I've had a grand idea to take a family photo and use it for our Christmas cards this year. The colors are so beautiful right now that I've been waiting for the right moment to gather everyone together for photos. The right moment is not coming. Yes, the colors are beautiful. They seem to be especially beautiful when the sun shines which, for the past two weeks at least, has been on week days. Problem is, no one is home on week days. Weekends? It rains. And rains.

This morning was a little overcast but it wasn't raining so I jumped in the shower and afterward (gasp!) put on makeup. I hauled out every one's matching colored clothing and ordered them all to put them on. Eric dug out the tripod. I read up on how to use the timer thing-a-ma-jig on the camera. After Ethan (aka Mr. Grumpy Pants) dawdled through brushing his teeth and putting on shoes and socks we headed out. We were just going into the back yard because we don't have to go any further to find beautiful color. As I stepped out the front door I observed the sky with trepidation. The clouds were looking more serious. We found a spot and fumbled around with the tripod for a bit. Got it all set and took 1 picture. It began to sprinkle. I took another. (I wanted to take a lot to increase my chances of getting a decent picture.) I suggested we move to a different location so I didn't have 10 identical pictures. As we started walking the sprinkling turned to rain and... that was it! We were done. We had to run for the house. I got just 2 pictures. I doubt very much that anyone around here is going to cooperate for a second try, so we may have photo Christmas cards, we may not.