That's Christmas
Every Christmas Eve my family gathers ‘round to enjoy good food and company. We try our best not to annoy one another. We have a tradition of taking pictures of individual families and then one of each generation - which is multiplying like crazy.
Last year trying to get a picture of all fifteen children under the age of twelve wasn’t easy. They‘d crawl or walk away or cry. It pretty much sounded like this-
"Stay where you are."
"Don’t move!"
"Just one more minute."
"Stop pulling her hair!"
It‘s hard to believe that after one short year, we were not only able to get a picture of them, but we coerced them to sing Jingle Bells for us before they were released.
Some of them stood there fidgeting, some of them made funny faces and some of them wanted to please their parents. The tall ones stood in back, the smaller ones sat up front on stools - still smiling from all the posing and slight embarrassment from having to perform for us.
We adults stood ten or fifteen feet in front of them with cameras in hand, listening with our heads cocked to the side and smiles on our faces to encourage them to keep singing.
Then, as if on cue, the adults started singing along as these little angels met our eyes, smiling back at us the same way we were smiling at them.
And there we were - a family of nearly forty people, standing together in two groups facing one another singing Jingle Bells.
The minute the song was done, the adults parted down the middle making an aisle for the kids to escape as we applauded them and they ran back to their toys.
That’s Christmas.
Last year trying to get a picture of all fifteen children under the age of twelve wasn’t easy. They‘d crawl or walk away or cry. It pretty much sounded like this-
"Stay where you are."
"Don’t move!"
"Just one more minute."
"Stop pulling her hair!"
It‘s hard to believe that after one short year, we were not only able to get a picture of them, but we coerced them to sing Jingle Bells for us before they were released.Some of them stood there fidgeting, some of them made funny faces and some of them wanted to please their parents. The tall ones stood in back, the smaller ones sat up front on stools - still smiling from all the posing and slight embarrassment from having to perform for us.
We adults stood ten or fifteen feet in front of them with cameras in hand, listening with our heads cocked to the side and smiles on our faces to encourage them to keep singing.
Then, as if on cue, the adults started singing along as these little angels met our eyes, smiling back at us the same way we were smiling at them.
And there we were - a family of nearly forty people, standing together in two groups facing one another singing Jingle Bells. The minute the song was done, the adults parted down the middle making an aisle for the kids to escape as we applauded them and they ran back to their toys.
That’s Christmas.
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