When I was You and You Were Me ...

Photos can be used in a strange or unusual way.

Have you ever seen your photo used in a strange or unusual way?  I did.  As a matter of fact, everyone in our family did …

My middle daughter, Bethany, her husband, Brian, and their four children, had a wonderful tradition every year during the Christmas holidays while the kids were growing up.

They and everyone else in their friend circle usually sent family photo Christmas cards each year, so friends could see any new babies, how older children were growing, or a new home, and some included the family pets, as well.

Beth saved all of the cards and the next Christmas, their family would sit at the kitchen table and cut the people and pets from the previous year’s cards. Then they further cut each of those pictures, putting the heads in one bowl and the bodies in another.

The fun part came when they took turns blindly picking a head from the head bowl, a body from the body bowl and taping them together.  Each “new person” was then taped to the front of the refrigerator.

You could also tape a head or body on those poor folks on the present Christmas photo cards for a more up-to-date silliness.  Then those were also taped to the refrigerator door.

This always brought belly laughs because of the motley combinations and my grandchildren (mom and dad, too) always looked forward to it every year when the new cards started arriving in the mail.

You never knew who, or what, you might find taped to the refrigerator when you visited them during the holidays.  No one was left out and you couldn’t escape seeing it, because the kids dragged you to the fridge to see your reaction for even more belly laughs.

One Christmas, my head was taped to my son-in-law’s body. The next week, my ex-husband’s head was on my body. (That’s almost poetic, isn’t it?). 

Even the family pets weren’t excluded.  You could find yourself curled up on a rug in the sunshine as a half-cat, or a doggie daddy. 

One of my personal favorites was when one of their friends had a new baby in their family.  There’s nothing quite like seeing a grownup —or yourself with a newborn baby’s head. The more surprised someone was who looked at the silly photo outcomes, the louder the laughter.

I can’t wait to see who, or what, I might be next time the holidays roll around and I happen to be there -- if they aren’t too old now to do it.  I have to admit, I loved the game as much as anyone did …

Poet/Writer/Author of 5 books.
Quora Top Writer 2018.
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