Simplifying at Christmas: Holiday Cards

I used to make my own Christmas cards...

that is, before I had kids.

I used to love sitting down at the kitchen table, 

sipping my hot tea with Christmas carols playing in the background 

as I spent hours making our annual holiday cards.

That came to an end two years ago, though,  

as I spent months in the hospital before I delivered our 3 beautiful babies on December 10th.

Our Christmas that year was spent adapting to life as new parents while driving back and forth to the hospital to visit our newborn babies. 

Life was so chaotic that year that we didn't even decorate our Christmas tree, buy gifts, or send out cards. 

None of that stuff is what Christmas is all about anyways, right? 

That year I learned that Christmas is just as joyful without all of the frilly extras that we tend to stress ourselves out over every holiday season. 

What really mattered was that God had not only given us the gift of salvation through his Son, but the gift of three healthy children as well. 

What amazing blessings!

Although we have adapted to a crazy new lifestyle with three little tikes, life is still chaotic. 

So I have had to prioritize what is important and just let some things go.

Things like spending hours making Christmas cards.

Thank goodness for companies like Shutterfly that make awesome personalized holiday cards for those of us who don't have time to do it ourselves!

They make it so easy...

just choose your card and upload your photo(s), 

type your message,

and a few days later your cards arrive in the mail!

Then all you have to do is address your envelopes and mail them out!

This year Shutterfly is even giving away 50 free cards to bloggers!

WU HOO to that - I was planning to order some anyways :)

Here are some of my favorite holiday cards this year...

You can choose from folded greeting cards, flat stationary cards, or flat photo cards.

Decisions, decisions...

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How do you simplify during the holidays??