I know it is still October but if you are anything like this family, we have to do our holiday cards WAY early. One reason is because I am so picky about the pictures that go into the card and the other reason is because we use our Christmas card as a somewhat journal/newspaper of what has gone on that year in order to update our family and friends that the military has separated us from. I saw this idea from not just the wonderful web, but from my husband's cousin- who every year writes us a mini newspaper and while it is lengthy, I love it. It gives us a way to see what they have been up to this year and how much we, unfortunately, missed.
As only children, my husband and I have been all to accustomed to the growing changes within our family (extended and not) as we grow older and our own immediate family grows. We have found that as we have gotten older our cousins (our version of brothers and sisters) have grown up as well and now have families of their own, as I am sure we are not the only ones :) ; it is still a sad realization for many only children that the people we consider brothers and sisters (who may have siblings of their own, now don't contact as much anymore). But our cousins have immediate families of their own to keep in the loop and keep up with (this is where it starts to get sad, hence the Holiday newspaper/card). I, like my husband and many other only children out there, we grew up in a very large family and as we get older, get married and have kids ourselves, the dynamics and hierarchy of the family changes; and the availability to reach family becomes harder and a lot more work. Family get-togethers have more absences each year and our communication becomes a little more non-existent than the last year. Add in the military and it's chaotic schedules and now you have added the most non-complying family member of all- keep in mind this family member is not just demanding, but comes first among anything else!
SO, this year make a card that allows the rest of the family know what has been going on with yours and maybe you can start a new tradition to keep everyone in touch with each other (at least once a year). Besides, who wants just some generic card that has a reindeer, mistletoe, or over published quotes and song lyrics on them. I definitely don't, I want something personal.
With all that said, we still haven't finished our cards for this year but here is last years holiday card. (We celebrate both, Hanukkah and Christmas (Christmakkah), so rather than sending two different cards to the respected religions within the family and friends, we decided to greet everyone with holiday wishes from a united front.)
Front, Back and Center of our card printed from Shutterfly!
Three of my favorite pictures on the cards- our precious babies!
For the pictures on the cover and back of the card, My husband and I made a photo studio on our bed- using a huge blanket and sheets. For the lights we used net lighting and just played around with our camera setting focus, and of course Instagram and Shutterfly helped a little! For beginners, I think we did pretty good!
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