Family Portrait

VC Andrews Novel Comes to Life

“My mother did a glamour photo shoot for my father as a Christmas gift one year and took me along for the ride. I will never forget this day and I am curious as to what really went through my father’s head when he received the portfolio of pictures this day produced. This is one of the better ones.”

(submitted by Dina)

Ant Man

“This portrait was taken at my family’s 2010 Christmas celebration, when we gathered from all over the USA. The guy in the ant costume is my husband. Respecting the industriousness and work ethic of the European Wood Ant, he believes everyone should emulate ants for the forthcoming year. He is the only person I know who celebrates this way.”

(submitted by Nan)

Side Eyes

“This was a photo from the 1970s of my parents, aunts, uncles, and little sister. All wearing flannel, all looking off to the side except for one of us.”

(submitted by Steve)

Thirtysomething

“I don’t know what’s more awkward–how much I look like a boy, my Mom’s giant glasses, or Dad’s hideous sweater.”

(submitted by Sam)

‘Tis The Season For Creativity

“Every year I force my kids to take a non-traditional holiday photo. Thankfully my husband, who is a photographer, goes along with my crazy ideas. We are originally from California and just moved to Texas, so this year’s photo had to represent that.”

(submitted by Nicole)

Merry Gothmas

“This photo is from the year my family got a German Shepherd puppy and more importantly the year I discovered the deep darkness of the soul and Bauhaus. My mom got a coupon for a free family/pet photo from the local Petco and dragged us there for our family Christmas card photo. Since it was free we didn’t get to pick which photo we got, so even though I smiled for like a dozen shots THIS was the one they sent us, probably because the teenager working the booth found it as funny as I do now. I got in so much trouble for it at the time, but I had totally forgotten about it until this season when my mom found it and sent it to me. Luckily she finds it funny now, but I guess since I never stopped wearing all black or listening to music performed by morose skeletons, she has had 20 years to get used to it.”

(submitted by Nikol)

Cold-Blooded Christmas

“That’s me, my brother, my cousin, and aunt and uncle. Oh, and all the lizards.”

(submitted by Aaron)

AFP Loves This Family

“My hubby is a teacher. I’m a stay-at-home Mom. We have 5 kiddos, 4 of them adopted through foster care. A long time ago, I heard our pastor point out that when it comes to kids, rules without relationship = rebellion. From that day forward, I made a promise to myself to always make relationship with our kids a priority. And that means having fun with them and having a sense of humor. We want to teach our kids that being able to laugh at yourself (not in a bad, degrading way, but in a good way) is a wonderful attribute. So, we always do crazy photos for our Christmas cards. This year, we decided to make an awkward family photo.”

(submitted by Shanti) 

The Puke Mystery

“During family pictures my bouncy 5-year-old was a little sluggish but I was thrilled that he wasn’t hyper. When my photographer said “Ummm he just threw up,” I thought she meant the baby, so I checked him for spit up, saw none, and said, “No he’s good.” Then I saw the puddle at my feet. We rushed to the car and as we were driving away the photographer flagged us down to show us the picture she had captured. We laughed so hard we cried.

That was the only time he threw up that day, and he was totally fine and hour later, so we were puzzled. The next day, as my husband and I kept discussing that he must have eaten something that upset his stomach, he finally came clean. While we had been upstairs getting dressed, he snuck into the kitchen and ate a whole tub of ice cream. Then he cleaned up the mess and thought he got away with it. Apparently, he didn’t understand how that much ice cream would make him so sick. He learned the hard way! And it made for a great Christmas card!”

(Submitted by Chelsy. Photo by @byeemilyphotography)