Christmas card tradition

This is our first family photo Christmas card. It is a picture of our darling firstborn, who turned 33 the day after New Year's. 

Every one agreed that it was a gorgeous card but we got more than a few requests for a
family" Christmas card photo. We obliged. For more than 30 years, almost without exception, we struggled to get everyone together, dressed properly. hair combed, face washed...

Some years it was a bigger challenge than others. Some years we had the picture taken on vacation. For a good number of years we were fortunate enough to have a photographer extraordinaire, who I worked with at a local newspaper, take our family picture. 

Some years we included pets. Some years we included people who were part of our family only temporarily... a boyfriend of the baby daughter, a foreign exchange student from France who lived with us for a year.

This year we either  broke with tradition or returned to it. However best characterized, we went back to the beginning. Our Christmas card featured a single little girl. A darling little girl who is our first (and only) grandbaby.

I blogged previously about how the card came to be. 

Whether we will go back to the family photo next year or some year in the future remains to be seen.

For this year, I am just as satisfied with our card as I was the first one we sent out circa 1981.