Sending Christmas Cards

Sending Christmas cards is one of those "pains of Christmas", but it is something I HAVE to do or my holiday season is just not complete. I used to start just after Thanksgiving. I would have to start that early because just to sign my name to a card would have been insincere...or so I thought. So, I would spend hours putting pen to card to write each person a special little message....SO DUMB! Last year we sent out our first Christmas photo card, and I LOVED it! I wanted it to be a family tradition, our picture taken in our matching Christmas PJ's....but Jason was against that idea. I really don't know how I talked him into doing it last year.

But, even if we couldn't get the perfect family photo (which we did) I had this ADORABLE picture with Santa as back up.

My "thing" is I like family photos on the cards. Don't misunderstand, when I receive your Christmas photos with your babies I LOVE them. But, for some of my friends; allow me to rephrase MOST of my friends live far away and out of state so I truly enjoy seeing the entire family, so I get to see you too my friend. This year Jason and I did not get together in a timely manner to get the perfect family photo for our Christmas card...in fact I have to work on us getting family pictures more often, I do not have many at all which is silly because we all do everything together, but I digress.

In absence of the perfect family photo I tried to have my own mini photo shoot like I did at Halloween. After 2 hours back in October I FINALLY got the best picture of Kyle and Hailey together. In fact, it was so perfect I used them for halloween cards...so obviously I could not use it again. I felt with a little time and patience I could get another one....but NO!

The photo shoot above was in their christmas eve outfits and after about 45 minutes they both passed out for naps, and I in my frustration gave up on our photo shoot for the day.

I did not give up for good! Here was attempt number 2.......in their christmas day outfits.

When photo shoot #2 was a bust I called Jay in absolute fury....yeah I lost it a bit, I was stressed our cards should have been out a while ago! So he took the kids to see Santa..I sadly was derailed from attending this fun event. I left the babies in his hands to get the perfect photo so I could just make our cards and be done with it. I was sadly disappointed to see what he came home with. Of course Jason really did try. I guess he had the woman take several photos and sadly this was the best........

Not exactly the adorable perfect picture I was looking for.

After some deep breathing, a little screaming, and some photo cropping I made our christmas card.

It doesn't have all of us in it, and it isn't exactly what I imagined, but it was a card we got to send out to people we love and care for across the globe (literally). So, next time you get a christmas card particularly from a family or from someone with children, know it is not JUST a card. It is a masterpiece of art that someone spent a lot of time on. Taking, getting, picking out, cropping the perfect picture and then finding the right card to fit the chosen photos is a daunting task; done to try and bring you some holiday cheer...but in the end SO WORTH IT!

One pain of christmas that isn't so painful after all. Hope you enjoy our christmas card!