Thank goodness for digital cameras.
I remember that special day every year when I was growing up - picture day. The day my mother would make us dress alike and go outside to stare at the sun while she took a roll of film of me and my sisters. A week later we would all sort through the pictures - one was going to be our holiday card. There was never one that was the perfect picture of all of us. Someone was frowning/blinking/squinting. Someone had their hair over their face. Someone was poking the baby.
But now we have digital cameras - yay! I still torture my kids with the annual picture day, dressing them alike and dragging them outside to stare at the sun. But at least I know when I've gotten the picture! Unfortunately for them, it takes even longer because I need the perfect picture!
Since the number of kids has grown to 4, it's gotten more and more challenging. I've had to adapt my card. Luckily, http://www.shutterfly.com makes this easy! They have a variety of cards where I can include not just the one perfect picture, but rather an array of pictures. This year's picture day was so awful, I may just have to do 4 individual shots! But usually I like to do one group shot and then other pictures in groups of one or two.
So now I just go here: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards and choose a design that lets me arrange 5 or so pictures onto the card. Since my husband's family celebrates Hanukkah and my family celebrates Christmas, I'm always happy to find a nice generic "holiday" theme to keep everyone happy.
Oh - and another improvement - the letter! My mom always wrote a letter to go with the picture, to catch all the distant relatives up on what we'd been doing all year. Then print out 50 or however many and collate them with the pictures. Well Shutterfly makes this easier too! Plenty of room inside the card to write out my updates for the year. No collating!
Of course, there are often discounts and sales at Shutterfly and so I typically go the extra step and order thank you cards too (here: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-thank-you-cards) for the kids to send everyone after the holiday. The various grandparents seem to really enjoy this - I'm pretty sure it's why they continue sending the gifts!
So thank you to digital cameras and to Shutterfly for making my life easier.
Didn't know about any of this stuff. Good job keeping handwritten thank-you notes a tradition. I am going to do everything I can to instill that habit in W as well. Well, I guess I'll just make him, like our parents made us. Seems like it's being phased out these days.
ReplyDelete