I was walking around the park during my Fall Exeter NH Family Photos and I found it. The holy grail. The ultimate scene. The perfect Charlie Brown Christmas Tree!

I was most likely inordinately excited, but all of my families that day played along with me.  And all of their little families with the tree make me so happy. 

I’ve thought of that little tree so many times since then. It’s been so snowy and windy. I wonder if it’s still there. It’s all I can do to not go back and wrap a little blanket around its base and hang an ornament. (Charlie Brown session anyone?!)

The funny thing is, I’ve been photographing in Gilman Park for years. Years and years. That link – it’s from 2011. 

That’s a long time. 

But I’ve never walked the way we did that day.  The endless rains flooded out my usual path and so I rerouted us.  We were headed to see the ducks, because man, those ducks are the best decoys (haha, I’m punny) I have working for me sometimes. When little kids want nothing to do with me, they ALWAYS want to see the ducks.  And those ducks always deliver for me.  They are mighty, mighty, ducks! 

Anyway, enough of my stream of consciousness, back to theFall Exeter NH Family Photos. We were walking toward the ducks, and I turned to say something and there it was. My magic little friend. 

I wasn’t a huge fan of Charlie Brown when I was a kid.  But I landed the role of Lucy in “You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown” my Junior year in High School, and man if I wasn’t typecast!  She and I are basically the same. Smart, sassy, full of good ideas.  (You say opinionated and bossy, I say confident and managerial). A handful of years later, I met my wife and she’s a huge fan of the Great Pumpkin. Our kid believed in him longer than he believed in you know who.  Then, that same kid I was just speaking of? He was Linus in his 7th-grade production of, you guessed it, “You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown” and after that, there was no more denying it.  Charlie Brown had found a place in my heart. 

So this tree, I guess, was the universe’s way of letting me know I was hooked.  

And these photos, are the universe’s way of letting me know how lucky I am to do what I love.