The ones I couldn't show you

I think by now most people who we sent cards to have received them so it's probably "safe" to show these pictures.  I like to try to do something cute/funny rather than just using a standard photo.

Here's 2010, using a quote from the movie Elf.


Buddy the Elf taught me that
"We elves have four major food groups:
candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup."


and here's 2011.


"Santa, my Christmas wish is for Daddy
to get more hair than me in 2012."

 By mid-November I was at a complete loss as to what our "theme" would be for our holiday cards. I was texting with a friend about her card idea and mentioned that I still didn't know what to do.  She suggested "toy soldier".  I mulled that around in my head, trying to figure out how I could make it work.  Toy Soldier morphed to Nutcracker which then somehow ended up with Hermey the Elf from Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I often kid that I must have grown up in a cave/ under a rock, because unlike most of the other people my age, watching Rudolph was never a holiday tradition in our house. Chris thought it was funny that this is what I came up with, even though I've only watched it a few times in more recent years.

In the end, coming up with the idea was the easiest part of the process, not that any of it was all that difficult.  The problem was that I was in the middle of making an advent calendar and December was fast approaching.  I knew I needed to get that finished up before I could tackle anything else.  Finally I finished that and I could turn my attention to sewing a Hermey costume.

My original thought had been to use the same pattern that I had used for Sir Topham Hatt, but then I realized that the neckline was all wrong.  So instead I found a different pattern to alter.  Having watched Miranda alter the other pattern I felt confident that I could handle this one.  (But she did help me by giving me a pattern to use for elf shoes.)  I still had a bit of a time crunch though and knew that this costume-making could drag on for a while.  I decided that rather than taking the photo at home we would have them done at the JC Penney portrait studio (where we go for all our other photos).  Fewer distractions, nice backdrops, perfect lighting, and I wouldn't have to worry about camera settings, etc.  So I booked an appointment. 

Booking the appointment was good because it gave me a concrete deadline.  I had 1 week to get the costume done.  It actually came together pretty well.  In the end I made the jacket a little short in the front, but given how long he had to wear it, I think I'm the only one who would care.  When I first booked the appointment, I had this backdrop in mind.

Then the night before we went in, I had Bennett put everything on just to get a final look at everything.  As he stood by our tree I thought how pretty that looked.

I knew Penney's had a tree backdrop so thought we might do some of the snowflakes and some with the tree.  (Turns out they have 2- this one, and this one.) But then when we got there and were checking in, we saw another backdrop that we thought would be even more perfect.  So here you go.  Here's our holiday card.



Happy Holidays
From your Misfit Friends
Rudolf and Hermey the Elf


We also had a coupon for a small portrait package, so we got this pose as well.

And we didn't buy this one since we were really wanting a picture of the whole costume, but I really do love it.

We did have pictures taken with the snowflake backdrop, but in the end, none of them were favorites.


As I mentioned in my last post, we thought it would be fun for Hermey to have his picture taken with Santa.  What's nice is that if you buy the "official" picture you can take your own pictures as well.  It's a good thing I did this, because when buying the official picture I was concentrating too much on selecting one where Bennett looked good that I ended up buying the one where Santa looks creepy.

Here's one of mine:

and here's the "official" photo.

And after all of that, I now have a pair of red tights to hand-down to someone, elf shoes that should probably go straight to the trash (they didn't turn out that well and the felt isn't holding up well), and a jacket and hat that will likely never be worn again (although who knows, maybe Bennett will develop an interest in dress-up clothes).