Family Christmas Portraits

I already mentioned our little family Christmas portrait photo shoot here. We have now received the whole shoot from our photographer Jessica Shepard and they are gorgeous! You will recall that our rendezvous with her was at a Christmas tree farm at 9 o'clock on a very, very cold morning. In many of the outdoor photos you can see the concerned look on Alton's face as he realizes that he can't remember the last time he felt his fingers.

Jessica graciously offered to continue the shoot at our home a few days later, so that Alton's skin could have a chance to thaw and get back to its normal color before we did the close-up portraits of him. This worked much better in terms of temperature, although it was no small challenge to get Alton to stand still at home in front of the fireplace, look at the camera (or at least toward it), and smile. He is used to having copious pictures taken of himself, but by Daddy, so having buddy Jessica in the house snapping away was an invitation to Alton to...show her his choo-choo book, of course! I'm surprised that all of his portrait photos didn't get staged as "The Polar Express: Now With 10% More Alton!" We gave him one of his little jingle bells to hold and ring during the photos in hopes that he would find this utterly amusing, but he merely clutched it tightly in his hand and used it as a prop during his awesome dance moves. (See if you can spot the best picture of him dancing!)
If you want the whole gallery of pictures, click here. Otherwise, below is a selection of some of our favorites.