Sunday, December 25, 2011

Behind the scenes: What didn't make the holiday card this year

A good portion of my December was spent in one of my three pastures trying to get the perfect holiday photo of each of my critters.  Looking back, I realize now that "perfect" is a relative term.  It's also an incredibly elusive achievement.  In my head, I can picture precisely what I want, but to actually obtain it?  As near as I can tell, I would have been more effective teaching them all to dance. 

Below are a few of the photos from this month that did not make it onto this year's holiday card.  They did, however, make me laugh and I thought they might you, too.
And can I just say that I am very relieved that this particular exercise is now complete for the next eleven months? :-)

Beau (left) really had a ball wearing his various hats, while Chester was pretty much p.o.'d the entire time:
Chester acted out at every opportunity.  Take the next photo, for example.  This did not go well:
Kai most certainly did not want to go for a walk with Chester the elf:
Have you ever tried to get two donkeys and a llama in holiday attire to stand close enough together (and have pleasant looks on their faces) to get a picture?   This is the one and only non-blurry shot I got of the three of them together with holiday garb.  Nobody was happy about it:
For the goat boys, though, it was business as usual:
They didn't care what they had on their heads as long as posturing and head-butting could continue as normal:
The head-butting, however, made hat placement very challenging:
And Pete just couldn't keep his mouth to himself:
And because of this, if you look closely below, you will see something quite rare.  My farm pup, Roxy, is revving up for a really good snarl at Pete.  In her defense, though, he was invading her personal space.  A girl's gotta draw the line somewhere:
George, meanwhile, was completely enthralled with Honey, the elf-chicken:
 He kept edging closer and closer until I was laughing so hard I couldn't even focus the camera anymore:Back in the donkey pasture, Beau continued to proudly display his holiday ear warmers:
...while Chester spent a lot of time pouting:
Being his buddy, Beau tried hard to cajole Chester out of his mood:
But about the time Chet flung the elf hat from his head and threatened to stomp it to death...:
Beau realized it was time to give up and kindly returned to me the hat that Chester refused to wear:
Chester may not be talking to me anymore, but Beau has informed me that he would like every day to be hat day:
How in the world do I say "no" to this face?

Merry Christmas from all of us on Critter Farm:

42 comments:

  1. Oh, my!
    I am laughing so hard I have tears!

    Those are the funniest pics EVER!
    *hee-hee*

    The chicken in the hat is a topper, but that last one of the donkey face is priceless. I just want to smooch that mug! lol


    Merry, merry!
    Thanks for the pure laughter!

    ~Mimi
    The Goat Borrower

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  2. What wonderful farm friends! My lady especially likes the wee hat for Honey!

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  3. Oh, dear me, this makes me wonder what we all did for fun before we started dressing up our animals for photo shoots! Funny stuff, Danni. I love the "laughing so hard I couldn't even focus the camera anymore." Life should be filled with moments like that.

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  4. Such fun! I especially like the hat on Honey. I think Gunny might be okay with elf ears, but Harry would have absolutely no part of it.

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  5. Jenny in MN now in AZDecember 26, 2011 at 5:47 AM

    Thank you for sharing bits of your life with us. Thank you for the much needed smiles this holiday. I love the series of pictures!!

    Happy Holidays to you and your family.

    Jenny

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  6. Lol! Love this post and photos. I hope you had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year :)

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  7. What a bunch of troopers they were to put up with your photo shoot. HA HA....Love every single photo!

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  8. Hee hee! thanks for sharing the behind the scenes!!!! it made me smile :)

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  9. OMG ... I love ALL of the pictures! I hope your Christmas Day was excellent and you're really looking forward to the New Year!! I look forward to reading your Blog every day!!

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  10. I am in awe that you: a) found an elf hat the proper size for a chicken and b) got Honey to wear it.

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  11. LOL, I love it! All of the engineers coworkers send holiday cards with pictures of their children. We decided we wanted to send pictures of the animals next year. I guess I'd better start now if I expect to get any good shots. :)

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  12. Oh this was adorable. You have such a great sense of humor and apparently so do the critters.....
    George and Honey are hilarious.
    Hmmmm....I wonder what other kind of hats Beau would like to model now?
    Hope your holidays were super...Oma Linda

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  13. Thaanks so much, Danni, for this GREAT post!! We think all of the pics are PERFECT, so no need to wait for the best opportunity! YOU SURE FOUND IT! We love how you give your "critters" a voice!! We can almost hear them saying the words!! Thanks again and best wishes for a healthy, happy 2012!

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  14. Terrific card! It is nice to see what it took to get there, thanks for sharing. Have a great holiday, Happy New Years.

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  15. Wow! This blog really made my morning. Don't know why you think these photos didn't qualify for this year's holiday display. I can't stop looking at your sweet animals.
    Well, sweet is relative. I think Chester needs to stand in the barn corner for a while. But Beau should be elevated to sainthood.
    I would like to have a framed photo of Beau and his TWO-HAT HAPPY FACE.

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  16. I can tell those critters of yours absolutely adore you. Who else would put up with your shenanigans and Christmas attire?

    The final result, though, is awesome!

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  17. LOL You have better luck getting dress up pictures then I do.
    Great pictures I love them!

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  18. First of all, I simply adore the two hat ear warmer look. I don't think they would look so good on airplane ears though, so I guess I'm probably out of luck. I guess we can't all fit the fashion trends. In Roxy's defense, even I have to say sometimes you just have to snarl. I wish I could snarl at Ella - a lot!

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  19. BEST! POST! OF! THE! YEAR!!!

    I love the shot of Pete and Reggie head butting each other in their Santa hats!

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  20. How in the world did you get the chicken to wear a hat?? Absolutely wonderful photos!!! Brought giggles!!

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  21. "Honey the Elf-Chicken..." totally cracked me up! Your critters sure do have their own unique personalities. I can tell that they bring you great joy. Your Christmas card was a work of art Danni.

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  22. So enjoyed your photo's and your blog! Hugs!

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  23. Oh Danni we are kindred spirits. I Love all your photos and you know Miss Roxy melts my heart (and Winslow Homer too), but Miss Honey the Elf Chicken takes the cake! Happy New Year to all at Critter Farm!

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  24. I just about died at Honey the elf chicken! I'll have to try that on one of my chickens next year for the Christmas picture.

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  25. The sweetest post ever! I am loving that honey-lovin George. You have quite the comical crew. And Honey's elf hat.....how did you get that on her? We put Lucy Lou in a holiday necklace and she strutted around for all of 1 minute before she'd had enough. We paid her in a lot of freeze dried meal worms. :) Hope your Christmas was merry!!

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  26. All are great photos and I can't believe you got them to wear those hats long enough to get the photos you did get. Mine won't. Merry Christmas

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  27. this is the cutest funniest post i have ever seen. beau should be the poster boy for donkeys. he is so cute with that hat. and honey just has to be the cutest chicken ever. and roxy with those antlers. what a wonderful holiday!!!

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  28. They are all adorable! And just think how many more real memories these candid shots will evoke.

    Could Beau possibly be any sweeter?!

    ;-)

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  29. Those photos (and the captions) totally made me laugh this morning (now that I'm catching up with blog friends). Yoiu did a great job, have very tolerant critters and I've so been in that position - my attempts however never turned out nearly as well.

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  30. Oh I am jealous! I tried to put hats on the mini men and they just kept dropping them on the ground. I'm glad I got to enjoy your herd! So cute!

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  31. Oh, man, what great pics...and hats! I don't know who made me laugh harder, Honey, George, Chester, or Beau! What a sweet face!

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  32. I'm still marvelling at the fact that you actually got a chicken to sit still with a hat on her head. What a ridiculous bunch of characters you live with. How fun for you. xoxo

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  33. great pictures and looks like it was tons of fun getting them together! I love Beau and his hats! He looks so proud! Funny how some of us are hat people while other's arn't. Roxie is adorable in her antlers!

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  34. Laughing, laughing, laughing. The holiday card pics are beautiful but I'm so glad you posted the "extras". All of your critters have such big personalities! I will be sneaking back during the week to revisit for the revitalizing giggles.

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  35. Soooo FUNNY!! I love it, just love it. Kai looks like these shenanigans are beneath him. He looks like he's trying to maintain his dignity amongst the comedians. Love the photo of the headbutting stance. Love that Roxy girl! I'm glad you shared your "imperfect" pictures. Thanks!

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  36. I'm in love with Chester!
    Your pictures were all wonderful. What fun to see the critters being silly...or mad... or embarrassed!

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  37. Hil-ar-ious!!! I love all the photos! I can't believe you got a hat to stay on Honey's head! Hope you had a merry christmas!
    jillian

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  38. Okay, yes... I was laughing. Out loud. Very hard. :)

    Hope you had a Merry Christmas - and have a Happy New Year!!! xo

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  39. Oh dear Lord. You are soooooo funny! LOL!

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