I love going to my mailbox in December. The bills and the junk mail are still there but so are Christmas Cards from dear family and friends. So to our dearest blog friends, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

I love (for the most part)the yearly tradition of sending our family Christmas Card. For years I made my own card, scrapbook style. My personal Christmas card policy is to include a picture each year, usually alternating just kids and whole family. Lets face it, I look pretty much the same year to year, just add a few pounds and a few wrinkles and no one needs to see that. I also include a short update on our family because I adore reading Christmas letters from friends and family. So just for a laugh here’s a trip down memory lane.

2002

This is a hoot because I was obviously in an embossing kick. And a tearing paper kick. Wow! Also the first year I made my card instead of sending a separate picture and letter.

2004

(Sorry, can’t find or even remember 2003) Definitely a more simple approach in 2004, but don’t worry, I made it more complicated of course by trying to find kraft colored envelopes that opened vertically. I finally found some online and they arrived in an ugly manila color. So sad.

2005

Trying to master the fine art of printing the letter directly on my cardstock.

2006

I’d like to note that this was pre-Cruicut so I cut out the brackets by hand. And employed my children in the annual Christmas Card sweat shop.

2007

Not my favorite card or favorite haircut on my son. Bad hair trends happen…Merry Christmas!

2008

I’m pretty sure this was the year I wanted to sue myself for waiting too long to buy cardstock and red or green was nowhere to be seen. When life gives you lemons… black can be a Christmas color.

2009

When you plan a family picture at the beach and your 6 year old is so petrified of the dog 100 yards away that she ruins all of the pictures with her tortured expression you….do a picture montage. I designed this card in Photoshop and uploaded the whole thing to Vistaprint. I was pleased with the linen paper it came on and loved the price and ease. I was converted to digital!

2010

I’m so lucky to have a talented photographer niece at Shandi Marie Photography who took these pictures and then sent me a template so I could design the card in Photoshop and have her order them for me. I adore the pearl paper. I had to pay more for the card to open horizontally, but I couldn’t resist having our 8 people lined up like that.

2011

And, I cut yet another corner this year when Shandi told me to check out the card templates for photographers at HiStudio. I loved all of them, picked one out and Shandi worked her magic.

I have lots of fond memories of getting together with dear friends as we all cut and pasted our homemade Christmas cards. But, now I have new memories of not making this process harder than it needs to be. The most important thing is keeping contact with loved ones and sending our Christmas cheer. The moral of the story is… when life gives you 6 kids and a busy holiday season…order your digital Christmas cards.