Well, I finally sat down to work on my Christmas cards. I pulled the chair up to the computer, hot cocoa in hand. This task is a lot more fun than it was a couple years ago. I use Shutterfly now and it is the perfect blend of being a creative outlet for me, with none of the headache and hassle. I had my photos uploaded already- big shout out to Heather Barnes for the great pics she took of my family. My biggest problem is how carried away I got. I’m embarrassed to say that in no time at all I had made- ahem- nine different cards. And I love them all. You can laugh at me now- I know you are, Dad. I could have made it easy on myself and just chosen and made one, but I was having so much fun and… well, Craig will have to choose which one we actually make and share with you all, our family and friends! Here are a couple of my favorites:

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

In the meantime, I also took a look at Shutterfly’s line of calendars. I love mine that I made this summer, and I am looking into making some for Christmas gifts this year. I like that you can choose from different sizes, personalize them with your own dates and celebrations, and choose from, like, a billion different styles. Here is a cute one:

http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/desk-calendars

And I can say without giving anything away, that I am giving my mother-in-law a Shutterfly photobook this year. Maybe two. (They so often have sales and buy-one-get-one promos!) One for sure of a slim selection of her many photos from their South Africa trip. And possible one of the family at Cran-Hill this summer. I’ve made a couple photo books this year, and I’d much rather make them online and leaf through them to see the memories, than print out a frighteningly tall stack of individual photos and wrestle them into albums or feel guilty for not scrapbooking them in the wee hours when I have “free” time!

So there you have it. One evening and a couple cocoas later, and Shutterfly made my holidays that much easier. Because if you read my last post, you know that I want Christmas to be more about preparing for the coming of the Lord, and less about fighting materialism and traffic at the mall.

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards