You know you love them!

Every year around this time, I get really excited when I see the mail arrive. Not because I expect presents or cool catalogs, but because I know that from now until Christmas, the chances are good that each day's mail will hold a Christmas card from friends or family. This has been one of my favorite things about Christmas for as long as I can remember. I love reading each card, even the newsletters, and especially with the picture cards, seeing how friends' children have grown during the past year. That's why shutterfly is so great. We used them to make last year's card, and I loved the results so much that I'm planning on using them this year as well.

This was the card we did last year. I was a little disappointed initially that I wasn't able to take a good picture of the kids (and Henry looked kind of dumb in the pink Bumbo), but then another friend's shutterfly card came in, and I was inspired to go a whole different way with ours. Hers showed her family's outtakes from their Christmas card photo, and I thought about how fun it'd be to take the silly picture I had from my Christmas card attempt and frame it with pictures from the year. I loved including the picture of Ben holding Henry when Amelia got to meet him for the first time in the hospital, and seeing how much he'd changed just in the 4 months since he'd been born. I was looking at last year's card the other day and thought about how I really want to figure out a way to preserve each year's card so I can display them. I'm not normally this sentimental; something about kids and Christmas brings it out in me, I guess.

One of the things I like best about shutterfly's cards is that they have so many different options. I love, love this one and would absolutely use it if we had one good shot. I have to admit, though, that to me, part of the fun of sending cards is the opportunity to put multiple pictures in. With young children like ours, the changes over a year can be huge! When 2010 started, Henry was just 5 months old and not doing a whole lot. Now he's 16 months and doing just about everything except sleeping. Amelia still didn't have a lot of hair, and now she's gotten not one, but two haircuts! With that in mind, I really like this style.

So the big question now is what images to use. We've gone through a whole data card this year, so we've got a ton of pictures to choose from. I want to select some to highlight the whole year. Here are a few that I love:








Another thing that's really nice about shutterfly is that after you've done holiday cards, it's easy to make other fun photo presents. My sister graduated from law school this year and is working for a firm in Atlanta. I think a desk calendar like this one would be the perfect gift for her. Ben's brother works out of the country a lot, as a flight attendant for a charter airline company. Something like this would be a wonderful gift for him because it's easily portable and is a convenient way to tote around pictures of his favorite (um, only) niece and nephew. I also really love these. Both of our youngest siblings are living in apartments right now with the possibility of moving, since his brother is graduating college and my sister is a sophomore, so the calendar magnet would be a great way to let them display a picture and minimize space by having the calendar right there as well.

The greatest thing about shutterfly right now, though, is the deal they're running if you blog about their fantastic selection of cards and gifts. For more information, go here: http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!