It’s the Little Things

After two years together, there are still lots of little differences between Maria and I that can amuse the heck out of me. We both have similar temperaments, come from very traditional backgrounds, and have the same values. But the different way each of us reacts to an ordinary situation can be quite entertaining.

We most recently noticed one of these little differences when taking a family portrait with Maria’s family. Maria’s brother has a place “up north,” as we call it in Michigan. We all went up to be together over the Christmas holiday. The weather was nice and it was a fantastic opportunity take a family portrait. Maria looks for any excuse to use her camera and  she is trying to collect more photos of her family.

So we all put on nice sweaters and marched outside. Maria set up her tripod carefully and lined us up in an appropriate place (she had earlier spent about ten minutes finding the perfect spot for the photo). Maria set her camera to take several photos on a timer and then ran from the camera to join the rest of us. As she came over, I stepped behind her mom a bit more to make sure there was enough room for Maria in the photo.

When Maria looked at the portraits later, everyone was spaced out well enough, except for me. You could pretty much only see my head as I stood behind my future mother-in-law. You see, I come from a family of six and, for our family photos, we usually had to cram in together in order for everyone to fit in the photo. Maria’s family is a bit smaller and Maria has a very different style of taking photographs from my dad. It made us laugh to think such a simple thing as family size would have an effect on our family photos.

At least you can see all of me in photos when it’s just the two of us.

 What “little things” surprise you between you and your spouse’s family?