An Elf Bed

We went to Mom and Roland's house yesterday for an early Thanksgiving dinner. The house was packed with family and lots of yummy food. It was a a full house and a great day! Mom wanted to get a picture of the grandkids for her Christmas card. She didn't just want to picture, she wanted a picture of all the kids dressed up like little elves. She had collected various items of red and green clothing, striped socks, the whole nine yards. Actually, there probably were 9 yards of it.

Now, Brittanie is older and Ivey is a baby, but please imaging trying to get the other six kids into elf attire. The playroom was a madhouse. The kids were running in and out of the room. Cameron loved his elf clothes and kept leaving half dressed to go show his mom and dad. Somehow, all the kids were dressed (enough) and it was picture taking time. Mom had a tree set up, but the background was lacking. It was in the playroom/garage, so she had thrown a blanket up over the garage doors. I knew I could work with it in post-production so just focused on trying to get these eight squirmy bodies to sit still, look in one direction and hopefully even smile.

After a billion and one shots, I was satisfied that I had enough to work with. Once I told them they could get up, it seriously looked as if elves lived underground in mounds and someone had kicked an elf bed. They scattered in every direction, yelling and singing and ripping off their little elf clothes. It was insane... and very festive... and it made for a fabulous Christmas card!