Family portraits of DOOM

You're dying to know if I now have a framed picture of me, Greg, the boys, my MIL and SIL, all dressed in green polos and jeans sitting on the mantel in my living room, aren't you? If MIL had had her way, then the answer would be yes. Sort of.

Fortunately, my husband is great and recognizes that his mother is loony slightly overbearing. I first told him that I did not care to get pictures taken with them. He responded that he didn't want to, either, but "she wants to do this for us. And if it makes her happy..." to which I responded, "She's not doing this for US! She's doing it for HERSELF." Well, I said that in my head. Out loud, all I said was, "Alright. Fine." After heaving a great big giant sigh.

I did, however, draw the line at matching outfits. (The boys wore matching striped polos; Greg wore a navy and lime green striped polo; I wore a forest green short-sleeved v-neck shirt (chosen SPECIFICALLY because it shows the tiniest bit of cleavage and I KNEW how much MIL would DESPISE my whorishness); we informed MIL of our outfit choices and she and SIL showed up in a lime green tank underneath a blue, white and green striped button down, the buttons of which were left open, for SIL, and a grass green polo for MIL. When she asked how she looked, Greg told her that her green clashed with the rest of us and suggested she wear her jacket for the picture! And she did! ) Greg was with me on this. He was also with me on the weirdness of hanging up a picture of us four and his mom and sister in our house, and we both agreed that keeping it framed and stored in a drawer only to be taken out and displayed when MIL was around was a good plan.

The actual photo shoot part went relatively smoothly. The photog took some really weird pictures in which MIL is kneeling next to Greg, who is holding Luke, next to me holding Jack. And then lying on her side in front of us all, draped all lady-on-a-piano style, is SIL. WTF?

Then MIL suggested that the photographer get some of just Greg and I (I know! She must have been feeling generous.). The picture that resulted looks like it came straight out of our senior pictures from high school: Greg and I are seated on the floor, back to back, looking over our shoulders at each other. VOMIT.

And then after that came lots and lots of pictures of the boys, in which Jack is making this weird squinty-eyed, lips stuck out face, and Luke is crying. In every single one. So. Overall, a success, I think.

Later on that evening, MIL gave me the greatest gift she could possibly have given me when she said these words: "Oh, just so you know, I'm not ordering prints of all these for you. I'm only buying all the pictures the photographer took today on cd." Translation: I can spend the next 20 years "forgetting" or "not getting around to" ordering prints myself and framing them. Myself. Because, you know, this was the gift she wanted to give us. Our surprise. Something she wanted to do, "just for us."

Do I have to send her a thank you card?