Cards of Christmas Past

Last week I was focused on getting a picture of the boys for the Christmas card. They were squirmy and it was practically impossible to get a decent picture of each of them together. I gave up and tried again the next day. Ben's party came and and so did the stomach bug. Christmas cards just were not my priority this week. I remembered them last night and finally got them ordered.

I love receiving photo cards, so naturally I send them out each year. Before facebook and blogs, exchanging Christmas cards was the only way I was able to see some of our friend's kids grow up. Jeremy is so sweet about it. He sets them aside so that I get to open the incoming cards. I get that excited.

I have been trying to get the millions of pictures from three different computers organized and I just happen to have these handy. Below are the pictures from the cards we have previously sent.

2009: It seems like this was just yesterday. Jeremy and I both thought that it captured their personalities and it made us laugh.

2008: This one below is from Portrait Innovations that I described in this post.  I think that this was the year that matching flannel pajamas became our tradition.  I am a little sad that it did not work out this year.  But I guess it is a good thing since they would have had on the same pajamas with a year's worth of wear on them. (They just have not outgrown them yet.)

2007: This is also from Portrait Innovations. I get a little choked up when I look at this one. The little guy managed to sleep through the chaos. Owen was so small and I hated being around all of the other kids and their germs at the studio. I am still in love with the sweater and those sweet little corduroy pants that Ben has on. Both boys were adorable in them. They hardly ever get dressed up so this was my version of a fancy dress, matching tights, pretty hair bow and cute shoes. All of that sounds a little exhausting, major props to moms of girls!

2006: Ben was an only child back then and had just celebrated his first birthday. I just want to go back and squeeze those cute little cheeks. We did not even bother to decorate the tree that year. We were sure that it would be destroyed moments after the ornaments were up. If I remember correctly, I cropped it so close because his hair was standing up in the back. Poor baby and his cowlick.

2005:   And finally, here is the shot that was our very first photo card.  I am a multi-tasker so it also doubled as Ben's birth announcement.  I can't quite figure out what is going on with all the Christmas patterns, but I am almost positive that one of the side effects of child birth is color blindness.   Right?

So there are our past Christmas card photos if you don't remember or have them handy.  I'm a Christmas card hoarder and have a very hard time getting rid of any of them that have pictures of their families.   

Is it not creepy at all that I could do a post exactly like this for many of our friends.