Oh Christmas Card....

I contemplated maybe not doing a holiday card this year for pure lack of creativity. I didn't have a cute pic of Ryan and I, we don't have precious children that make holiday cards sparkle with cuteness no matter what they're doing in the photo, among many other lame excuses.

I decided though to embark on a little holiday card photo shoot adventure with our dearly beloved yellow labrador, Mr. Wyatt. While he was wiggling and avoiding me just enough to not be able to capture the perfect shot, toward the end I have to admit I think he was enjoying it. The amusement with mommy snapping the camera at him though wasn't enough to get him to look at me and make a cute "holiday card material" face.

Yesterday I was disappointedly browsing through the photo shoot pics and decided to play around with one in Photoshop. After several hours of tweaking and editing, I accidentally stumbled upon a final product that I have to admit I was kind of excited about. I hestitantly showed ryan, because I knew if he didn't like it, it might diminish my chances for a 2010 holiday card. O.k. I exaggerate a bit...let's be real here, guys don't really have a say in these matters! :) Anyways, he was kind of impressed and agreed we could order them. Woohoo!! Below is the final product. This was all by pure chance and luck that I was even able to come to this somewhat acceptable rendition of our 2010 holiday card. I'll post instructions on my post-processing steps soon. It may take me awhile to remember exactly what I did. :)

BEFORE

AFTER

Others from the photo shoot - hehe I love all of his holiday outfit changes :)

Seriously mom, get the camera away from...