Yesterday our morning began bright and early at 7am. We had to leave the house by 9 am for Christmas pictures. We ran around getting showered, dressed, and gorgeous and headed out the door, 15 minutes late, naturally. We actually only ended up being a few minutes late, which didn't matter in the long run, since the entire experience was excruciatingly long.
It took the woman a good 10-15 minutes to set up for the pictures. We decided to photograph the kids by themselves first. After taking an insanely long time to get the kids in position, the lady realized the camera wasn't plugged up correctly. She fixed that and then began snapping. The one instruction we had for Trevor and Victoria was to continue looking at the camera and smiling while we tried to get Sophie to smile. They naturally ignored our instructions, and we got several shots of them looking in different directions or making weird faces. We finally got one decent one of the 3 of them looking at the camera.
Then, we started taking shots of the 5 of us until the lady wasn't sure if the pictures were even being saved. She kept blaming the camera, even though her co-worker kept assuring her that the camera was working fine earlier. We had to switch rooms, so she could use the camera she knew had to work. Wesley was fit to be tied by this point, and the kids were already becoming unglued. He was mumbling things under his breath, and they were running around in circles.
After another 15 minutes or so, she was finally ready for us in the other room. We were posed, and Victoria decided she didn't want to smile or pose. After fighting with her and threatening spankings and more, she finally decided to participate. We took several and again ended up with only 1 decent shot.
We managed to get some individual shots of each of the kids, which were off center but decent enough, so we came away with a decent selection. Then, the woman took another 20 minutes creating special effects that we had no intentions of purchasing. Wesley had to tell her twice to hurry the hell up because we were ready to leave. By that point, she knew we were frustrated, so she was just trying to get us out of there. I picked out the poses as quickly as possible and took the kids out to walk around while Wesley paid.
After 10 minutes of us waiting on him, I sent Trevor in to see what was taking so long. Turns out, the woman didn't know how to work the register. She finally figured it out somewhat, but then she short changed Wesley a dollar. She couldn't get the register back open, so she gave Wesley a dollar back from her own purse.
All in all, it was a horrendous experience. It took an hour and a half from start to finish, and only about 20 minutes of that was actually taking pictures. I was quite proud of Wesley for not reaming that woman up one side and down the other. He will be contacting the district manager, though.
After that ordeal, I took Trevor and Victoria to a birthday party while Wesley stayed home with the baby and "studied" for his final. The party was for one of Trevor's friends that no longer goes to his school, so they really appreciated us coming. We walked into the house, and I was immediately on pins and needles as I looked around and saw a spotless room, immaculate carpets, and nothing on counter tops and tables. They only have the one child- an 8yo, so they’re not accustomed to Hurricane Victoria. I stayed on top of her the entire time, and I have to admit that she was really good. We were treated to a magic show, lunch, cake and ice cream, and a dance contest, which Victoria totally rocked. Unfortunately, her dancing resembles something you might see on a stripper pole as opposed to a typical 4-year-old's moves. They were playing Michael Jackson, so it was hysterical to see her emulating his moves like the older kids.
We were gone for 3 hours, so I was pretty exhausted when we got home. Of course, it got dark soon after, and we had promised the kids that we would look at Christmas lights. We hopped back in the car, swung by drive thru, and ate in the car while looking at lights.
Trevor managed to spill his drink right after we got the food, which reminded us why we should never opt to eat in the car. We speedily drove through neighborhoods, as the Christmas lights whizzed by in a blur. It was obvious that the driver (not me) was not in the Christmas spirit. Instead of Christmas music, we were lulled to the sound of the SEC Championship game blasted at 11 in order to drown out the choir of shrill shrieking and arguing coming from the back seat. Everyone was ready to go home after about 30 minutes. We were already in our pj's so everyone was sent to bed early, including me, who retired to the bedroom at about 9pm and promptly fell asleep.