Each year I try to make Christmas special. Not that Christmas isn’t special any way. But I try to create one of those lasting family memories. I shoot for the positive ones. I don’t always win.
Christmas breakfast is always going on in large scale. It’s expected. I’ve cut out some items over the year, reducing preparation from five days of cooking to two, but never cut out on favorites — French toast, waffles, omelets, quiches, cheese cakes, pumpkin roll, homemade cinnamon rolls…
A few Christmases ago I bought each member of the family a new and hope-to-be-exciting board game, researched on the web until I couldn’t Connect Four let alone Say Anything. And by the time I paid for them, I had no Wits & Wages left to buy a Ticket to Ride. Smarty Party was the winner game that year.
Last year I dug into my vast memories to find a toy reminiscent of days when my now adult children were Letter-to-Santa ages. I ordered a miniature Strawberry Shortcake village for the GAP. I’d sewn a Strawberry Shortcake outfit for one of her long-gone birthdays. I purchased a Star Wars laser gun for Hot Wheelz. I think most of his Star Wars mini-characters were left behind in Whittier soil. He and Cheezy had often taken them outside and buried them in trenches they dug in our backyard. I don’t think nearly as many of the characters ever came back inside that got left outside. For Coco, I bought a miniature Smurf cottage. As a teen, she dyed her hair every color of the rainbow, including blue. “How many tickets?” asked a ticket vendor one day long ago when I’d taken the girls to a movie. “Two adults and one Smurf,” I’d answered. I ordered a remote Ninja turtle on a motorcycle for Cheezy. It was a hard choice between Ninja Turtles and Transformers. For Mr. Greenjeans, I bought an Erector set, and even bought a box of Tinker Toys for Couponman.
So this year was quite a challenge to find something different. Couponman worked his wonders once again and found a Groupon coupon. Since I love family pictures and my children do not enjoy being photographed, at least while they are doing something sane, a photo booth might be the answer. The usually “don’t take my picture” Hot Wheelz even purchased novelty masks for the event. I didn’t want to spoil his fun that a mask might detract from the family portrait I was hoping for. I was glad he was excited.
The GAP had given Coco a belated gift — a weekly supply of moustaches. Best birthday gift ever, she claimed. We were set for the Christmas Day photo booth. Until the dreaded stomach flu took its toll on the family.
Still Erin and Chris, photobooth entrepreneurs, made our event a big success. And you’d be surprised what people do even when they know they are being photographed!
Guess who
Egads, it's Santa
Worm's hypo-allergenic dog
Bug's first MP3 player
Picking your family('s noses)
The Mouse doing his impression of a cow
The family likeness
Hot Wheelz was not feeling like himself
As close as I'm ever going to get to a family portrait
For an unphotogenic group, we did okay. Note the photographs above. Hot Wheelz has a beard. In the picture underneath this paragraph, feeling miserable from the flu, he still had the wherewithall to shave his beard for the sake of creating a mood for his photo with the Bug.
The under-the-weather, barely-alive gringo and the bandito
“That’s a first for us,” said Chris and Erin. “No one has shaved betweem pictures.” No matter how under the weather he was, he gave his all, at least his hair.
Thanks, Chris and Erin of The Platinum Photo Booth for sharing our Christmas with us!
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This is just fabulous! What a great idea and you guys got such great shots! Love the mustaches! Love everything. This is really cute!
It seems that when it comes to grown children, hardly anything is ever as good as it should be—But in this case, it probably WAS as good as it could be, and wonderful in that everyone probably went away feeling positive about the activity!
. . . from V
This wins the prize for the most creative Christmas gift ever! We had a photo booth at my hubby’s company party this year, but most people don’t unwind enough at a company event to get really cool pics–at least not unless they’ve overindulged at the bar, which is another no-no at company events. So I think having it at a family event is a grand idea!
great pics. thanks for sharing. i hope your xmas was a fun filled day. we had fun opening our presents and watching Anika open her first xmas presents. hope to see you soon.
Such fun! An idea I’ll have to keep in mind. Hope your Christmas was awesome and the New Year will be even more so! Cheers!