There is a notion that a family portrait session is taking a picture of the whole family grouped together.  For me, I view a family portrait session as an opportunity to take pictures of individuals, differing smaller groupings and the whole family.  This results in a wonderful collection of images that the family will be able to use far into the future, whether they just want a picture of a particular person, or a particular combination of people, including all the members of the family.

Below is a family portrait session for holiday cards.