Deceptively Picture Perfect

Our last Christmas card is a series of photos of our family in various states of disarray.  In front of the camera, as hard as I tried to get a good picture, one where all four of us faced forward, smiled, looked just right, it couldn’t be done.  So instead of continuing the effort or scrapping them all, I chose to include the most obviously flawed ones.

These had my daughter crying in one, my son completely turned away from the camera in the other and my hair blowing across my face in the last.  I believe my husband was relatively unscathed throughout.  It goes to show our actual family dynamic, clearly and in living color.

The truth is, there is never a truly flawless day, ever.  There are flawless moments.  Moments so perfect I gasp and wish there were a photographer nearby to capture the moment.  There are moments so perfect that time seems to stand still and it is just me, my kids, my husband, we are in a bubble and nothing can touch us.

But as a whole, it’s not a pretty picture.  It’s messy and chaotic and quite often there is crying, it’s not even always the children doing the crying.  I don’t ever want to pretend to anyone that my life is a picture perfect postcard.  However, it is lovely and as beautiful as a sunset with a big shirtless guy wearing a speedo standing right in front so you can’t quite get the perfect shot.