2009 Christmas Card Photoshoot

I decided that I wanted to have the boys and Emma's Christmas card photo taken at the beach this year. We planned ahead of time. I ordered Emma's little outfit, and we scheduled a trip down to Oak Island when it would still be warm enough to comfortably be outside.

The long weekend that we chose to go, it rained the first two days. The last day that we were there would have to be it, and thankfully the forecast was for clear skies. Everyone was up and pretty happy. I bathed Emma, and pressed all of the kids' outfits. I planned picturetime in between breakfast and lunch. We got everyone ready and headed out the door only for it to start pouring down rain - I kid you not. Soooooo we all walked back inside and waited about 30 minutes until it looked like it was clearing. We rounded everyone back up and headed back outside. We made it to the beach only for it to start drizzling AGAIN. So we loaded up in the car and just started driving down the oceanfront road. After about 15 minutes, the skies started to clear so I had JC park in a public access, and we all got out. I tried to arrange all three kids in front of a dune with the ocean in the background. Emma was less than helpful as you can imagine...she was 21 months old and didn't understand much English at the time. Oh, and did I mention that the night before, my new camera stopped working???? Thankfully, I had the old Nikon that still takes photos without a flash.

I took about 8 photos, and guess what? I ended up using the first one that I snapped. I am not thrilled with the photo that we ended up using. I have gotten better ones in front of our tree since we put it up, but I like to have my cards in hand by Thanksgiving if possible so that I can take my time hand-addressing each one.

Here are some of the photos from that morning on the beach...