BEST. GIFT. EVER.

The kids were unusually eager for Tina and I to open our gift from them on Christmas morning.  We had been given a few clues that they were working on something, but had no idea what it might be. 

At first glance, I thought they had found some old pictures on our computer, printed them off, and put them in a frame.  No, the effort was much greater. 

They had said they needed some time in the house alone.  Last Saturday was a possibility.  Tina asked them if Monday night would work.  No, they needed Saturday afternoon.

So what they actually did was to dress themselves up and take a bunch of pictures.  Katherine even went on-line to learn how to tie Asher's tie.  They dreamed up the poses.  We don't have a tri-pod (a problem I aim to remedy immediately), so they improvised using Asher's xylophone stand.

Once they had the pictures, they uploaded them onto the Walgreen's photo processing site.  And here lies the funniest part of the story. 

When they went to pick up the pictures, Walgreen's wouldn't turn them over.  They said there were copyright issues as the pictures were professionally done (nope - not making this up.)








Sarah told them she had taken them.  "These are professionally posed" Walgreen's said.  "What kind of camera did you use," they asked.  "I don't know," responded Sarah.  So after making her sign a release of some kind, removing Walgreen's of any hint of copyright infringement, they released the photos.

Once they found a frame, the rest was easy, I suppose.  They mounted the seven pictures they had had developed.  What you see here are the best of the 82 pictures they took that day.

While our kids have done well with gifts, this was by far the most thought out and cooperative effort put towards a gift our kids have ever managed to pull off.  It was, without question, the highlight of our Christmas.