The Story Behind Our Christmas Cards

 My friend Genna did our Christmas cards this year. She is an artist who paints primarily, but also takes beautiful photographs and makes wedding invitations, birthday cards, and accessories. She’s the sort of person who adds a punch of color to those grey Monday mornings.

 When she and I talked about the design of the cards, she suggested a photograph of us that she’d matte on a card and decorate.  I thought this was a great idea and we talked about where we could take a picture of the four of us. There’s a gorgeous park near our home where we had the girls’ birthday party this fall and Genna said the colored leaves would be a great backdrop to a photo if we took it there.  There’s also a great trail across the street from Hadley’s school that goes around a couple of small lakes that would make a great photo.

I liked both of these ideas but as it happens more and more these days, our schedules got in the way of a potential photo shoot. So towards the end of fall, on a grey, Saturday afternoon, Genna came over with her camera and I took her to some wooden steps in our complex that lead to a little park. The steps are my favorite thing about where we live. Hadley and I found them one day on an afternoon walk after naptime. She’d always wake up and, when she learned how to walk, would bring her shoes to me and say, “Ba bye?”  She didn’t care where we went, she just wanted to explore the world, and we found these steps that lead to a park on one of our explorations.  A treasure, as it turned out.

But I was apprehensive on the day Genna was supposed to take our picture, as I am any time anybody comes over to our place.  Would she see what I worry others see and when they come over? That we don’t have a yard, that our place is small, that the steps I’m taking her to are uneven and cracked in areas and the leaves that were so colorful a few days ago are a yellow brownish and thick with cold humidity?

If she did see any of this, she didn’t say a word.  She got both Hadley and Harper to smile and actually look at the camera – a feat that Jesse and I are unable to accomplish. And looking at the picture, I wouldn’t change a thing about the leaves and the muddy day.

This is what I think an artist can do: not cover up the things in life we are ashamed of, but make them beautiful, or funny, or interesting.

I can’t recommend Genna’s work highly enough.  She is professional, creative, funny, and kind. Most of all, she loves what she does and that is apparent in what she creates. Make sure to check out her website. You won’t be disappointed.