Busy busy busy!

Wow, today was absolutely crazy. It seems as if over the weekend, everyone started thinking about Christmas portraits and Cards. Now is the time, if you wait any longer we won't be able to have things ready for Christmas. Our cutoff date is Thanksgiving. If your portraits haven't been taken by Thanksgiving, we probably won't be able to have them ready for Christmas gift giving. Only exceptions are the Wrapped in Red scene on December 5. Those will be ready in time.

Santa's Toy Shoppe was a huge success. The children were adorable in their sweet Christmas clothing. Watching their faces when they saw Santa was priceless. I am such a sap, I nearly cry every time...and I have been doing this for 17 years!! All sessions went so well with the exception of one...MY CHILDREN. Jacob did not want to sit at all in any chair so I had to tie him in. I know, it's mean but that was the only way! Then when he figured he couldn't get out, he fell asleep! Not kidding. He fell asleep on the set, trying to curl up on Jackson's lap. I was sweating, stressed out that I would not get ONE good photo of my three boys. Once Jacob woke up, Jackson decided he didn't want to do it anymore and Josh accidently saw Santa in the window and got a little scared. But we persevered and got some cute images. So, if you think your children are bad, you can remember this story and know that someone always has it worse! Ha ha. Later, looking at the images I had a good laugh.
Take a look at one of these less than perfect Christmas photos! Jacob is mid-yawn!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!!

Santa is going to be here in 3 DAYS!!!!

There is so much to do before the big man in red arrives. We have to
1. Get some hay so the reindeer have some food while they wait for Santa to pose for his many portrait sessions
2. Decorate the Studio so Santa will feel welcome.
3. Get Santa's Toy Shoppe ready for all of the little children to visit.
4. Ask the meteorologist if they could make it a little cooler so Santa doesn't feel too warm in his big red fur coat.
5. Tell all of the children to have their lists ready to give to Santa!

A few words of wisdom for parents of little ones:

1. To little ones, Santa can be a bit scary. He sure doesn't mean to be, but sometimes little ones will LOVE him in a book or at a distance but when it comes to sitting on his lap, they may be a little frightened. Do not worry, we have done this before and we have a great system to create amazing Christmas images. The best thing you can do is not to overwhelm your child with too much talk about Santa before your visit to us. Bring your sweet child with their beautiful Christmas attire to us and let us do the rest.
2. Bring your video camera if you wish. Watching the story of Santa Portraits unfold is sometimes a magical thing. If you wish to video tape the event quietly, that is fine with us. But please leave your still camera at home.
3. Have your children bring a list of their top 3 wishes for Santa to bring to them. Have them write big so we can use it in the photograph and will be able to see what they wrote.
4. Don't coach them too much about smiling, let us entertain them and get those true expressions!