the occasional kid running up and giving you big hugs & kisses (or karate chopping your ovaries….ahem….Jackson). It usually smells like some sort of delicious food. Christmas music is playing, fireplaces going (this is only sometimes….my mom get’s hot, ha!) like….a……dream…..
Then I totally went down to the basement without even thinking about it. NO ONE is allowed in the basement around Christmas. It's mom's domain, it's full of presents and it's where she wraps and creates all her fun surprises. She was so thrilled when I came waltzing into her basement......not :-)
Looks like a lot of us are getting shoes
Kirksville got snow tonight....I love it and Lincoln loves it :-)
Ok- so today I actually took some pictures in COlumbia. So much for the 2 weeks of no shoots???? :-) I knew I would jinx myself when I announced that I was getting 2 weeks off!
First up is the May Family. My aunt Robin is always up for pictures when I come into town and Madison & Matthew are always such great models, so it always works out well. Other than Tom rearranging some furniture (without asking…Robin was slightly horrified) in the MU Alumni Center- I would say our shoot was pretty successful :-) Sorry Tom, I couldn’t resist!
Next up….Cara & Mia! These two have been on the blog a couple times. Little Miss Cara always has a smile for me, but little Mia makes me work for it. Actually- she had my friend Audrey working for it last time. Audrey was my assistant and I had her full on rolling down hills, doing cartwheels, pretending to fall down, etc. anything to get Mia to smile.
Well- much to my surprise…..MIA was soooooooo smiley at the beginning for their shoot today. Her parents and I were on cloud nine- it was awesome :-)
Then Mia decided she was done with me :-)
I would totally make the one of the left my Christmas card if I was their mom. HYSTERICAL!!!
So…..then I did another shoot. This wasn’t just any shoot though. I had NO idea what I was getting myself into. My dad has been telling me for awhile now that there was a drug rep that was going to be contacting me about getting Christmas Card picture done. This is normal- my dad is such a good little promoter and tells anyone that will listen about my photography :-) I’ve taken pictures of a few drug reps in the past, so I figured this would be along the same lines.
Dead wrong.
This is John & his dog Gem (have no idea if I’m spelling it right) and they get a Christmas Card picture every year. Apparently John and his family have a competition every year with their Christmas Cards and he is DETERMINED to win this year. As soon as I got there- he busted out previous Christmas cards & his brothers Christmas Cards….just so I could get an idea of what I was up against. He lost the Turkey Competition at Thanksgiving (he said they also do a “turkey cookoff” or something of the sorts every Thanksgiving and his aunts totally tossed him under the bus this year) so he plans on blowing the Christmas card competition out of the water. His thought was that he would bring in the big guns and hire a professional.
Pressure much???
Gem is older and wasn’t too thrilled about her outfits. She seriously just walked away a couple times and went to the back of the apartment….it was hysterical. Obviously we had to give her some breaks, but she did it and she did a good job :-)
So….. my thoughts were to go total Christmas Vacation and cheesy. Possibly toss in a touch of Anchorman… you know, a glass of scotch and a leather-bound book. Guess whose never seen Christmas Vacation???!?!?!?! Yeah….. I thought he was joking. Turns out John has never seen Christmas Vacation, so I knew I wouldn’t get anywhere with that “vision” for his shoot.
He had all his Christmas decorations up (I was super impressed), the outfits picked out for Gem, stockings hung and the fireplace going. Here’s what we got…… good stuff :-)
How could this not win a Christmas Card competition???
Seriously- all this pressure??? he better win! Thoughts?? Which one do you guys think would win??
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Newborn shoot tomorrow and then back to St.Louis! At least I hope I make it back to St. Louis. I could quite possibly end up in a ditch with this weather.
DEFINITLY laying in front of the fire is the WINNER AND WHO HASN’T SEEN CHRISTMAS VACATION!!!???
I agree with Jen!
Thanks Lissy for making us look good. :) These photos are a good reminder of how blessed I am to have my healthy, beautiful family.
It was great to see you yesterday. You are always good for a laugh. Tell your mom her decs are awesome.
You have a beautiful family Robin. And Lis, I like that picture of the girls with the one with her hat over her eyes-that would make a fun Christmas card. I feel like our days are full of those moments. And I would definitely go with the last picture even though there is that one that you said had everything in it-the Charlie Brown tree, the stockings, the fire.
The Christmas card pictures are too cute – and as for your mom….she has holly in her heart!
HA! I love the last 2 of the Christmas Card competition! What a riot, sounds like such a fun family – which makes it even more shocking that he hasn’t seen Christmas Vacation! WOW :) I also love the Christmas picture of Mia alone with the pouty look! Priceless – adorable families! As always, I love walking into your parents house at Christmas – BEAUTIFUL! Great job Liss!!
Note to Mary Carol,
Your decorations are wonderful. I’m happy for you that your family looks forward to and appreciates your decor. It makes all the effort worthwhile, and that kind of decorating takes a lot of thought and time.
Merry Christmas to you and Mike and your beautiful family!
Brenda
Mom – The house looks so “Christmasy” and I’m ready to be there! Your wrapping makes me slightly nervous though because I am no where near that done and I don’t even know if we can fit it all in the car to come home! Robin – your family looks beautiful and I love all the attitude under the Santa hats! As far as the Christmas card goes… I feel like they are all winners!
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