Shutterfly Christmas Cards

Well its that time of year again.  Christmas is coming, and I already have my photos for our cards.  Now I just need to pick the perfect card.  We plan on getting our cards at Shutterfly again this year.  We have gotten our cards from there for the past five or six years.  They do a great job, and they keep up with the latest styles.  Not to mention they are really affordable!


Here are some of my favorites so far...


I like this one for its simplicity.  We have one good picture that would look good in this format.


This one is probably my favorite so far.  I love the design of it all together!


This one would look so good with our beach pictures, just not sure because its not traditional Christmas colors.  


This one is just so classy.  I love the rich red in it.


There are several more on my "short list", so I'm going to have a difficult time deciding.  


So are you ready for the really good part?  This year Shutterfly is doing something a little different.  If you remember I wrote a review last year as well.  And let me just say, I would not do a review if I did not like the product.  I honestly have been using Shutterfly for years.  It is also where I order my prints from.


Ok, back to the good part.  Are you a blogger?  Want a chance at 25 free cards this holiday season? Register here: http://goo.gl/DDw7Q  


NOTE:  You have to register by 11:59pm tonight, November 11, 2011.


Now for the even better part...


I also have three promo codes to give away to 3 lucky readers!  You will get 25 free holiday cards from Shutterfly!  Leave me a comment and your name will go in the drawing...aka, the hat that one of my kids will draw your name out of!  We do things fancy around here!  Deadline is Tuesday, November 15th, 11:59pm.


Enjoy the weekend and comment on!

Thoughts

What a week!  Our Christmas started last Thursday when we drove up to MD to celebrate with my family.  It was a quick visit, but fun!  My sister got the Just Dance Wii game, and well, let's just say it's fun!  Ed and my brother danced which was hilarious to watch.  And my mom, me, sister, and brother's girlfriend also did it, but my mom managed to beat us every time!  I guess a dance degree helps!

The rest of the week was spent at home and with Ed's side, with a big snowstorm mixed in there!  Today is really the first day we haven't been with any extended family, so it's nice to just be at home!  

Ed gave me some time off yesterday to reflect and start thinking through this year and some resolutions I want to make.  More on that to come!  

Tomorrow is my baby's birthday!  A milestone birthday that I'm not sure I'm ready for!  But Ed and I really plan to celebrate this milestone in a special way.  However, with a birthday on New Year's Eve, its always hard to celebrate on his birthday.  So we will head to Cracker Barrel for breakfast, and do some gifts when we get home.  Then we'll celebrate with some friends that night, and have some cake, and also celebrate the new year!  Ed and I will take him out by himself for a special night probably next week.  I'm really looking forward to that because he so thrives on individual attention.  He's definitely a quality time kind of kid!

Off to play beat him in a game of Wii - our new family toy!

Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Preparing my Heart for Christmas

As I spend some time reading this morning, I found God bringing some thoughts to mind that I thought had kind of  well disappeared.  And so now, the result, I'm finding myself heading into the Christmas weekend with mixed feelings.  Funny how God would want me to be half elated, half depressed on his birthday!  Anyway, my journey began a couple of months ago when I read Radical.  Insert - ugh!  I know, everyone that has read it has probably felt the same.  I guess that is a whole other post on that book.  Then yesterday, I read a post from a new blog I'm reading, and it left me, well, haunted.

You see, I don't consider myself to have lots because our lifestyle just doesn't allow for it.  Sure I would love to have a flat screen tv, cable, my own personal laptop, a bigger house so we aren't always in each other's space, but the reality is that is just not ever going to be us.  And so the Lord has been teaching me for a while how much I really have in comparison to the world.  I've never thought of myself as filthy rich, have you?  

Picture with me - Christmas morning...We will get up, get out of our super comfortable plush mattress, slip on some cozy slippers, walk downstairs, in a heated home, to our way too expensive coffee maker to get some hot coffee.  Then Ed and I will sit on our huge couches and turn on some Christmas music on our computers, and read out of our Bibles that aren't even allowed in so many countries.  We will enjoy peace and quiet while our three healthy children sleep in their individual beds.  Does it get you like it gets me?  And I haven't even started the actual opening of gifts and the feast we will enjoy.  

So after thinking through all this...do I really need anything else?  I am about to receive amazing things this weekend, things I don't need.  I am grateful for them, but I pray these things don't make me want more!  I am so desperate for the Lord to fill my heart with thankfulness and a real understanding of what I actually do need and what it extra.  Are extras bad?  Not all the time.  But honestly, I am beginning to feel like the extras are closing in on me.  

I loved this post from my friend Jen on how they taught their kids the difference between wants and needs.  A perfect lesson before this barrage of gifts they will receive this weekend!

So what do we do with this weekend?  Do we become a cynic and grunt after every gift is open?  Does it give us a new spirit as we open these things that we don't need but are just that - a gift - a blessing - something we can be tremendously grateful for because we know that more than half the world does not have it.  Honestly I don't know!  This is a new journey for me, one that will carry over into next year.  I pray this Christmas, the Lord will make me thankful and grateful for the things I take for granted and for the new things I receive.  

The Minivan Express

Monday night we took a trip on the Minivan Express (think Polar Express).  After dinner we took the kids upstairs to get ready for bed.  We got their jammies on, brushed teeth and then gathered in Haleigh's room for a bedtime story.  All was normal until Daddy, aka The Conductor, told us we were about to go on an adventure on the Minivan Express.  So we got our things ready for our adventure, and handed out tickets because after all, you do need a ticket to hop on the Minivan Express! 

The Conductor collected the kids tickets and once everyone was in their seats, he handed out popcorn and drinks!  And so we headed out on our adventure to see the tacky lights in our area!  We drove all over town, seeing only the best!  The kids absolutely loved seeing each house and Micah declared halfway through that this would be a new Martin tradition.  So maybe next year, we'll take a trip on the Minivan Express again!