Sneak Preview

 It's not like I woke up this morning and decided we were going to take Christmas card pictures today at exactly 7:00 pm in the field by our house.  I decided this ages ago.  (Last night when the light in the field was pretty.)   Every time I have an idea that Scott doesn't like, regardless of how long it's been in the works, he always argues, "Why do we all of a sudden have to do this right now?"  Usually, it's not sudden, I just didn't mention it because it I knew what Scott's reaction would be.  I like to spring things on him because it minimizes the agony for both of us.  (I'm thinking of Tziporah.  I'm pretty sure "I know we're going to have a seventh child.  I  just don't know when or how, so stay tuned." would have been harder to take than, "I had a feeling this was going to happen...we're having a baby in eight months!")  So yeah, there have been bigger surprises than family pictures on a Sunday night.

Anyway, I had a perfect argument ready when Scott said, "You don't plan things ahead.  You just think of things and then you have to do them right then."

I said, "Scott, think about the irony of that statement.  It's August and we're about to take our Christmas card pictures.  I plan ahead.  This is what planning ahead looks like."

Touche.  I decided I would give plenty of warning that this thing was happening at 7:00, and then just go for it.  During the half hour before the deadline, two kids had to have emergency showers for reasons you don't want to hear about, and there was a scuffle over a certain girl's wardrobe choice.  It makes you wonder what we look like on a daily basis, if getting the nine of us to look presentable is this major.  I wanted to do a photo where we were all wearing burlap bags, but there were several members of the family that said there was no way they were doing that.  I thought it was funny.

Emily, my artist SIL, came over with her nice camera and shot a whole series of pictures, all of which I'm pretty sure were ruined by Freestone.  We'll see.  For now, all we have are these cute trial pictures of Tizzy that we took with our camera to check the light.  If none of the pictures turn out, we'll just do it again.  Suddenly, with no warning...at 6:55 pm on Sunday, September 2.  But let's not tell Scott yet.