Every single year I tell myself that I am going to be on top of things around the holidays. I schedule family pictures in advance, obsess over what everyone will be wearing, decorate the house right after Halloween ( I know I am one of those people), and I am almost finished with my Christmas shopping before December even rolls around. Not this year.
Since we have moved to another state I do not have a handful of talented photographers at my disposal like usual. I found myself scrolling back through past years pictures and I was a little sad that this year our picture just might not measure up.
I then realized that I may not even get the opportunity at all to get a picture with every single one of us in it because its so hard to coordinate when you have college kiddos. But one day while browsing through Pinterest I got a text from my daughter. She said we should all wear different plaid this year for our picture. I smiled because I was just so happy that someone other than me was thinking about our Christmas card and our family pictures. I sent our a family text and told everyone to prepare themselves because while everyone was home on Thanksgiving we would be taking a picture somewhere and somehow and we were all going to wear plaid!
That same week I was out doing some shopping and I had Joseph and Judah with me. Joseph out of nowhere asked me why we didn’t have any Christmas decorations up. I explained to him that all of our decorations were burned in the fire and we don’t have any. He quickly told me that we were just going to have to buy some. Ugh, I was kind of hoping that this year we could just get by with a tiny little table top tree or a small real tree from Lowes. Nope. Joseph was not letting Christmas go down that way.
While at Michael’s he talked me into this gold skinny tinsel tree and from there it just snowballed. He talked my husband into letting us buy a new tree covered in snow and a few decorations. A light in my sweet Joseph was shining so bright that I just could not let him down. We got Santa hats and got to decorating. He got all of the other kids excited and really the entire house into the Christmas spirit.
Rob was also given a tree by a dear friend. I took the boys and let them pick out everything they wanted to decorate the tree and I gave
up all control and let them decorate it. Letting go has always been hard for me. Every year I spend days making sure my tree is exactly they way I want it. Not this year. This year perfectly imperfect is what is driving my soul.
The house was decorated and the kids were so happy. I must admit it made me feel good too. And to top it off my girls were coming home from college. Everyone was going to be in one place for a few days and there is no greater feeling of happiness when that happens.
Thanksgiving came and went and the girls were going to have to go back to school soon. We still needed that picture! I told all of the kids to get dressed and at 4:30 we were taking our family pictures. In my head I was doubting that we could pull this off but on the outside I was full steam ahead because WE CAN DO THIS! Like I said before, I am all over the place these days LOL.
Everyone was dressed and we headed to little spot outside of our neighborhood that I have had my eye on. Rob and I argued over 
lighting, where the best place to stand was, how to pose and all the while the kids are running a muck…did you expect anything else but pure chaos from us LOL.Somehow we did it. We managed to pull of a picture that I actually love.
When I look at this picture I see a family who has risen from the ashes. A family that has learned that we make our own happiness even when it feels like it is impossible. As a family we can do anything together and we truly are a support system. We may be chaotic and all over the place but in this picture in that very moment we were still, happy, together and full of so much love. We fought so hard to get to where we are today and I am so proud of us. We are not perfect but we are perfectly imperfect.
