Need a Gift Idea For Your Parents? Picture This!

1. Assuming your mom and dad, on a day not so very long ago, got together and said "I do", blinked, had you and your siblings, blinked again, and you all became a family grown up enough to have to plan what to get your parents for Christmas, consider giving them a family photo shoot. 

L to R: Carlin & Kayleen, Ricky & Jasmine, Danette & Ken, Kerra, Rolin & Seth & Joy

2. Have the son in the family who is a graphic designer do up an attractive gift certificate for presenting to your parents at gift exchange time on Christmas Eve. At some later point, get your siblings' and spouses' heads together and decide which local photographer to hire. 

Side note: Hopefully you'll find a photographer as fun and professional as Amberley Freeman, whom our children were fortunate to nab just before she, with her family and her business Unfrozen Photography, moved from a local town and relocated in an area several hours north of here. Amberley gets the credit for all of the photos in this blog post. 

3. Appoint an organized daughter-in-law to find a date among busy summer schedules that suits everyone to attend the photo session. Have her arrange with the photographer the location and time of event, and communicate the details with everyone. Get another creative daughter-in-law to coach along the lines of wardrobe color coordination for the event. Her coaching should include sending out a color palette and encouraging remarks to the family on their WhatsApp chat.

4. Have the daughter and son-in-law who live in the States come to your parents' place for a week (providing the pandemic has simmered down enough to allow for it) and bring their photogenic selves as well as their willingness/eagerness to make the Christmas gift happen during their stay. 

5. Have the photographer suggest a lovely setting such as the park in your nearby picturesque village of St. Jacobs, which includes a walking path beside the Conestogo River. The setting should include the option of places off the path where a family and their photographer can jaunt into sunlit meadows or among stands of stalwart riverside trees. 

6. Make sure your photographer comes equipped to engage the youngest member(s) of your group. Ideally, besides bringing her camera and its accessories such as an extra memory card, she will have toted along her experience, flexibility, patience, and creativity. Her attention-getters and expression-enhancers should include a wooden box (which she is not afraid to hop on and off of, herself), items from nature such as a twig or a stalk of timothy grass, hand motions, and questions like, "See the monkey in my camera? He's winking at you!" Bonus if she is a master at making authentic-sounding animal noises.

7. Come to the family photo session with ideas of poses besides the normal whole family scenes. Your suggestions added to the mental list your photographer has accumulated over the years will give you plenty of options. Among the categories in the options...

...there will even be subtitles (such as Dad & Sons)...

(and Brothers Only)

 ...under the main headings (such as Men in the Family).

There will be Mom & The DDs, which stands for Dear Daughters, 

and Mom & The DDs & The DDs, 

which is DDs plus the Dear Daughters-in-law, 

in case you wondered.

8. Also be open to the possibility of your photographer suggesting various poses within a category, such as Conversing in a Row and Standing in a Row under the Siblings title...

...or Nephew & Auntie under the Favorite Youngest in the Families title.

9. After you have duly thanked your photographer, go home from the family photo session and gather in your parents' kitchen to eat fresh rhubarb custard pie (compliments of the daughter who loves to bake), while sharing impressions of the photographer's expertise, and saying to each other, "I can hardly wait till we get the pictures and see how they turned out." 

10. And, finally, accept the sincere gratitude of your parents for the beautiful, meaningful, and long-lasting Christmas gift of a family photo shoot.