Behind the Scenes: The Making of the Xmas Card.

I think it was December 1st.  Selena's internal clock clicked from Halloween to Christmas.  The other setting on Selena's clock is "Halloween is coming!".  She announced that she had no idea what to do about the Christmas card this year.   I looked up from Drudging in surprise.  She always has an idea for the Xmas card in July usually. This year the cupboard was bare.

I grabbed the idea torch and ran.

One day in my travels on my way to Black Diamond, I passed an interesting site I had never noticed before. I thought it would be interesting to visit one day if we were ever in Okotoks.  And this, my friends, became my submission for Big Christmas Card Idea Contest 2011. Selena was on board immediately. Ok, she said, we'll go down there and take some pictures, I will text Maddie.

What?

I said wait a minute - you don't even know what the proposed site is - what if its stupid? We will tour the site first and then we can bring Maddie and the camera.   So soon after, we went to the site of My Big Idea which happened to be a very large rock.

My Idea: Honey, how about a Big Rock!

Yes, there it is friends. My idea was a big rock in the middle of nowhere. Well, just south of Okotoks. The rock formation is called "Okotoks Erratic". It was deposited there elevendybillion years ago or something. It looks really cool.  An Xmas card and a Learning Opportunity - perfect!  Well, Selena did humour me as she walked around like Speilberg.  She took some pictures. She mentioned something about JingleBell Rock but I could tell my idea was headed to the big xmas card Recycle Bin.  Mission accomplished. It kicked Selena's creative idea machine back into high gear.

Honey, thanks for your submission. Status: Rejected.

Some time later, Selena got up in the morning and started playing with Photoshop. She then grabbed the camera and carefully aimed it at the backyard and asked me to take pictures of her in various poses.  I obliged.   The result is below.  She then created the "Proof of Concept" photo that eventually led to this year's Christmas Card.

Proof of Concept Succeeded. Codename: Big Lucky.

 From Big Rock to Big Lucky - I liked the final result - how about you?