Family Photos

Pinning Christmas - photo - cards to our 6' long, quilted pine tree brings me satisfaction. You don't see folks folding up and mailing out their resumes (though some Christmas letters resemble one); they carefully choose and print the best or most humorous pictures of their loved ones to provide a snapshot of their lives. A quick update in a glance at how the children or grandchildren grew, how the parents aged (or got mysteriously younger), where families vacationed over the past year - magic. I save them all, and refer to them if we get a rare visit from old friends whose children's names escape us.

We bought a gift certificate to a photography studio at our church auction last spring, looking to update the dated black-and-white photo of several years ago that predated both my illness and the kids' growth spurts. We paid well for the 8 x 10s and 5x7s that we bought from the studio and had to pass on their Christmas card offer due to holiday budget restrictions. The Christmas card photo ended up a hastily snapped arrangement on the altar at church, with Aden muttering "Can we get off now?!"

In the new photo, our teeth are too white, wrinkles have disappeared from mine and Rob's faces, all are acne free, and yet - I'll take the magical realism. It's not representative of 99.9 % of our daily life, but it's a moment that was true, however briefly. After several years when scheduling and arranging a family photo were as out of reach to me as a visit to the moon, I appreciate this one.

I also appreciate the photos of friends who show the lead-up to the "good" picture - the shots where one child screams or one vanishes entirely one while Mom frowns a mass of wrinkles and lectures. Those are real, too, and more representative of family life. There's a time to 'make it work' and there's a time to cherish the high points. To my mind, all are good.