Let’s talk about the tradition that failed. Many years ago, 16 years and 3 mos to be exact (I guessed the months, so it isn’t quite exact lol), my mother decided to have us do a family portrait. I was 15 and my younger brother was 6mos. I think I actually did that math right. I just double check and I might have to buy a lottery ticket with this luck. Anyway, she wanted a picture of her children, there are 5 of us (my younger brother was a surprise to us all). She didn’t want to be in the picture, but we forced her to hop in a couple frames. That year we all wore baby blue shirts. It was also within the times of guys wearing oversized T-shirts and it looked ridiculous. My mother didn’t match the color scheme (again because she didn’t plan on being in the pictures) and in the end, one of the boys gave her their shirt and they had a white shirt underneath. It worked out just fine. We also took a silly pic with a Christmas theme. We used the toys the studio had to entertain kids into smiling and a chimney prop. It was a lot of fun.
Five years later, I was now 20 and the color for that year was red. Winter had come by the time this was scheduled and I wore a red sweater dress. It was pretty cute. The only problem I had with the photo was that I smiled WAY too hard. My eyes looked closed and you could see my cavity in the back of my mouth. Yes I’m exaggerating that fact. I wish I could have persuaded them to choose another photo, however I lost that battle. We also had a new addition that year. One of my brothers had a little girl and my mother actually planned to be in the photo. We went out for dinner that evening and she allowed us to invite whomever we were dating. That was a big deal for me because I didn’t have boyfriends often, but that year I did.
Another five years later, I was 25, see the pattern? The color theme was yellow. I looked really cute this year and we had another 3 added to our portrait. One of my brothers had gotten married and the other had another child. This year, my mom wanted to include our grandfather. My Grandma had passed between the last photo and this one and I think she wish she had them in the photos all along in hindsight. It was great. We had another goofy pic with just her children. It was something that my mother and I talked about long before the day came. It turned out great despite my annoyance. My eyes were closed and mouth was open due to my brother hitting me in the back of the head a second before the photo was snapped. He is the only one who didn’t look goofy for the appearance of being innocent.
Now the reason I started this with the tradition that failed was because there were a lot of changes between my 25th year of life to my 30th. I’d gotten married between that time and moved to NC, then recently to AZ, and one of my brothers and sister-in-law moved to NV. The only brother who was giving my mother grandchildren at the time had another addition (actually she was born soon after the last photo) and my grandfather had passed. We were going to that the photo last year in NV for our annual family vacation, but not everyone could make it, we were missing 2 brothers and 2 children. Thus we would put if off another year. Enter 2020 and almost 2 years post the tradition (as next year I’ll be 32). Now we all knew, there would have been no way that any of us would travel a far distance, some of us weren’t allowed to regardless as work wouldn’t permit it for a while. By the next time we can take a portrait we may have to wait 10yrs since the last. Hopefully by then I could bring some additions into the photo as another one of my brothers and his wife had recently added one themselves. I mean technically I have added a husband and he will finally make a debut several years after we had married. I’m looking forward to seeing how the next one turns out, but more importantly, when.
Thanks for reading. Blogmas is really taking me down memory lane and I love it. Like and subscribe, continue this journey with me. Have a great day!
Gala Serks 