Christmas pictures

I've been trying to figure out an inexpensive way to get family pictures taken. I'm picky because I'm a photographer and we don't have hundreds of dollars to shell out for the kind of pictures I want. While my in-laws were here for Thanksgiving I asked Dan's mom if she would mind doing a mini photo shoot for us before they left. She used to be into photography a while back and I figured it would be a good way for us to save some $$ and also for me to have a little control over the creative process. We got ready and headed out.....the shoot probably took less than 20 minutes! Close to 300 pictures were taken and I was really happy with about 12. I used five pictures for our Christmas cards (which you won't get to see until you receive the card) and the pictures below were the second tier shots that I liked and edited, but didn't use. I think they turned out pretty good! I would have liked to play around with the aperture a little more for each shot, but that was impossible since I wasn't the one behind the lens. I also had limited time to edit the photos so I might go back eventually and tweak the exposure and color a bit more. So, for now enjoy our family "outtakes"!