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five: tis the season

a little smile, a word of cheer, a bit of love from someone near, a little gift from one held dear, best wishes for the new year.

that cheesy saying sound familiar? everyone has at least one, that one awkward holiday card that you can not believe your mom sent to everyone she knows. maybe it’s the one where you dad has a killer afro, or the one where you have braces, perhaps your sister is drooling, and no one is really looking at the camera, or better yet, you are are all in matching red + flannel. yes, yes, those photos may be awkward, the clip art a little hideous, and a bit painful to look at but they are absolutely perfect in every single way. i wouldn’t change them for the world. the tell our story, our hilariously simple, but legend- wait for it…- dary story. 

1.) this one is pretty great, i mean, me and my older brother joe look like cute little elfs.. right? 

looking back i give my mom a lot of credit, heck, every year she sent out sweet little cards with some cute little holiday saying and self addressed each envelope… she likely wrote everyone’s age on the card and used christmas themed stamps. i mean, that takes time people… she never missed a year, i am officially impressed. i mean, someone was bound to ooh and ahh over this, right? we’re cute drooly little children dressed in red and appear to be decent companions… that was a winner mom! 

2.) this one is pretty impressive, right? i mean we look happy, the sun is setting, we are dressed decently. 

every year, the cards would come in and one by one we would look at everyone’s cute little family all staged and smiling. some included sweet notes about the comings and goings of the last year, others were just stuffed into a little envelope and sealed with love. either way, we loved racing out to the mailbox to see who’s faces would appear that day. we watched families grow, kids get older, dogs make their appearances, and cool quotes that made us feel the holiday spirit. i mean, who doesn’t love creamy pastels, what appear to be suspenders, and two blondies. 

3.) remember when i referenced the matching and flannel, i forgot to mention the awesome puff paint decorated shirts!

so finally my mom put together an awesome book of all of our images from the year her and my dad got married to the most recent, each and every christmas card that they had ever sent out. it was a brilliant gift, so funny to watch each kid go through their awkward stages (except me, because let’s face it… i made braces and zits look good…not.) it was also great to watch fashions go in and out of style and then back into style. yes, mom, maybe that oversized sweater, teased hair, and big glasses was a good combo… i feel like i’ve seen that on the runways this fall.

4.) this one is a slight improvement, minus the fact that dad isn’t focusing and there are awkward people in the background…

year by year, we all grew up. we celebrated milestones, from graduations to family weddings. braces, bad haircuts, zits and all they were captured year by year in one image that was supposed to give people a peek into the shelerud family and what we were up to.  silly as it seems, i am glad my mom did it. even though i hated when i would run into someone my parents knew who clearly recognized me from our card and i had no clue who they were, my mom was right in doing what she did. it was a tradition that i pray we can carry on… although we might not have awkward clipart or cheesy sayings, i feel like it is fun to put a photo together and send mail to the people we love the most. 

5.) the best one yet. we look cute, it’s a great photo, we are all dolled up. notice the new hubby + wifey made the cut too! 

we had this rule that you aren’t in the christmas card until you have a signed legal document welcoming you into the family, so last year drew + sarah  made their shelerud card appearance and boy were they lucky to enter when they did. clearly as the years went on, the quality improved. suddenly we aren’t a dark blog of unfocused mess, we look like a somewhat good looking family. forget the matchy matchy, it totally works in this case. i mean, how could we not be happy our big brother was marrying a girl like sarah! so as silly as a tradition it may be, it is so dang fun to watch my parents lives change from year to year, through bad hairstyles and teenagers it helps tell our story year by year. it is something i plan to do, but i promise you i’ll avoid the awkward clipart. way to go mom, you are pretty much super mom for doing this… even if you chose some terrible photos, i won’t blame you!

tell me about your awkward family photos? what do you have planned for this year? 

xo