Despite being a somewhat organized person, I’ve been flying by the seat of my pants this Advent season.  Things like, opening up my morning toothbrushing companion on December 8th to have it remind me that it’s a Holy Day of Obligation.  Or remembering at 4 pm on December 12th that the store didn’t have the Mexican dishes I planned to serve in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe when I went shopping three days earlier and I now needed to run out and get them.

Christmas cards are another thing that I just hadn’t gotten around to thinking about until last weekend when I realized that time was beginning to run short.  Fortunately, I found out that Shutterfly was offering 50 free cards to approved bloggers who wrote about them.  (I got approved!  Woohoo!!).

I know for certain that Shutterfly is easy to use and has super fast delivery.  Bill came home from Afghanistan on December 18th and I used that homecoming photo for our cards. 

OK, so maybe the cards were a teeny bit late…but that was the fault of the addresser of envelopes (me!), not Shutterfly, I assure you.

Besides being quick and easy, I love that Shutterfly’s Christmas cards have the exact message you want to send.  You can make it Christ-centered if you choose, or you can make it more generic if that isn’t your style (or your audience’s style).  Shutterfly will also stamp and mail your cards for you if you want.  Expensive, but convenient.

Besides photo cards, Shutterfly offers loads of photo gifts.  Since my kids’ biggest present this year is a trip (not an easy thing to wrap!), I decided to make a photo puzzle which will serve as a clue to where we’re going.  Four of my children will get a section of the puzzle (the other two are too little to participate and their pictures aren’t in the photo clue anyway).  I think that will be a fun way to tell them the surprise, plus it gives me something to wrap and put under the tree.

I don’t think I’ve ever linked so much to one place in one post before, but there you go.  My whole-hearted endorsement of Shutterfly for all your photo-personalized desires.

Now I just need to get haircuts for the boys, coordinate clothing and get 8 people to smile all at once.