Each year for as long as I can remember, my family has sent out a photo card for the holidays. And each year, I've taken it upon myself to create said card...sometimes with construction paper or ribbon, other years using glitter and glue, painstaking as it were.
Our card list grew longer and longer and I guess the task got to be too much for me because last year, for the first time ever, my family did not send out Christmas cards.
Christmas came so quickly that with the hustle and bustle of everything else, making a holiday card just wasn't a priority.
I didn't want that to happen again this year and the timing couldn't have been more perfect when I was contacted by Minted.com about featuring their custom holiday cards and other stationery on Southern Belle Simple.
I've never used Minted before, but after spending some time on the site, I found lots of holiday card designs that I really liked. The best part is they are designed so beautifully that I don't have to waste any time crafting some elaborate creation from scratch.
I sat down with my mom this past weekend and looked at possible photo options for our family holiday card. It's tricky because my brother has a new romance and we weren't sure if it was appropriate to add a photo of his girlfriend to the card (too soon?)...with her permission we ended up including her though.
Then there's my southern beau...even though he's been on the scene for many years, he isn't always keen on the whole family photo thing...but he was a good sport and agreed to let us include him too.
That's the thing about family. When you love a whole bunch of different people in all sorts of different ways, the lines get pretty blurry. But there's enough good stuff to go around. Plus, the smudges are where the real magic happens.
What is your family's holiday card tradition? Do you send out cards with photos or maybe one of those end of the year wrap-up letters?