Christmas cards

One of my favorite things about the Christmas season are the Christmas cards. Each year my mom puts up the cute pictures we receive and saves the letters for me to read. She ends up saving most of the envelopes too to double check against her address book. I LOVE reading the updates people send out of their families. I LOVE seeing their families change and grow year after year. I have always tried to get my family to do a Christmas card. Most years Mom agrees if I will write it. I have written many a Christmas letter for my family, but after everyone edits their little paragraph it usually doesn't resemble my original:)

Now I have my own family. Each year I really want to put out a Christmas card, but when the time comes I feel silly.  Not much is usually going on with us, so I don't feel like we have much to say. Mostly I am obsessed with the picture.
Last year I didn't get the same joy out of Christmas cards. Everyone looked so happy and content and I wasn't feeling like that.  We had had a hard year and I wasn't feeling very grateful, I was feeling jealous.  So I decided I dint want to send out a card. In the end I was so mad I hadn't! It doesn't seem like a big deal-but with whatever issues I was having-it became a freakishly big deal to me.  Seriously, it became a weird obsession last year, I'm not sure I can explain it. So last night Danny asked if we were sending a card out this year.  Like usual I said, "No, we don't have a family pic we all really like, why spend the money etc etc." Danny laughed at me and reminded me that I'd be furious about that decision come December and insisted we do one. Now I'm excited:)

So I immediately started looking online at Christmas cards. I was disappointed by the selection on some sites, but then I saw Shutterfly's holiday cards. They have a HUGE selection!  (PS they also have some really cute twin baby announcements too:)  So far these are my favorites-but with so many I haven't even begun to look!

 I also love this cute Thanksgiving card-it would be nice to get them out while I am just laying here!

Then I got excited when I saw on a friends blog that Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly! That takes away one of my excuses! I haven't used Shutterfly before but am really excited to try them out.
I also saw that they do photo calenders. We have given my mom a photo calender every year for...a long time. She has kept every one up around her bed and switches the pics each month-just to see the new pics. One year I purposely didn't give her a calender because she doesn't really use them(except for their photo-ness) and she was so bummed! As a result she just keeps getting them. Anyway, I'm excited to have some new templates to work with this year:).

So now I have blogged about it, I better get them out on time right?