Christmas Cards . . . this year I promise!

Oh those Christmas Cards. Pesky little things aren't they? I love them so much and I love working on them and somehow, almost every year a project that should take a couple of afternoons - or a week at the most- to complete turns into weeks on end, turns into a giant Christmas card shaped monkey on my back.

Did anyone get those really cute handmade Christmas Tree cards from last year? Oh? No? Is that because they sit (stamped) on my dresser right now?
Still sitting there.
Stamped!
Addressed!

Not even joking.

For a YEAR.

Now, granted I did have a baby. And we were waiting for John to complete the yearly Christmas card, but still.

Monkey. On. My. Back.
And so now you know why I didn't even attempt to do birth announcements for poor little Laithe.

This year will be different! This year there's a wonderful opportunity from Shutterfly for bloggers to get 50 free photo cards! Totally taking advantage of that. Because this year we will be sending out cards. With pictures! Because our family grew and as I keep telling John in this digital age of blogging and facebook and all things internets I think it's so great to get something in my actual mailbox. Something tangible and festive. I do not want Christmas cards to go the way of the pen pal.

And now for possibly the funnest part - we have choices to make.

I want our Christmas cards to kind of tell the story of our year. Obviously that means that there will be more than one picture.
I really like these ones. But we'll be a little less JCrew a lot more, lucky if we don't have drool or spit up on us and if no one has food in their hair. I always like Happy Holidays sentiments. There's a lot to celebrate this time of year for many weeks- not just one day.

I like this one a lot too. Maybe it's because their family looks a little more like ours. Isn't that the silliest reason to like a card? I very much like the layout though.And the simple wishes.

My original thought though was to do Thanksgiving Cards. Doesn't that seem like it would solve my whole problem? I'd do the cards before things even started to get hectic.
And as anyone knows who reads this blog, or knows me because I proclaim it to the high heavens every year - Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE holiday! Most favorite ever. A holiday all about gratefulness and food and gathering? What is not to like? Every year My Favorite Holiday gets eclipsed by Christmas just a little bit more. Can't we have just a few more days of fall? A few more days of giving thanks before the stress comes? A few more days of bounty before we start to worry about how we will afford Christmas this year? I know that Christmas is supposed to be more about giving than receiving, but well, sometimes I gotta think- good luck with that! Have you watched saturday morning cartoons lately? The ads in between are heinous. I mean don't get me wrong, I do love me some Christmas because there is that whole other side to it, but really, as far as holidays go, Thanksgiving is where it's at for me.

So my thought for next year: celebrate what I love celebrating. I really like these little We Are Thankful cards. Mostly because we have so very much to be thankful for.

So thanks to Shutterfly you can totally expect something awesome in your actual mailbox and not 1.online or 2. something that sits on my dresser for a year slightly unfinished.

Yay!

And more to come about the other awesome stuff at Shutterfly that I want to take advantage of this year.