Christmas Cards

It's that time again.
If I were the super mom I used to be I would have had them all handmade, addressed, stamped, including a family update letter-cleverly written, possibly rhyming, and a flawless photo of everyone looking at the camera with a natural looking smile, coordinating outfits embellished with the latest accessories, and our two dogs sitting in obedience next to the children, perfectly groomed with shiny coats (the dogs not the children).  Also they would have been in the mail already, since the holidays officially kicked off last weekend.

But all my perfection was making people feel bad.
Ha!  hahaha!

Also I woke up.

And then I remembered the last time I handmade Christmas cards, and the fact that many of them are still sitting in my card drawer unsent.


And those perfectly polished pictures?  Well, since in my mind sub freezing temps, two kids with a cold, a husband in the middle of trying to fix plumbing problems equals the perfect time to call a good friend and see if she'll venture out into a frozen field with us to get some pictures of our family, we get shots like this:

Sweet!  Go me!
Honestly, despite all that, we did get some beautiful shots that I am excited to share this year!

So what is a girl with an undying desire to show off her crazy family even though we will never have a family picture where everyone is actually looking at the camera (happily) at the same time?  Especially when she is busy loving on her sweet little baby, potty training the toddler, shuttling older kids between cub scouts, church youth activities, play practice (did I mention the 4 oldest are in Christmas Carol?  Taylor is Scrooge!), knowledge bowl, geography bee, and wrangling the older youngest kids from morning till night?  While hubby is working and in nursing school full time, gearing up for *another* surgery before the end of the year?

First said girl will stop typing freakishly long run-on sentences one-handed.
(I'm rocking baby to sleep...about to go deposit him in bed)

Ok.  Now that he is in bed I can type freakishly long run-on sentences with two hands.

Seriously though, to my rescue this crazy year is Shutterfly.

Have you ever used Shutterfly?
Our first experience with them was a photo book for a wedding that my husband shot a few years ago.  I was so impressed with the finished product!  The fact that their site was easy to use and reasonably priced was even better.

(Um, slightly off topic here, but if you love the photo books they are buy one get one 50% off right now only through Dec 1st though!  Hurry!  But back to cards)

If you are not familiar with Shutterfly you need to go take a peek around.  My big Christmas Card dilemma has been reduced from "What am I going to do?!"  to "all I have to do is pick one"!  Although picking just one might be the hardest part.

It started out with me pulling up the Christmas cards and the first one I saw I fell in love.  But I had to see the rest of them.

As I am wandering through all Christmas photo cards available, I find one and think, "oh!  That's it!"

And then I think, "this is the perfect one!"

But then I keep looking and find yet another perfect one.....

Obviously I'm into the photo cards, especially the ones with multiple pictures.  Hey, there's a lot of us!  I'm just barely shy of filling a whole calendar with my family.  Maybe next year we'll get back to what we used to do when we only had a few kids and make calendars for the grandparents.
(Shutterfly has those too.  And after having handmade some in the past, I highly recommend having them done for you!)

And it turns out that picking the perfect one really is the hardest part of this whole thing.

I am so thrilled at the prospect of getting this all done while I sit in my jammies at home, no dragging kids out in the sub zero temps (really.  In November.  I am a little scared of January at this point....) to brave the crowds at some place where I have to wait in line forever to pick up the photos I've printed.  Have I told you how much I love getting packages delivered right to my front door?
The best of everything; super cute cards, sharing my crazy family with those we don't see often, not having to venture out....ahhh....my holidays are looking fabulous and I get to stay home and bake some more.

And my husband can quit complaining about it being so cold.

(disclaimer-I was offered 50 free cards to blog about Shutterfly holiday cards.  But I really would have used them anyway to make my life easier.  Also, like I mentioned, it's cold outside.  The less running around out there I have to do the better! They didn't ask me to mention the photo books but they totally rock!  And just solved one of the last "what will I do for them for Christmas?!" dilemmas.  Score!

Now go get yourself some cards.  Scoot!)