Heart and soul at Christmas
I don't want to be guilty of allowing the entire festive season to elapse without showing you the results of our family Christmas card shoot.
Fully realizing, as I do, how important it is to each of you.
I will thank you not to snicker. Just go and get your hot chocolate with extra mini marshmallows, and settle in. There are fewer than two thousand pictures in this post.
The Weber Clan Black Friday shoot (we don't shop on that day, unless it's online or unless it's our Brittany, who does tend to hit a few stores in person) has become an annual tradition, although in the early years, the purpose of the outing was only to give our eldest daughter, Stephanie, and her husband, Joel, some photos to work with for their family Christmas card.
Occasionally we'd get a whole-family photo for TG's and my card, if everyone was around, but it wasn't an every-year thing.
At least I don't think it was. Sometimes, to be perfectly honest, I forget.
At any rate, last year, in addition to Christmas card photos of Stephanie's family, I took pictures of Audrey and Dagny, and of Chad and Erica, for their cards.
For TG's and my 2019 card, I used a picture of us at the wheel of the vintage vessel Friendship of Salem, taken by an obliging fellow tourist, during our visit to that storied Massachusetts city in November.
I think I look right piratey in that picture. If you disagree, do feel free to share keep it to yourself.
But this year, as you know because I've told you at least fourteen times, all fourteen of us -- TG and me plus our four children and two sons-in-law (it's not son-in-laws; don't say that) and one daughter-in-law and the five grandchildren -- were present and accounted for on Thanksgiving day and indeed for the entire weekend.
Late November can be chilly in South Carolina but this time it was a warm day, and in the mid afternoon, when the light was pretty, we all headed downtown to the State House grounds.The possibilities for varied and interesting backdrops there are practically endless.
Before swarming the capitol building grounds, however, we spent a half hour across the street, in the graveyard of historic Trinity Episcopal Church.
I am always drawn to the small, salmon-colored mausoleum with its gothic arches and a huge broken stone leaning against it, inscribed PARR 1817. Our Andrew and his wife, Brittany, and little Ember were dressed in colors that looked as though they'd planned to be photographed there.
Brittany didn't use any of the pictures I took for their actual Christmas card, since they'd already had their pictures done by a professional photographer and her cards were ordered. But I took delight in the family's posing for me anyway.
I got our Erica and her beloved, our son-in-law Chad, to stand by the mausoleum too, with Sibyl the Chorkie as a mischievous, furry little prop.
I think I told you that TG and I, plus Chad and Erica and Audrey and Dagny, went back to the State House the following Tuesday, December first, when it was freezing and windy, and did retakes because I felt that this first lot did not look Christmasy enough.
But on balmy Black Friday, having taken many photos of Stephanie's brood both in the graveyard and in the gorgeous grounds on the opposite side of the church, and having all finally assembled (since we'd come at staggered times in separate cars), we headed across the street to the State House.
In a few days I hope to share with you photographic evidence of our whole-family Christmas celebration, slated to take place this Friday, December eighteenth, again at our house.
The following Monday, Stephanie's five will head up to Pennsylvania to spend Christmas with Joel's family.
But before they do, we will mark not only Christmas but our Melanie's sixteenth birthday, which is on the first day of winter, or the shortest day of the year.
Melly was born and has lived with semi-serious health issues and yet is so precious, so brave, so good a girl. I wish you could know her. Her siblings are devoted to her and a great help to their mother.
Audrey, our second daughter, and six-year-old Dagny, our third granddaughter, are both photogenic and experienced at posing for their picture. I estimate that I alone have snapped eighty-two thousand photographs of Dagny Clare, give or take, and that doesn't even account for the approximately one point two million her mother has taken of her.
Don't you think it's amazing, these phones? Especially the iPhone 11, which I have, and that portrait mode thing. I used my expensive Nikons and the phone for these shoots. You can probably tell which is which, but only if you look closely.
And with the phone it's so easy! The blasted thing is almost part of our hands anyway. It makes my first point-and-shoot camera look like a difficult dinosaur, thirty-five pixels or whatever it was.
At the State House, in addition to the massive wreaths bedecking the building itself, there's a stately Christmas tree on the north lawn.
If news outlets are to be believed about anything this year (iffy), the 2020 South Carolina State Christmas Tree is a thirty-foot-tall concolor fir grown by Pinetum Tree Farm in Swanton, Maryland. Dominion Energy and the Columbia Garden Club decorated it with thirteen thousand lights and nine hundred ornaments.
Dagny was keen to pose beside the tree, with Sibi in the frame. She wants a dog. Not this year. Well she wants one this year but she will not be getting one this year.
There was no method to our shooting session; we just walked around and someone would say, we'd like our picture there, and so we'd do that, or I would say so-and-so, pose up right there, and we'd do that.
I knew that Brittany and Andrew wanted some photos of Ember by herself. They only have approximately five hundred thousand pictures and videos of her, so this was of paramount importance. Oddly enough, I did not complain.
The baby took her first steps on November ninth at age eleven months and six days, and was still a trifle unsteady on Black Friday but not enough to cause any alarm.
Even so, we sat her on a bench.
Naturally, Andrew and Brittany wanted the classic hand-holding-while-walking-the-tot shot.
Sibi, being the only dog present (well, Stephanie's family dog, Shiloh, was in their vehicle but wasn't invited out to play), got her picture taken several times.
She even climbed the steps of the State House -- there are lots of those -- and posed at the top.
The non-Christmasy outfits on our first outing, weren't the only reason I insisted that we go back for retakes early the next week.
There was also the issue of lights. As in, after we'd worked hard to get pictures of each group in front of a giant wreath, and had moved fifty yards away to the Christmas tree, I looked back at the State House.
And realized that, precisely at five o'clock, the lights that adorned all four of the gigantic wreaths plus the decoration at the building's apex had twinkled on, resulting in a breathtaking sight.
We'd taken all of our wreath pictures with a lovely melting sunset behind, but no lights aglow on the wreaths themselves.
I said, this will never do. But no one was amenable to going back to redo the wreath poses, on a warm day when they'd already been posing off and on for over ninety minutes.
Stephanie and Joel's group were headed home. The rest wanted to go back to my house and order pizza.
Five days later, since the sun set five minutes earlier, we had illuminated wreaths and a melty sunset at the same time.
And we took full advantage of it.
Overall we pretty well covered the north and west sides of the State House grounds. It would have taken two more hours to pose up on the other sides, as the place is huge.
I'm never ready for the chagrin I experience on those occasions when, certain groups of loved ones having assembled, I fail to get the pictures. Get the pictures. It's important.
It doesn't matter really, how much you plan it, or what form the shoot takes. It's irrelevant whether you take five pictures, or fifty, or five hundred.
Just take them. You will never be sorry that you took the time, to take the pictures.
When we did phase two of our Christmas shoot on December first, as I have said, it was cold. There was a stiff wind out of the west, and because of that. the flags are flying full-out on top of the dome, in the photo at the top of this post.
Because of the cold and the lateness of the hour, few people were there.
It seems to me that America is in a late hour, and cold, and few people are cognizant of the big picture.
We reared our four children to love their country and to serve it, if only by being good citizens. Working. Worshiping. Paying taxes. Paying attention.
Not only have they done that and more, but they are teaching their own children to do the same.
As this year draws to a close, I am concerned that freedoms I have never once taken for granted, are being systematically and surgically removed from me and from my family.
I pray that God intervenes once more on our behalf. The hour is late, there is a dearth of warmth, and the day grows dark. I don't think I'm being dramatic to say that we are in a season of sorrow.
May God bless and keep your family this Christmas, and may He graciously again -- still -- bless America, and confound her enemies, both foreign and domestic.
Especially domestic.
And that is all for now.
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Happy Monday :: Happy Week
Reader Comments (19)
I want you to know there were no snickers here in anticipation of the photo shoot. You have a gorgeous family and I love seeing them!
These are all so good. Little Ember walking - so cute! Melanie is turning 16? How can that be?
I laughed when you said Audrey and Dagny are used to having their picture taken because I was taking pics at our family party and Alaina said - "Grandma, I heard that! I can tell when you're taking pictures because I hear that camera click". They are used to it too, but I often get goofy faces instead of those nice poses.
Yes - take the pictures and always remember.
PS - we got a nice card in the mail. Now I have a pirate watching me every time I walk near the kitchen or dining room!
@Mari ... hahahaha the pirate be watching you so belay that, matey! Thank you for your kind words and you know that I always enjoy seeing your pictures too, especially of Ruby and Alaina. I am truly excited about your new grandbaby coming any day. What a wonderful Christmas it will be for you! Praying for Heather and for you too. xoxo
You have such a gorgeous family! and all the pics turned our wonderfully! I'm especially fond of Ember studying that huge leaf. The bad times don't last forever; this too shall pass. But n the deep dark winter, it sure doesn't feel like it.
Forgot to say that my other favorite is you in full pirate mode!
I really enjoyed your photos of your lovely family. It looks like you all know the value of enjoying the days we have! Take care of each other! Have a fun holiday!
@Ginny ... Ember was so interested in everything she could find on the ground, on her voyage of discovery down the sidewalk. Leaves held particular allure and she tasted a few too, haaaahaha! Yes that piratey shot on the old ship is one of my favorites as well. Merry Christmas to you and yours! xoxo
@Gayla ... Welcome to IHATH and thank you! Yes we do try to wring all the activity that we can, out of the day at hand. Merry Christmas! xoxo
You have a lovely and photogenic family, and your expertise, captures them beautifully. But why wouldn't they be lovely and photogenic, with you and your husband, being their source...?
The posed ones are lovely....
And the spontaneous ones, of Ember picking up leaves, are a delight toooooo!
-sigh- Yes, it is a horrible time, in/for our Country. In our 80 odd years, we have seen much. But never, the Horrors, which are rampant now.
Not sharing your Faith, I do not see any solution. Am thus, glad, we are at the late part of our life. We won't have to see the Path of Destruction, of our Beloved Country, play out and out and out.....
So... We take as much Joy in today, as we can manage. -smile- Even when it gets hard. As my post today, states.
Thank you for all these lovely Family photos! Which certainly added some of my today's Joy.
Gentle hugs,
Mari-Nanci
"Beside a babbling brook" blog
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@Mari-Nanci ... we don't all have to believe the same, to see what is happening. We only have to SEE ... which I know that you do, as I do. It is appalling how easy it was for traitors and seditious characters IN OUR EMPLOY who are supposed to REPRESENT us, to summarily separate us from our liberties. It will only get worse. Let's have a joyous Christmas in spite of them! xoxo
Your Christmas card was stunning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you.
@Judy ... thank you, you're welcome, and Merry Christmas! xoxo
Your pictures are wonderful and every one of your family members beautiful! I
@Jeanette ... thank you my friend, and Merry Christmas to you! xoxo
Hi there Jenny, so glad you stopped in to visit and yes, isn't that birdcage on the porch huge and neat and strange?! LOL Oh, yes, I do love nutmeg sprinkled on top of my eggnog too, I forgot that! Well, it says to grab a hot chocolate w/th marshmallows......hope you don't mind---I have grabbed an ICE COLD COKE IN A GLASS BOTTLE, the little old fashioned kind----instead! LOL I'm hot.....been last minute wrapping presents and finishing a scrapbook of paper dolls for lil Fairy Granddaughter----so I'm plum worn out and needed A COLD DRINK instead. LOL!! Sure enjoyed all these great family holiday pictures, they all look great and so glad y'all got to be together, that is the important part.....the most important thing. the ladies look glamourous, the gents handsome and dashing, and the children adorable! Wow, the State House looks all pretty and festive, all decked out for the holidays, I'm glad you posted those as we probably won't be over that way this month. The big tree is GORGEOUS, isn't it?! Love all the ornaments, you said over 900 I think? How do they keep those on if there is a big wind.....are they tied on or what? .Little Sibyl is adorable!!--what a cute doggie! Looks like your family celebration is coming up tomorrow---y'all have a wonderful wonderful time and treasure the precious moments together. And happy happy birthday to Melanie! Make lots of pictures for us please, okay?
Loved seeing the family Christmas shoot. My favorite photo was Ember walking with Mommy and Daddy. So many photogenic people in one spot! AND - most of the time looking at the camera and smiling. Either you command attention, or they all realize that to get it over with they must comply. (It's the same with our family....) As we countdown to Christmas, I send much love to you and your family. Hugs from Colorado.
@Debbi ... I totally understand the need for a cold drink! We have had a few chilly days but when bustling around the house, one does manage to get hot. I use my ceiling fans year round, and right now the heat isn't even ON because it's getting up to 60 today, with ample sunshine! Thanks for all of your kind words and most of all for taking the time to stop in and read and look at eight thousand pictures of folks you don't even know! But that's what is special about blogland ... you feel as if you DO know folks. Yes the State House looked gorgeous this year and I am similarly mind-boggled by that big tree on Gervais Street and the 900 ornaments. They HAVE to be secured to that tree pretty well or they would be blowing around down in the Vista, hahahaha! I hope you get up our way soon and if you do, let me know and we can meet for coffee. Meanwhile have a very merry Lowcountry Christmas, my new friend!~ xoxo
@Barb ... Yes the pirate commands attention, hahahaha but you know, my kids just naturally pose up and smile, they've been photographed so much in the last sixteen years since they gave me my first digital camera, right after Melanie was born! They have gifted me all of my cameras save one, and many of my lenses. They are so generous to me and they know that not many things give me more pleasure than taking pictures of THEM. Isn't Ember darling? And yes: as we count down to Christmas Day, I return much love to you and Bob and your family (little Sam especially), and send hugs and kisses, and please know that I WILL be thinking of you that day as I thank God for ALL of my friends, met and unmet, near and far, old and new. xoxo
Gentle hugs,
and Wishes for a Peaceful
Eve of Christmas,
and Christmas Day,
to you and yours...
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@Mari-Nanci ... I hope you see my post of today! I wish you the merriest Christmas ever, and the coziest. xoxo
Hello,
A powerful post my friend.
Our oldest is in the Wisconsin National Guard, he is on Standby for next week. The verdict regarding the officer who shot J. Blake will be announced.
Praying for America..
Thank you for this post Jenny.
Carla
@Carla ... Thanks so much and God bless your son and his service, especially in these turbulent times. Our son was a boom operator (in-flight air refueler) for many years but in October he completed OTS and now is an officer, getting ready to begin pilot training. Unfortunately due to present circumstances, his training start date has been delayed and he's working at the base in Knoxville until he moves his family to the next base. I read in your blog about your son's deployments and I know some of what you go through. Praying for America indeed! Only He can save her. xoxo