Goodwill Towards Men

Normally we go to Connecticut to spend Thanksgiving with Matt's family since he only sees some of his extended family once a year over a table full of food. This year several of his cousins were planning to celebrate with their other families so we decided to celebrate with my family in Caribou. After a "sleepless" Monday night with Abigail we half-heard on our alarm clock radio Tuesday morning that we were going to get 10-14 inches of snow on Wednesday. Matt had taken Tuesday off to get things ready for our departure on Wednesday but after hearing the forecast, we decided to pack up and leave ASAP (*). We hit the road around 2:00 p.m.

A few weeks earlier my sister, Beth, and I discussed having family portraits done while we were all together for Thanksgiving. We decided to make an appointment at Sears and planned to split the cost of a large wall print for our parent's for Christmas. Matt and I had hoped to return home on Saturday but since we didn't want to be anywhere near the mall on Black Friday we scheduled our photo session for 11:30 a.m. on Saturday. During our drive to Caribou I called my sister to see if we could reschedule our photo session for Wednesday since we would now be there a day early, thus allowing us to leave on Saturday like we initially planned. The only opening they had was at 6:30 p.m. not optimal with three children under the age of two, but we took it.

Wednesday evening arrived and we got everyone dressed in their finest attire. We took a few Zell and Kopishke family pictures before we left in case the toddlers decided to completely melt down and not sit for the portrait at Sears. When we got to Sears around 6:20 there was a family waiting for their 6:00 appointment. In fact, the family was called by the studio and told to come in early because they were ahead of schedule so they had been there since 5:30! We knew that the kiddos we not going to make it if we had to wait...we were stuck!

My sister got on the phone and called her neighbor, Andrea Cole, who does photography (as well as being a full-time teacher). She planned to ask Andrea if she was free Thursday afternoon or Friday to take some family pictures. Instead Andrea suggested meeting us somewhere right then since everyone was already dressed and ready to be photographed. They brainstormed places that would be attractive enough for a picture AND willing to accommodate such a large group at 7:00 p.m. the night before Thanksgiving. Andrea mentioned the Caribou Inn and Convention Center and said she would give them a call to see it they would allow us to "barge" in. We all hopped in our cars and headed back to Caribou...Beth called me along the way and said that Andrea was going to meet us there in twenty minutes.

The lobby of the Inn was decorated with a beautiful Christmas tree and had a fire blazing in the fireplace...it was perfect. Andrea arrived with her two children (all of whom were in pajamas) and quickly set us up in front of the fire for our portrait. While Andrea snapped the pictures her kiddos did their best to make our three toddlers smile and kept them from crying by giving them Teddy Grahams between shots. After about twenty minutes we were all getting back in our cars and heading home.

Andrea told my sister that she didn't want any payment for the pictures. She said she would put all the pictures on a CD and we could print them out wherever we wanted or go through the company that she uses. What an angel...not only did she save the day with her trusty camera but she did it all for FREE! Beth and I bought her a gift certificate to a local restaurant and movie tickets for her and her kids for coming out (in their pajamas) the night before Thanksgiving on such short notice to take our pictures. Andrea's goodwill should be an example to us all this holiday season.

(*) This was not an easy task. I had several loads of laundry that needed to be done before I could begin packing. Thank God for the Excel spreadsheet I have saved on my computer for packing up baby gear. It helped me zip around the house and get everything I needed for the trip (see my Pack Rat blog post).