HKfamily5 2025 Holiday Card

If you have been following along on the family blog, then you will have seen a post earlier this month about printing our holiday card this year. Politics is reshaping not only this country, but capitalism as a whole. We returned to our local printing shop for this years holiday card. I created the design myself. I kept it simple this year with a two-sided card. I love sending these cards out because, it reminds me of when my mother used to send cards out during my childhood. She prefered buying beautiful cards that she hand wrote messages. I have a few of the cards in our hoiday card year ring bundles. Right before COVID, my mom endured 4 kidney stone surgeries, fought off cancer and recovered from CHF from the chemo drug. She was finally growing her hair back and wanted to take photos with her grandkids. We managed to have all three families in one place and I talked her into her first photo card. I remember the day I went over to help her with the cards. She turned to me, and said, “I really wish your father and I had taken more photos of your kids during the holidays”. I asked her why we never did family portraits, and she was pretty honest, photos made her uncomfortable.

A photo from Paley’s seccond portrait session in 2009.

We have been celebrating Paley’s senior year of high school with our own little photo share on social media. While it’s not the usual SHARENTING challenge that most parents do (typically you post 5 to 10 photos, and with each one you challenge another friend or family member to accept the challenge), my version is something I had in mind for the past two years as we approached this milestone. I am not a huge fan of online challenges, the ice bucket challenge was bad enough. I have plenty of friends and family, who already say “I am too much” or “I do too much.” So sticking to my own drum, suits me fine. Many of the shots selected of Paley I shared on instagram were used on all of the holiday cards. 18 years of family portraits. Each one is a memory, each one had a special special story to it. If you ask my kids now if it’s all worth it, the might just it’s a pain in the bottom or I probably scared them for life, parading them in front of a camera. My hope is when they are older and we are gone from this world, the enjoy the photos and memories. One can hope.

Back to this years card. Last year we moved back into HK5corner after we had done our holiday photo shoot with Rachel. I knew this year, I wanted it to be at the house and in certain spaces. The front of the card is an homage to the 12+ years of #hkfamily5 shots that I have posted on instagram. With over 300 photos now with that hashtag, what’s one more! I have slowed down in grabbing photos of the 3 kids in front of the front door, so during COVID, I just started tagging that hashtag onto any photo with all three kids to have it one space. Sadly instagram has made it more difficult to pull that hashtag up and create little videos, so my little video’s of the shots stopped when the twins were very young.

The front photo in front of the Tardis blue front door was my primary shot. The last two family portraits, I’ve invited Clem’s mom to join us on the shoot, so she can take her own photos. The second setup was on the front porch, with all six of us standing behind the railing I designed. Nancy chose to sit in one of the rockers and grab her holiday card photo with the kids surrounding her. It turned out great and she even had fun using the photo on her card. By including a message say something like, enjoying the rocker but no need for a cane yet. KOW is where I went after hearing that. The next shot I wanted was in the sitting room. Which had it’s challenges. From the flash reflection on the frame of the Buelle Mullen painting, to awkward heights of the chairs in the room. Then there was the staircase, I know our staircase is small, and we have the photos to prove it. This would have been a much better shot when the kids were littler.

Overall I am very happy with our photos this year and I look forward to the challenge of figuring out when to shoot next years photo. Paley is hoping to be out on the east coast for college, quickly scheduling our photo is not going to happen. And using a professional photographer may be the problem. Now, our original photographer, JP Langlands is our in Mass, and I still love his work. There might be hope there. It would be pretty epic to start working with him again.

The card had a short message and as usual, a URL to check out our annual full length 2025 Happy Holiday message. I know many people print out the message, but I send too many cards out as it is. As I am getting older, I am preferring to do less with so many. First, I enjoy sending the cards out, but I am finding or seeing how this is going to possibly change in 10 years time. Watching my mother change her habits was inspiring, but I am understanding more as to why she chose the pretty cards. Doing family portraits is a lot of work! Not just for us but the photographer. Rachel is amazing and it’s always fun to hang out and shoot with her. Last years portrait were the most fun.

Hope you enjoy seeing more of the photos on the gallery page. I have a hunch one of my all time favorite shots might be recreated some time in the next three years. This time we will take care of mustaches digitally. So glad I did that last time. The Groucho shot will be fun to recreate. I do think we need to get back to fun theme shot each year. Have a wonderful holiday break and more importantly, Happy New Year.