Ah, nothing quite says "the holidays" like dressing up kids in their Christmas finery two weeks before the big day, taking out their curlers and ironing their dresses before cramming them into carseats and making the annual trip to the portrait studio in the mall.
We arrived at 5 p.m. on a cold, dark Friday night, with three starving kids who were (of course) simultaneously grumpy and silly. After herding them through the parking lot and past a candy store, escalator and toy kiosk, we landed in a studio that seemed ominously overcrowded. We weaved our way to the counter around flocks of coordinating families, and were greeted with the best possible news any parent can receive: "Yeah, we're running about an hour behind schedule."
Luckily, the person right behind us in line was a woman in charge of three young kids and a very compliant husband. She immediately took stock of the situation, cussed out the employee behind the counter, and then turned to her husband, and yelled, "Go down to the other end of the mall and see if the portrait studio at Sears can take us. And take a kid with you. Now!"
Minutes later, Take Charge Mom received a phone call from her husband, who informed her that the other studio was, in fact, empty. Before she had even snapped her phone shut, Tim was trotting after them, offering to pay for their dinner for sparing us from the hell of the Picture People waiting room.
The result? A Christmas miracle, courtesy of Sears. We did have to run interference (which involved refusing a gaudy green background, a fake Christmas tree background, and dozens of "creative" enhancements, including soft focus, watercolor effect, and charcoal effect), but we left the studio with what we wanted... a photo of three smiling children for our Christmas card!
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