Oh Christmas Card, Our Christmas Card

I'll be the first to admit that, as a family - meaning Sam and I, do not have a great track record when it comes to sending out Christmas cards.  Somehow we always fall short.  We didn't send any when it was just the two of us - mostly because Sam didn't think anyone cared and they aren't as fun if you don't have cute kid pictures to put on them.  I wholly disagreed, but never actually picked any out, just dreamed and surfed and looked at all of the adorable designs everyone had.  And there are a million different sites you can choose from.  I can't possibly be the only one that immediately flips over the card/invitation to see where it came from!

Last year's Christmas Card picture that was given with gifts instead of mailed

I'm not so good at dragging a baby to the post office...oops!

So another part of our problem is how to pick just one!  Since learning Adobe InDesign - I always had an obsession with making our own - but it's not as easy as it sounds and then there's the problem of having them printed, making sure the formatting is right, and making it look professional.  And when you really add up all the time I spend (wasting...) trying to work it out it's really not worth it.

ENTER STAGE RIGHT:  SHUTTERFLY Christmas Cards

After reading several people's blog posts (and flipping over several dozens of cards) about Shutterfly - how could we not just make it THAT easy.  Now, of course, I still kinda went into panic mode for a little bit looking through literally hundreds of designs, but once I finally scrolled down and I saw it - we both just KNEW that it would be this year's Christmas Card.  (Because we FINALLY have a cute kid to put on a card!!)  And I'm not going to spoil the surprise, because it really is THAT cute - but it is perfect.  Just perfect.  We couldn't be more excited to be getting our tushes on top of things and mailing them out this year.

One of the many FUNNY faces I wanted to put on this year's Christmas card

Needless to say, Sam did not agree....

Now, to be honest, I do have a small ulterior motive to this post.  By blogging about Shutterfly, I'm hoping to win 50 free cards (but that doesn't mean that I don't mean what I say and say what I mean - thanks Dad for that one...ha!), which helps us in seventeen different ways, most importantly gives us that much unspent money to spend on presents for Santa to bring to the cute kid, but also - by going through Shutterfly and not doing it myself, I don't have to deal with any of the hassle or spend any time picking up the cards, searching for envelopes, buying stamps...well, I guess I still have to buy stamps, but you get my point.

This face would've been perfect, except the picture has way too much of our not so

awesome kitchen floor in it.  People would be distracted, it wouldn't be good.

We have ordered 4x6 prints from them and they always come out lovely, but the most fun was working on a photo book for my Daddy.  I mean, seriously, how cool are photo books.  All the niceness of photo albums but none of the worry about breaking the plastic while trying to wrestle the picture in.  Or is that just me that gets violent with albums....?  Ok - it's just me.  But you get my point.  And I love the little ones - can we say Grandparent's brag book anyone?  Fun fun.  I'd like to think that's what Daddy does with his - except that it's a year's worth of William's funny faces - but you can brag on a picture of a little boy razzing right?  I thought so.

I considered a family picture, but really no one cares about Sam and I.

We learned that very early on.  But I get it, William is MUCH cuter than us any day of the week.

Something else that caught my eye that they offer, and maybe this is just because one of my friends is a photographer, but they have the Canvas Pictures.  I know every time I went to her house, there was almost always an order ready to go out of one of these, but how nice would it be to just have a cute candid picture of the fam, or the place you got engaged, or just a really cool looking tree that owns itself hanging on a wall looking like a professional did it?!  I'm just saying.  And as a professional designer in another life - I'm thinking that a whole bunch of 12x12 ones would look really cool all hung perfectly in a hallway or up the stairs.  Just saying.

The always popular razz picture.  This was also a contender for the Christmas card.

But only because it makes me smile, most of you would probably think that my kid has a problem.

And he does - he's obsessed with razzing...!

And if we're talking about gifts, I need a calendar for my cube.  I am sadly sitting in a little gray cube in an area that doesn't have any windows and to be perfectly honest, it's a little sad.  So I told Sam that he should buy me a photo calendar.  I also need a calendar with the Julian Date on it (yeah, I didn't know that even existed until 6 weeks ago either!) but a photo one would make me so happy every day.  So - HINT HINT BIG HINT SAM!!!!!!!!  We'll see how that not so subtle suggestion works out...teehee.  Love my hubs.

He's so cute - I can't stand it - I seriously pulled aside almost 100 pictures to choose from.

How in the world I chose just one baffles me.

Since we're talking about presents, I really think I should follow up with the ever important Thank You Note. My parents taught me well.  You get a gift, you send a note.  Even if you opened the gift in front of the person who was nice enough to give you something.  And I absolutely plan on teaching that to William.  (Family - don't hate me for falling short on this in the recent past...I've been busy with a cute monster)  And what's even funnier, is that a lot of thank you notes get written and put in envelopes but then they sit in the secretary unmailed.  Forever.  But, if the thank you note could be as cute as the kid who is "writing" it, then I'd like to think that I would absolutely make the effort to dig out the un-updated address book and then buy the stamp and mail out the picture of my kid that also happens to say thank you on the inside.  It's like a double gift to the recipient of the card actually....  And - bonus - it could be in a coordinating theme as the Christmas Card. Oh lord, stop me now, I'm about to spend our savings at Shutterfly.  Though, I'm sure Shutterfly encourages it, and their entire marketing strategy is geared at people like me who die over stationery.

I die over and over again over this picture - it's so my kid.

And this would've been the picture on this year's card, 

except Sam thought that people would think we 

were crazy for putting a picture of an angry kid on a 

So - there you have it.  My shameless plug disguised as fun and cleverness.  And a not so subtle suggestion of gift list for my husband.  Forgive me - but my kid is cute and deserves to be on a Christmas Card that is almost as cute as him.  Just saying.  :)

Loves.