Christmas cards

First of all, I'm not sure what the rules are in terms of blogging about my family, but a special little girl arrived last week, and it seems wrong not to mention it here. So here's one quick photo. I'll get to meet her at Christmas, and I can't wait!

So on to the post I had planned: Every year about November my mom started taking pictures for the perfect Christmas card picture of my siblings and I. It usually involved matching or coordinating outfits and either a scenic background or a Christmas one.

We always got one eventually, but it usually took a lot of takes. My mom was still sending out Christmas cards with a picture of us after I graduated from college. 

As a single adult, I didn't see much reason to send out Christmas cards. But last year, Shutterfly was pretty much giving away Christmas cards. So I decided to put a couple of photos from my new city on a card and sending out a combination "I've moved"/Christmas cards.

And do you know what happened? I got Christmas cards back, more than I've ever gotten before. It made December so fun, and I have a refrigerator full of cards with pictures from friends. I realized that even in a world with blogs and Facebook, it is nice to get Christmas cards and feel connected to friends far away.

And this is probably the best and easiest time in my life to send out Christmas cards. Someday, I'll be wrangling my kids for the perfect Christmas card photo and wondering how my mom managed.

This year, I went with some store-bought cards without a photo and got them all written and addressed* this weekend. The cards from friends have already started arriving, and along with birthday cards, I've been hanging them around my kitchen doorway.

*My Christmas card sending this year was a little haphazard, I didn't do much to find addresses I didn't already have. So if you don't get one, don't be offended and you're not missing much (but you can still send one to me!).