Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Another Rowlands Challenge

Every year it is a scramble to send a family picture in our Christmas cards. This year, a photo opportunity presented itself in September, Labor Day to be exact. Our beloved trampoline bit the dust after 10 well-used years. One of Johnny's friends broke through it's worn webbing. Thankfully, his friend was not hurt, although if he had been maybe my girls would have been more gracious about the demise of the their favorite form of exercise.
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I had the incredible idea of posing our family along the trampoline rim for our Christmas picture. Wouldn't that be a sweet way to incorporate something that had been near and dear to all of us for the past ten years? Suprisingly, no one else caught my vision (it is amazing how often that happens) and it was a grumbling bunch I was forced to work with as I set the camera on the timer mode. However, most family members pulled themselves together enough to crank out a strained smile each time the flashing light signalled that our camera was about to take a picture. They were not enjoying it, but at least they were cooperating.
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Johnny took a different tact. He decided he was going to enjoy the experience but forget the cooperation. It was like a repeat of one of my favorite Calvin & Hobbes series where Calvin's dad tries to get a nice picture of him for the Christmas card. Calvin flashes a charming smile until one split-second before the cameral flashes and then suddenly his expression changes to one that should never be sent! I thought this kind of behavior should have been the least of our worries as the youngest person being photographed was 14! However, the 18 year old, who is technically an adult, managed to foil about 13 of our attempts. He had us laughing enough that the death threats we gave him just did not seem terribly earnest. All told, it took 18 tries to get one we could live with. Thank goodness for digital!
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When I loaded the photo shoot onto the computer, Scott and I decided it would serve our boy right if we actually sent out one of his goofy poses. Thanks to Adobe Photo Shop, I was able to create a collage that showcased several of his memorable faces and added what I thought was a very appropriate greeting, "Merry Christmas from the Rowlands Family: May your picture take less tries than ours." Like much of my own humor, I thought it was rather hilarious and a fitting solution to another Rowlands challenge. I submit my finished product below for your viewing pleasure:
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Like I said, I thought it was hilarious and made myself chuckle several times over my clever wit. Like my brilliant plans that no one else thinks are brilliant, not everyone thought it was funny. My mom took one look at it and said, "It looks like you like Johnny best." I was shocked. That was the opposite effect I was shooting for. But maybe it was just my mom -- she doesn't get Princess Bride either. So I showed it to my friend, Diane. "It looks like Johnny is your favorite." She told me flatly. Well this was crushing. Here it was September and I had 50 copies of a family picture that I suddenly feared no one would understand.
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Fortunately, a couple of days later I got a new haircut that was so much cuter than my grown-out-no-style, that I simply had to take a new family picture. This time I enlisted the help of my dad and Johnny was well-behaved. It turned out pretty good and did not contain any subtle humor to misunderstand.
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Well, at least this picture provided me inspiration for a new post--and I obviously NEEDED a little inspiration! That, after all, is probably the most fitting solution to another Rowlands challenge.

3 Comments:

At 9:36 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

So what happened to the 50 copies of the unused Christmas card? Did you wall paper the living room with them?

 
At 7:11 AM, Blogger jenylu said...

I did not do any wall papering but I have about 47 of them left if you'd like a few copies!:)

 
At 10:14 AM, Blogger Sarah Kuhner said...

I have one of those wonderful pictures and I just love it. It definitely shows the character of your family wonderfully and just makes me laugh so. It will stay in our kitchen until next year. Love the photo!!!!!

 

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