Starting a new Christmas Card Tradition

Have I mentioned that Christmas is my favorite time of the year?  No? Well it is.

Give me some cold weather, a cup of hot chocolate, strands of Christmas lights and dreamy Christmas music and I am in my happy place.  I love putting up the decorations, baking an enormous amount of holiday treats to pass out to neighbors and friends, and spending time with family.

I think one of the best and most underrated parts of the holiday season is giving and receiving Christmas cards.  I love that each Christmas our mailbox is filled with cards from family and friends sending us blessings and wishing us well.  It might seem like something small or insignificant to some, but I find that receiving a card or letter in the mail always brightens my day.  And mailing out our cards leaves me feeling so accomplished, never mind the fact that I haven't done any Christmas shopping or finished my holiday to-do list...if my cards are mailed I'm good.

This year I decided to hop on the holiday photo card bandwagon.  Every year it seems like card designs get cuter and harder to choose from. We're going with a card from from Shutterfly.  I could spend hours looking through their  holiday photo card collection.  Seriously, the have so many to choose from...
Flat photo cards

Flat stationery cards

and Folded greeting cards

I was always envious of the cute family photo cards we received and the ones that were advertised in almost every store or on every website.  So this year I was determined to take a photo of all four of us in coordinating colors, during Thanksgiving.  I didn't factor in Levi acting like a little pill and screaming "NO!" every chance he could while my mom tried to snap a photo of us...and I didn't think about my mom not knowing how to work our camera... I just knew we were getting our photo taken. No matter what! 

When I sat down to go through the pictures, I realized that finding one good one out of the hundred that were taken (not an exaggeration by the way) was going to be really hard.  I finally narrowed it down to one photo.  Only one photo that was decent enough for our card.

Three different looks, not sure which one I am going to narrow it down to, because as hard as it was taking a photo choosing which fabulous card to go with is even harder. 

I love the look of the blue and brown

or maybe something with more traditional colors?

See what I mean?? Every card is cuter than the next! 

And don't even get me started on their holiday gifts.  Photo books for Grandma's and Grandpa's, Calendars for Dad's office, and Coffee Mugs for Mom.  It's like one stop shopping for your family gifts.  I have a few relatives asking me for a family photo of the four of us, and now I get to provide them with a photo and a card all in one, hehe.  So if you're looking for a great photo card for Christmas, or any holiday gifts, be sure to head over to Shutterfly and check them out. 

And if you blog too, Shutterfly has an amazing promotion going on- just create a fun post about their awesome products (like I did :) ) and receive 50 FREE Christmas Cards!  Just sign up here and follow their easy instructions.  Merry Christmas indeed!