It's Christmas Picture Time

One of the things I like most about getting ready for Christmas is our annual trip to Sears portrait studio. While it may not seem like I enjoy it to my children because I am spending so much time being very cranky about what they are wearing and how their hair looks, the end results are sooooo worth it.
This year's trip was a bit more...frustrating that other years but it was partly my fault. We usually have our pictures taken in late October or early November. This year I was a bit lax in getting an appointment and we just had them taken the day before Thanksgiving. Well as you can expect, the studio was a mad house. They had double booked each slot and we ended up waiting for about 45 minutes before we even got to go into the room and then another 15 minutes before she was actually ready for us. Not the best way to start out but at least I didn't have a fussy baby like some of the other people waiting. I was determined to be in and out as quickly as possible and even with a change of clothing for everyone, we were finished in 20 minutes. I think it might have been a record for us but maybe it helped that I came well prepared with poses from previous years that I liked.
Then the fun part....it will be about an hour before you can look at your pictures...say what?? Not too thrilled at this point but we still needed to take care of a few things in the area so not a huge deal. We don't get to the mall too often since it's 45 minutes away from our house. A trip to Claire's to get some birthday items for a friend of Teresa's (and a few stocking stuffers I managed to get past them :-}) and a stop in the food court and it was back to the portrait studio. But wait...who's that standing over there??? Why it's my awesome husband checking in to see how things were going. He was driving by the mall on his way home from work and realized we were still there. He actually volunteered to take the kids home while I finished up. What a guy!!! We trooped out to the van, gathered their things up, got the DVD out of the player to put into his vehicle and I sent them on their merry way.
Meanwhile, I got to go and sit and look at all the poses in peace. No kids saying "how much longer" & "aren't you finished yet". And because it was so busy, I got all the time I needed to look through the poses and decide how many sheets and all that jazz without the salesperson breathing down my neck. Heaven, I'm in heaven.
Then the best part happened. When I was finished, the woman who was helping me (who happened to be the manager) was busy with someone else so she asked one of the photographers to put my order together. I let him know what I wanted and made sure to mention that because I am a smile saver member I get buy one get one sheets Monday - Thursday (which is why we had to go on a Wednesday). He muddled and fumbled and managed to put the order through(wrong of course). Unfortunately for him, he must have pushed the wrong button somewhere because the printer started up and began printing out my pictures. Now I am not throwing away perfectly good money just to have my pictures printed on the spot. I can totally wait for them to come back in 10 days from the printers, especially since they cost more and I can just look at them online when I get home. So the manager came over and told him to scat. She fixed my order (he hadn't figured out how to add in the free ones) and processed it and went over to the cash register to ring it up. So she said to me "Since you have had to wait so long and have been so patient, I am going to give you all the pictures that printed out. I hate to throw them away, even though that is what we are supposed to do." WooHoo!!! Can you say FREE PICTURES!!! Really good ones too. Apparently there is an advantage to getting them there because they are really durable. You can spill anything on them (except alcohol or Purell) and it will wipe right off. No fingerprints either.
So now I have some of my Christmas pictures already and then still more whenever I get around to the mall again to pick them up. TOO COOL!!!! I don't suppose anyone is actually interested in seeing them...?? Well, since it's my blog, you have to anyhow. ;-P
I still haven't decided which one I like the best but I'm leaning towards the first one. I don't have a very good scanner so they are actually much better in person than they look here.