Happy Holidays from Vetmommy!

I hope you like the new look! Its an Italian template.

This weekend was full of holiday cheer. Friday night we went to the local Holidays at Heritage Park. It was a party put on by the local parks department, held at in a large barn. There was hot chocolate, crafts for the kids, and Santa even came. The weather was cold and crisp - finally seasonally appropriate - and the kids had a great time.

Saturday I tried to photograph my kids for a Christmas picture. This is such an exercise in frustration. I don't understand why 2 children who are normally such hams for the camera refuse to look at me and smile for this photo. Do they sense how important it is, compared to usual casual photos? I put them on the playscape, and say, "Colin, look at me, Colin, smile and look at me, Colin COLIN COLIN! LOOK HERE! Please Colin, look at Mommy. Now, Colin, look here, Colin, Colin..." Finally he looks up, and I snap the camera, but Anna, who has been looking at me and saying with progressively less enthusiasm, "Cheese! Cheese. Cheese, cheeeeeese... cheeeeeeese..," her smile has completely faded and now she looks down. Repeat this scene 20 times, punctuated by moments where Colin runs off, and ignores all my requests for him to return; when I haul him back by the arm, Anna runs off to play elsewhere, and refuses to come back. I could send you lots of pictures of the tops of my kids' heads. It isn't lost on me that none of us are having fun, and the more my anxiety and frustration rises the less likely I'll get a good smile. At least I did get some good pictures in the end. In previous years it has taken multiple photography sessions, and one time I just downloaded a photo from video.

My friend Lisa is an excellent photographer, and sent me about 7 different excellent photos of her beautiful daughters. She was perplexed because they were all so good, how do you decide? Actually, this is what she said: "It is just so hard. A x-mas card photo has to be so many different things to different people. It has to clearly show the way the kids really look for relatives & friends far away. It has to show the kids' personalities for the people who see them all the time & don't want to see some fakey, posed portrait. And it has to look all serene & reverent, or goofy & fun, or present some other sort of scene or feeling. It has to generate an emotional response, not just make you think "Look how big they are getting." Okay, I promise I'm not as freaked out about this as it sounds. I'm just, um, having trouble deciding." Yes, this is the pressure women put themselves under this time of year!

Last night we went to my work Holiday Party. We thought it was going to be the 3rd year in a row Anthony would have to stay home because we could not find a babysitter AGAIN. But, one of our babysitters called back when her schedule cleared up, and we both got to go and had a great time. I actually curled my hair beforehand, and did much fancier make-up than my usual minimalist stuff, which was also stressful, because I never do this foo-foo stuff. I felt like such a poser, and wished Stephanie was there to do my make-up and hair. I was so afraid I would look like some child who just applied her mother's make-up with as much skill as a crayon drawing, or that my hair would be a big frizzy mess and I'd just have to put it all up in a ponytail. But everything turned out OK, and all my fellow workers were unrecognizable in nice clothes and pretty hair, instead of the usual scrubs and ponytails. Its our one big party of the year, both for me and for our clinic. I can't imagine having to do this almost every night during the holidays, like my poor sister Steph, for whom it becomes a chore. But with the practice, maybe I could make it look as easy to be beautiful as she does!