Pick a card, any card...

The process to make a Christmas card is never fun or easy at my house... I love photo cards, I have for a long time. I love getting them, so I think others might as well. And when I found sites and times to order them for free I am all over free, I normally just pay like 3 or 4 dollars shipping for my cards and then of course the postage to mail them out. But it makes it affordable, or I might not send Christmas cards at all. This makes me really appreciate each and ever card I get, because I know how much time it takes to do them.

But back to the process... not fun. You first have to have a photo :)

Sounds easy... right!

I should probably think of this earlier in the year and get a cool family photo on the beach or on vacation, but we don't go to the beach or on vacation... so it is allot of work to try and get my little tiny family together dressed in something other than our casual around the house wear for a family picture.

And "the family" means the puppies too at our house... so that is an entire other factor.

This year Jim didn't want me to ask anyone to take our photo for us, so I was forced to try and get a good shot by setting up the camera on the tripod, setting the timer, and jumping in the picture and trying to get the dogs and everyone looking forward and smiling. You can see why I procrastinated this year.

Well this was a near disaster.

So as funny as some of the shots came out... I almost decided to put them on a Christmas card to share the humor.

One photo everyone was really cute, everyone smiling, no hair sticking up, no open buttons, but Jim had some kind of choke hold on Taylors neck! We can't use that one, it looks really questionable.

Another one, Morgan is in a full yawn and you can see half way down her throat to her intestines.

And another, she is actually snarling and growling at me because I was trying to make her turn around and sit looking forward before the flash went off (she was sensitive about being pushed around that day). And she never snarles or growles (just a sign of how intense it is to do Christmas photos at our house) and I didn't want the whole world to see her dark side.

Not always a happy process to get to even an acceptable result.

If there is such a thing.

So the sarcasic me, who can make light of any bad situation... almost went with this version... but the otherside of me (the one that was taught better and knows when sarcasm is probably not appropriate) decided I better not.

So "we" (I say that like the boys had anything to do with this decision... no help at all people) went with something a little more sensible instead.

I have to say, I didn't really like them. It was a total compromise to just get them out and in the mail. But I tried to put lots of love inside the envelopes as I sealed them up.

I have no idea what I will do next year... the teenager will be on a mission and as much as my family loves me, they probably could care less about getting a picture of our dogs, and I am not going to torture myself to try and get a photo with just me and Jim. It really has been all about sending an updated photo of the teenager and how much he grows from Christmas to Christmas all this time.