The Santa Photo That Noped – The Finale

Happy New Year! I can’t believe it’s 2026. Crazy, right?
I hope this new year brings you health and happiness.

I have an exciting update to one of my December posts—and no worries, I have not been stripped of my Swap Gift Queen status. I know that was probably everyone’s first thought. Everything is fine. My title stands.

A few weeks ago, in a post titled “The Santa Photo That Noped,” I talked about the fact that I don’t have a photo of my kids with Santa. My kids are 26, 21, and 21, so there is really no good reason for this!

Well… in a dramatic reversal of fate—okay, okay, maybe not fate exactly, but it was definitely dramatic—I finally received my long-awaited Santa photo.

We were having dinner when Mae handed me a gift bag and said, “This is from me and the boys.”

Then she added, “You weren’t specific about how we obtained the picture.”

At that moment, I knew.

Finally—a picture of my kids with Santa.

I quickly opened the gift bag and just sat there, smiling at the amazing picture in front of me. It was perfect, and I instantly loved it.

If you’ve been following this blog, you’ve probably realized there’s a weird twist coming.

Since Mae still didn’t want to sit with Santa, she came up with a workaround. She decided to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create the photo.

At first, it seemed like a brilliant idea.

For a few hours.

And then it became a very frustrating project.

AI is known for coming up with weird things—like too many hands or legs, and occasionally an extra head or two—when generating photos. Knowing this, Mae was counting fingers and arms and paying less attention to the faces.

And then she realized something.

AI had taken the boys’ faces and merged them into one person.

Not three faces on one head. Not a creepy Santa hydra situation. (I shudder at the thought.)

I mean, it blended all their features together into one brand-new face.

After several hours of dealing with this, Mae decided it might be easier to go sit with Santa. She texted her brothers and asked if they wanted to go to the mall to have their picture taken with Santa.

Nick and Andrew both said no, so Mae went back to fighting with AI to create the perfect Santa photo.

Finally, she got a good-ish generated image of Nick, Andrew, and her sitting with Santa. She even tried to add her husband, Taro, to the picture—but sadly, AI was not a fan of that plan.

To prevent Nick from ending up with three eyes and six hands, she chose to leave Taro out of the picture.

Poor Taro—left out of the iconic Santa photo. Digitally cut. Left lying on the virtual cutting room floor.

But despite this sad fact, it’s a fantastic picture—and I really do love it.

I love it because it might be the only picture I ever get with my kids sitting with Santa. I love that Mae found a way to make it happen without actually sitting with Santa. And I love that I now have this crazy, amazing photo—one that comes with an even better story behind it.

And I hope it’s a story that Mae, Nick, and Andrew tell every Christmas—a story that ends with everyone laughing, shaking their heads… and wondering how innocent me could have a kid so mischievous!

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