Heartfelt and Handmade Holidays - Remember to capture it in pictures

Today I wanted to remind you to take pictures.

If you are anything like me, you don't like having your picture taken when you aren't looking your best. I can't stand pictures in my house when it isn't tidy and forget about pictures of me without my hair fixed (at least). I did this for a few years and noticed that I was missing from the whole time between Thanksgiving until after the New Year! Missing from every picture or video.

One day, I was sitting with my son, going through pictures. He asked me why I wasn't in any of the pictures. Hmmm. Because I didn't think I looked good. In retrospect, I was 30 pounds lighter and had fewer wrinkles. I allowed myself to be removed from those celebrations.

Since then, I have allowed other people to take pictures of me even if I didn't look perfect. I allowed pictures of my arms in tank tops (I know!) and I allowed myself to remain in our memories of the celebrations for years to come.

At some time during this hustle and bustle, please let someone take your picture. Heck, ask someone to take your picture. Take pictures of your kids doing fun things even if your house isn't perfect. Take pictures. Take lots of pictures. Take a video of your family talking about whatever is important to you right now.

This is a great time to set aside time to make sure to get a family picture. This year, we had great intentions to take pictures at a nice park outside. Every time we planned to go, it was raining. So instead, we sat in front of our tree and took a picture. We used a tripod and the self timer button.

Don't let another year go by without capturing you and your family.

Anjeanette

Rebecca here adding to the thought of pictures being important. I think all of us has fallen into the habit of not wanting pictures taken of us, at one time or another. I could not agree more with Anjeanette that this might not be the best way to act.

I found that even after I got over that problem, I still wasn't showing up in pictures. This is because I am the photographer for my little family. I have had one of those same moments with my child. The one where they asked me where I was during all those fun events. My problem was not that I was missing from the pictures because I chose to be. I was just always the photographer. I used to find it uncomfortable to ask someone else to take a picture with me in it. Many times I just did not even think about it. It is so easy to hand your camera off to someone else to take pictures. In this day of digital cameras and cameras that take such beautiful pictures for you, you don't even have to worry about what kind of a photographer the person is. Just have them take a slew of pictures, one is sure to turn out!

I also found that many moments were not being captured that I wanted. Either my batteries died out on me, or my memory card was full! How disappointing. I now have a battery charged up all the time, and clear my memory card every time I use my camera. This way, my camera is always ready to go. There are so many spontaneous moments that are missed because of those things, for me. Many times I had my camera and it was all ready to go, and I failed to take pictures anyways.

I sometimes felt that because no one else was taking pictures, that I couldn't either. Not any more. In fact, at the last Christmas concert for my oldest daughter, my youngest daughter video taped the whole thing. She walked right to the front of the auditorium to get a better shot of her sister. I saw her do it, and I did not stop her. The way the auditorium is set up, she could not be in anyone's way. I am so pleased to have a video where we can actually see which dot is my child! I also walked up to the teacher and asked to take a picture of my daughter with the teacher, even though no other parents were even approaching the teacher to talk, let alone take pictures. I have found people to be quite gracious about this request and have never found it to be a problem. What was I worried about before?

Think about what shots you want taken. Think about what parts of something that you want to be remembered. I can assure you that I want my children to have pictures of me, in all my glory (no shower, no makeup and all) documenting that I was there too. But even more then just holding my place in the moment, it is also an accurate picture for my children of what their Mother really looked like, when they were 5 years old. Years later, they can laugh with their children about my highlighted hair (that is so 2009!), or what other styles that will become so funny to them. One of my favorite pictures of my siblings is of them on a horse. It is not even about the moment of that memory. It is about how 70's that picture was! They were all rocking the brown leather sandals (with socks) and 70's clothes and hair!

Here are a few examples of preserving the "time" as well as the moment!

This is our lovely Mother. Notice the poodle hair-do? (Sorry, Mom, but it is!) Yeah...well, all of us girls were Rocking that hairstyle right then! It is so much fun for me to look back at pictures of my Mom and to see how much she kept up with the times. While I was looking for these pictures I found ones of my Mom in the 70's, totally rocking the Farrah Fawcett-do! Priceless! Other noteables about this picture are that my Mom is making Pizzels. Yes, the same ones that Anjeanette just posted about! How cool is it to not just know you have traditions, but to see them in pictures from way back when! She even still has that same pizzel maker. Cool, hu!?

So sorry to do this to you, girls. However it had to be done. The above picture is another moment where not just the moment, but the "time" was captured. Yes, getting pictures of us making awesome candy cane cookies (see we keep telling you that we have just grown up with crafting, baking, and doing it all together with traditions!) is totally cool. However, having us in our awesome attire is just icing on the cake, don't ya think!? Fluffy bangs, and a tied-at-the waist-hanging-off-the-shoulder shirt could not have told the "time" any better! Love it!

Hope you guys get a kick out of these oldie pictures. I'm not sure my Sisters will love me showing them off! ;) I know they'll get over it, and they just showed my point better then I can just write it.

Katrina Here:

The girls have got this one covered but I thought I would add something. For years every time I took the camera to my son's pre-school to capture and event, either my batteries would die or my card would be full. I fixed that problem by getting a 4 gb memory card and I always carry an extra set of batteries in my purse. I never take them out and have them with me all the time. This way I don't have to try to remember to bring batteries. This year it paid off for another parent. His batteries died just before the Halloween parade for our Kindergarteners. I happily volunteered two of my batteries to him so he could capture his child in action. Just saying it is always the memory card or the batteries that go when you don't have extras on hand. Most of the time I don't need those batteries anymore. LOL They stopped dieing during those kinds of events. Go figure!

Happy Holidays and remember to jump into a picture. I did that with a family vacation picture. I heard my husband getting the boys to pose for the picture so I stopped what I was doing in the cabin (making dinner) and jumped into the picture.