“What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future.” ~ Agnes M. Pahro
On its surface, the main image of this year’s holiday card is a rather plain, if slightly strange, pose featuring my family. It’s also not my typical garb (I’m more Reebok than Adidas any day.) Taken with its inspiration photo, however, it gains a greater resonance, and recreating an old family photo is always a fun affair.
My Mom had sent me the original photo a few months ago, and I cracked up for days when I saw the histrionic pose I had apparently been perfecting even as a child. Ladies with an attitude, indeed. I vaguely recall this vacation – a southern trek that found us in Florida – and I remember giving this fierceness in all the photos from that trip. (You should have seen the dramatics in which I engaged at Epcot Center. There was a particularly fanciful photo taken on a fountain somewhere around Norway if I recall correctly.)
Striking a pose since 1975 hasn’t always been easy, and yet somehow I’m still managing to pull it off, thanks largely to the two people behind me here. Literally and figuratively. I realize and appreciate their support more and more the older we get. And so, in this year perhaps more than any other, with all that has happened to us as a family and as a world, this image is the one that means the most to me. I share it with you and your family, and wish you the very best for the holiday season, and for the new year.
{Find links to previous holiday cards here.}
“Christmas is a time when everybody wants his past forgotten and his present remembered.” ~ Phyllis Diller
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