While people love getting Christmas cards, they seem to be getting less popular year after year. I think it is because social media tends to document our lives in real time so it might seem redundant to send cards. Traditionally, Christmas cards are sent to update friends and family on the past year. Now, we have Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so friends and family are able to see real time updates of our lives. Regardless, I hope sending Christmas cards is not a lost art. I love receiving them and I am so excited to send them for the first time this year.
Since this is T’s and my first Christmas as a married couple, I wanted to start a tradition to send Christmas cards out annually. I plan on making a scrap book and adding our Christmas card each year so we can look back at it as a sweet reminder of the years spent together. This is super cheesy and I love it. Sometimes I have a strong aversion to anything cliché and cheesy, and other times I take all the cheese I can get. This is one of those times. Bring on the cheese!
I didn’t want a traditional looking card so I talked to Michelle about something different. She suggested pictures at the top of Preacher’s Rock. She showed me pictures of the location and I loved the idea. We are an active couple and love hiking so it felt like the perfect place to take our Christmas card picture!
On a Sunday afternoon at the end of October, the four of us hiked up to the top of Preacher’s Rock. We hiked up in athletic clothes and then T and I changed in a pop up changing tent that the Horns brought (this is similar to what they have and it was a game changer. If they didn’t bring it, I would have been hiking up in a floor length dress.)
While the final photos may look glamorous (the Horns always manage to make me look better than I did at the time) the process was not. My hair was in a crazy rats nest from hiking up the mountain. T forgot his dress shoes at the bottom of the mountain (you can see his bare feet in one of the above photos). The second we started shooting, a huge crowd of people arrived and started watching us (T HATES taking pictures, especially with people watching him take pictures). It was also a super hazy day so I was worried you wouldn’t be able to see the beautiful mountains behind us. Basically, everything that could have gone wrong, did.
Even after all the chaos, the pictures turned out amazing and I am so thankful to the Horns for helping us capture our first family Christmas picture. I am also thankful to T for not killing me throughout this process. While there will be no more mountain Christmas cards for the Berecz family, it was a great learning experience and I am already thinking about our cards for next year. Note to self: Don’t forget the shoes!
Photography by: Horn Photography and Design
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