How many does it take?

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

And again.

And again.

I'm referring to pictures for our Christmas card.  Matt thinks we need a family picture on our Christmas card because he says people want to see what we look like, too. 

So, we attempted; then I selected. 

There were two out of about twelve that didn't have Ruby jumping on Clarence or a cat walking around Matt's legs.  Oh well; such is life, I guess.....we're never prepared when it comes to getting our Christmas card ready.  It seems like it's all last minute.

Grandma Muriel was sitting in the suburban (the shadow  in all the pictures) taking our picture.  She really doesn't know how to work my camera; I just told her what button to push, and she did.  Very well. Thanks, Grandma!

Here are a couple of our attempts.  When you look close at some of them, they're quite funny. 

Matt told Ruby to "sit" because we wanted her in our picture.  So, she sat.

Then she wanted to say "hello" to Clarence.

Matt was trying to get Adina to look at Grandma Muriel. 

This is the one I chose for the card; no random animals, Matt and I are both smiling, and the kids are looking in the direction of the camera (or Grandma, or the car).

Then there were a couple pictures like this one that Clarence's cat, Girl (or Pig, depending on the day), wanted to jump in.  And, since I don't have any fancy picture editing programs, that eliminated these pictures.  Nobody would want half a cat in their Christmas card. 

Next year, I'm going to try and plan ahead a little better; maybe we can take our picture sometime during the summer, or fall, or at one of the kids' birthdays.   That would relieve some of the last-minute pressure.