It's Holiday Card Time Again!

Can you believe it? It seems so crazy that it's really time for the holidays again--I'm SO excited!!!

We took pictures last weekend for this year's holiday cards--we got some great shots although I will be the first to warn everyone that last year's photo was a professional photo taken during a family photo shoot we had after RUS's birth and this year's pictures are from our crappy little point-and-shoot camera. But they are us so I hope you'll enjoy seeing us smiling at you when you get them in the mail.

We're going to do our photo cards through Shutterfly this year--I've long liked Shutterfly for a lot of reasons. First, it was the place I signed up for to share photos back in 2003 because it was the ONLY site that let you share the pictures without requiring that the people looking at the pictures register for the site. I found it (and still do, actually) it obnoxious to require that people try to remember a random password and username just to see pictures someone else has shared with them. Second, they have excellent products and a very easy-to-use interface for putting things together with your pictures and making them look nice. If you are a professional designer, you enjoy creating your own ideas and having the flexibility of being able to do whatever you want on a page. If you are more like me, however, you prefer having professional designers put together attractive ideas ready for you to just add a selected photo or two.

Here are three of my favorite holiday card designs this year. I am posting three just to keep everyone guessing as to which ones you'll be receiving in the mail this year!

Choice 1

Choice 2

Choice 3

UPDATE: I ended up not picking any of these designs!! When I was going through the choices and thinking about which ones I liked, I totally didn't even notice that some of them were 5x5 instead of 5x7, and I don't want to pay extra postage for mailing a square card.

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Over time, I've stayed with Shutterfly even though I also briefly signed up for Snapfish and Kodak Gallery because I've found their products to be really great over the years. Things we've ordered for ourselves and as gifts have included:

Photo mugs. We've given these to my father-in-law twice with pictures of our kids on them and most recently to my sister-in-law, M, with a picture of her two boys on it.

Calendars. I made one of these for J for Father's Day this year and we love it so much that it's going to be our go-to gift for Father's Day each year. JW and C also make one of Little Frog for Grammie and Grampie each year and the quality is always excellent and they hold up fantastically over the entire year.

Magnets. When R was a little baby, I made little photo magnets for various family members as an easy way to stick her photo on their fridge. Grammie and Grampie still have theirs on their fridge and it looks as new as it did almost 3 years ago!

3x5 Folded Note Cards. One of my favorite things that I've ever made through Shutterfly is R's thank you card for her first birthday. I took the cutest picture of her sitting and playing with these alphabet blocks she got for her birthday from Grandma and Grandpa. I made the blocks spell T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U and had a set of 12 cards made with that picture on the front. Perfect!

And of course there is that old Shutterfly staple--photo cards for all occasions! We've received them as thank you cards (from too many people to count!), as Valentine's cards (from Little Frog and Little T), and as Christmas cards.

My mother has made photo dvds of major events, as well as of the year-in-review and I'm telling you, watching these at holiday time and family get-togethers is one of our favorite things to do as a family.

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And, as a special holiday FYI to everyone reading this (especially those friends of mine who also have their own blogs):

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly! Get details at http://bit.ly/sfly2010