“On the Stairs”
Every Christmas, the Fay family has a holiday tradition of taking a family photo on the stairs. Growing up, this was both good and bad…actually, it was mostly bad. You see, before any child could even go downstairs on Christmas Day, he or she had to wait for every family member to be ready to sit somewhere on the stairs and look pretty for a half dozen or so photos. And of course Dad had problems every year getting the tripod set up just right and remembering how to set the timer. Precious time was wasted for little children who wanted to tear open the million gifts he or she hoped to receive.
Ah, I love payback traditions. Now that Laurel and I are new parents, we are determining those traditions we want to carry forward in our own nuclear family. This is one that we will make sure our girls suffer through. I’m sure they’ll be torturing us anyway in the near future by waking us at the crack of dawn. I do realize that the photo isn’t all that bad - in retrospect, it is fun to see the photo each year. Dad, be sure to make a collage of all the family photos “on the stairs” you’ve taken over the years.
For your viewing pleasure, we have a small collection of Christmas photos and a new growing collection of baby photos. Happy Holidays!
7 Comments so far
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That’s a very lovely family photo. It’s always good to pass on traditions through the family. It might turn out better for your girls, as the wait time could be considerably shorter. You could also move the photo to Christmas Eve. It should be about the photo and the memory, not the torture
Jake
By Jake Stichler on 12.27.05 9:20 am
Jake, that’s a great idea to pose for the photo on Christmas Eve. But then why should I go through the torture without subjecting my own children to the same?
By Rob Fay on 12.27.05 9:32 am
It’s called caring! Yeah, it sucked for you, but you know what? Sucks for you! Get over it! That’s one of the things you do when you raise your own kids - you make it like it was for you, but you tweak it to make it a little bit _better!_ Not just as bad! Granted this isn’t really a traumatizing issue, but still.
Jake
By Jake Stichler on 12.27.05 6:37 pm
P.S. Do the girls always pose with the dog’s butt?
By Jake Stichler on 12.27.05 6:38 pm
Jake, relax. This site is targeted for the benefit of my family and friends. If you knew me, you’d realize I had a wonderful childhood and plan to raise my children in a happy household.
The sarcasm is that I enjoyed the tradition of the family photo and plan to carry it on.
By Rob Fay on 12.27.05 6:43 pm
Merry Christmas RLFay Family! Our tradition was waiting at the TOP of the stairs for Dad. Not because he was getting the camera ready. Because we all got up at 5 AM, and he wanted to sleep in until 8 AM on his few days off.
By Nomad on 12.27.05 7:10 pm
May you always live in a house with stairs to keep up the tradition. (I live in a two-story house. But with twins and an older child, I swear I’ll never do THAT again.)
By Becky on 12.29.05 8:09 pm
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