It's the happiest season of all

I've always been a fan of sending real mail. In college, a friend and I exchanged care packages every few months, and I send books and small gifts to friends even now. Since getting married and becoming an official adult, I've sent Christmas cards out by mail to friends and extended family alike. I send birthday cards and postcards and occasionally just-because cards. With my husband's entire family living in another state, sending out baby pictures has become an important addition to the mailing-out routine. Having a baby in the internet age is nice, in that we can upload his pictures to photo-sharing sites and then give the links to family. Even so, nothing beats actual printed photographs, and I've known since Nico was born that we'd probably be sending out a photo card for Christmas this year.

I've been using Shutterfly to store and share photos for years, and MB set up a family site weeks after Nico's birth and uploaded every single photo we took during his first month. I've had photos printed from my Shutterfly account numerous times and gave my mom a photo book of pictures from our Alaska trip, so I'm a fan of their products. We recently had this photo card made with three pictures from Nico's six-month photo shoot to send to family, and it was a huge hit. Needless to say, when I read about the opportunity to earn 50 free holiday cards by writing a blog post, I jumped at the chance. The hardest part was narrowing it down to just a few Christmas cards that I like.

Since we haven't had Nico's Christmas photos taken yet, I can't say for sure if we'll just choose one photo or if we'll do a collage card. Single-photo cards are great because they're clean and simple. But I like the multi-photo cards, too, especially since Nico has changed so much over the course of his first year. I also really like the story cards which allow for the addition of a few highlights from the year. After going through all the choices a couple of times, I've finally narrowed it down to these:








No matter which card we ultimately choose, I suspect our family and friends will love it.



Do you want 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly? Click here to go to Shutterfly for information on how you can get 50 free cards this holiday season!



DISCLOSURE: I will receive 50 free cards in exchange for writing a post containing three linked keywords selected by Shutterfly. The words and opinions in this post are my own.