You want to take a Christmas picture of us, Mom? What are you thinking?

The holidays are always busy, but so much more so when moving into a new house and trying to settle in while at the same time getting ready for Christmas and working on a new house.  So, as you can imagine, getting a family Christmas picture and Christmas card out this year have been virtually impossible - don't hold your breath, I don't think one is forthcoming.  We have developed a family tradition of going Christmas caroling at retirement and senior care centers with my Mom's real estate company every December.  The girls thoroughly enjoy this and are learning valuable lessons about appreciating older people, and being kind to others that are less physically and mentally capable than themselves.  The older people are extremely appreciative for the children's presence as many of them rarely see children during the year and miss the experience.  This year, after the caroling had concluded, we went back to the office for a potluck and I thought I might just be fortunate enough to get one good picture of all 5 girls dressed in their Christmas outfits.  As you can see below, this didn't exactly turn out as I had hoped for.   But, I think we will laugh about these attempts in the future, so at the very least I have Christmas pictures of them this year for posterity's sake.  Notice that half-way through the photo session, #3 (in the middle) has red eyes from crying because she was sad that I insisted upon taking a few more pictures, and she was hot-to-trot to go and have a bowl of soup instead.  :-) 

Where is #4?

There she is! . . but now #3 is doing crazy eyes.

Looking pretty good, but not always getting the idea of looking at the camera.

#1's arms were too tired from holding #5, so they sat down in front of the tree.  #3 has melt down over not going immediately to the potluck supper, hence the red eyes from crying.

#3 & #4 trying to smile for Mom, but not exactly succeeding.  #2 can barely see over #4's head.

#1 is 7-years-old and gets the idea of taking several pictures in a row while the rest are having a hard time staying on task.

O.K.  This is really not working out.  I think we'd better give up for now and all go have a bowl of soup.  (Wow, Mom, it took you that long to figure this out?  :-)  )