Holiday Cards 2011

Mpix.com card

paper coterie card

Do you all have the tradition of sending holiday cards? We do. This tradition  began with my mother. I always wondered why she went through such a fuss about it. It seemed to be quite an effort. Handwriting out the addresses, writing notes to a few friends, too. Sometimes there was a family pic. Usually, though, she would include our school pics from that year. We would have to hand write on the back of each photo with a personal sentiment.

Then she discovered calendars. So, she would mail off 50 or so calendars, emblazoned with our family name at the bottom. We would quietly giggle when the company would misspell one of our names. Usually it was my name or my mother's. Then they would send us another bajillion calendars to apologize. Mom, not one to waste anything, would mark through the error and still hand out the others.
Then it was a matter of putting together the packages. I remember licking endless amounts of envelopes and stamps. We would haul them to the post office, and toss them in the delivery bins. I always thought the postal system was magic! (And then they mis-placed my first package and the awesomeness has long since faded. Sad that I expect my packages to NOT arrive if I mail them from an unfamiliar location. Seems like a waste of money, but I digress.)

Fast forward many, many years and here I am, mailing my own holiday cards. We take our own family portrait (thanks Chera!) and order our cards. This year, I have ordered from Paper Coterie and Mpix. Mpix has been outstanding!! I ordered on Friday, and had them in my hands on Monday! They are super high quality, too! The coloring is spot on. My Paper Coterie cards arrived in about a week. Not too shabby, either! I really liked the linen feel of their paper. (see them above)

This year, I finally put my addresses in a Master spreadsheet. (Hello 21st Century) I hand addressed each one, though. The return address, we used is a stamp from 3 Designing Women. I love this little stamp. It adds extra fanciness to the card and Mari can easily be involved in the process (not just the licking part!).

pile of cards

All this to say, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you in the Blogworld! Cheers to the past and a future year, too!