Christmas Card

[LessIsMore]

One of my family's Thanksgiving traditions is to pick out photos for our annual Christmas card. It's not really a card any more. The last few years, my mom has been putting together online photo albums instead of the more traditional printed card. She has a nice camera and is into photography. After Thanksgiving dinner, we go through the photos she's picked out, take out any we don't like, or add some in that we think are missing.

We gathered around the computer after dinner. My parents have one of the new 27" iMacs, so it was easy for us all to see the album. My mom pulled up the pictures she'd chosen. They were arranged chronologically. There were pictures from some family outings, my high school graduation this last spring, etc. Then we got to summer. Late this summer, we took a trip to Maui. My parents splurged and rented a huge house right on the beach for a week. As I've been describing in my other post, I recently began wearing Speedos, and the Maui trip was the first time I wore them in public. There weren't many people around, which made it easier. Sure enough, the first photo in the album was one of all of us on the beach with me in my Speedo.

"Are you okay we me including these?" asked my mom pausing on the photo. Most of the family still hasn't seen me in my skimpy swimsuit. She clicked through a few more photos, and I was in my Speedo in all of them.

"I'm not so sure," I replied.

"Well I have others, but you're wearing your bikini in most of them," she said switching from the album to the full list of photos on the computer. She started to flip through them and she was right, I was in a Speedo in almost all of them. "This might work," she said stopping on a photo of us in the kitchen.

"Yeah, that one's good," I agreed. She added it to the album and continued going through the photos. She'd taken quite a few of our trip.

"Oh my god!" exclaimed my sister. My mom had reached a set of photos she'd promised to keep private, but had apparently forgotten to separate from the main set. It was picture of me, nude from behind, in the outdoor shower. "When did you take that?" my sister asked, barely able to control her laughter.

"When you and your dad were taking surfing lessons," my mom replied. "Sorry sweetie," she said to me. "I forgot to take those out."

"There are more?" asked my sister now near hysterics. "I have to see these." She reached for the mouse, but my mom pulled it away from her.

"That's up to your brother," she said.

"Please," my sister begged mockingly.

I knew she'd figure out how to see them sooner or later. "Whatever," I said trying to act like it wasn't a big deal.

My mom clicked through a couple more similar photos and then one of me turning around, which is when I'd seen she was taking the pictures. That particular day, my dad and sister had chosen to take surfing lessons while my mom and I relaxed at home. I'd decided to go out to the hot tub in the afternoon. My mom said she'd join me. Since we were on our own and she knew I preferred going nude, she suggested that I forgo wearing a swimsuit. That's exactly what I'd done.

The owners of the house had a rule about the hot tub. They wanted everyone to shower before getting in to keep it clean. There was a shower on the deck outside. I beat my mom out to the deck and had started to shower. I guess my mom saw me and decided that it was good photo opportunity. She came out with her camera and started to snap pictures. I didn't notice her at first, but she banged into a chair. I turned around and saw her, nude like I was and camera in hand taking pictures.

I was surprised and a little angry, but my mom just thought it was funny. She said she'd delete them. I continued my shower facing her now. I closed my eyes and rinsed out my hair, when I heard the shutter again. I rubbed the water out of my eyes and yelled at my mom, who just laughed again. She said she'd got the back, may as well get the front. I told her it was her turn for the shower. She got under the water, and I picked up her camera to look at the pictures.

She'd managed to get a few of me from behind and the one full frontal. My mom had turned away from me in the shower. I decided to get back at her, aimed the lens, and started to snap away. She turned towards me and saw what I was doing. She wasn't mad at all. Rather, she seemed to find it amusing. She struck a pose. I raised the camera and took the picture. She finished showering and told me to put the camera down. We both got into the hot tub.

My mom had clicked through to that last picture of her in the shower. My sister and dad had stopped laughing by this point. There were two more pictures. After we'd finished in the hot tub, we'd made lunch for ourselves. Neither of us bother to get dressed, instead enjoying our lunch nude on the deck. When we'd finished eating my mom dared me to go down to the beach. I looked around, but couldn't see anyone, so I quickly ran down to the beach and back. She told me to stay there, she had an idea.

She went into the house and came back out with a tripod, to which she attached her camera. She told me to follow her, and walked out onto the beach. I followed closely behind, checking to make sure no one could see us. She set the tripod up in the sand and motioned for me to come pose with her. I was starting to have fun and figured what the hell. She put the camera in timer mode. We stood in front of the lens and put our arms around each other. The shutter fired. She said she wanted to do one more and set the timer again. We turned around this time. She put her hand on my right buttock. In the spirit of the mood, I placed my hand on hers. I heard the shutter fire again. We spent a little more time on the beach, then went inside and got dressed.

This final photo of us was up on the screen. "You have to put that in the album," said my sister.

"What do you think, sweetie?" my mom asked me.

"Yeah, sure," I said sarcastically assuming she was kidding. She added the photo to the album and clicked back to it.

My mom started going through the rest of the photos from our trip. "I assume the bikini's fine then," she said.

I was distracted by the fact that she'd just added a naked photo of us to the Christmas album. "Uh, sure," I said.

We went through the rest of the photos. There weren't many after the summer section.

My mom suggested we take a dip in the hot tub, to which we all agreed. When I got outside, my mom was already there setting up her tripod. "I want to get one of all of us," she said. I don't have any since our trip. My dad and sister came outside. "Don't get in yet," my mom said to them. "I want to take a picture."

She finished setting up the tripod and set the timer on the camera. We posed together on the deck and took the picture. Then we got into the hot tub. We relaxed in the water.