I already knew there was not one acceptable family photo. Not a one, in a whole, entire year. Pathetic. Not cool. I have already made a mental note to take more family photos next year and DUFDN photos don't count. All our family and friends across the country do not want to receive a picture of us dressed in costume (even though we rock our costumes). I could only find one, lone family photo. In that particular photo my eyes are half squinted shut looking like I am sneering at the camera. That will never do. I can't send out a Christmas sneer (even though everyone else looked great). So that left me looking for pictures of just the three kids together and one of Chuck and I together. Harder than you think. Try finding a picture of three kids together all looking at the camera at the same time, not trying to push one another over, or making snarky faces, actually doing their hair or not wearing mis-matched outfits or clothes where the colors don't clash. Hard to do. This is what I came up with:
Gavin thought it odd that JOY was spelled with a theta symbol, but other than that, everyone approved it. I had to do black and white because the colors of the photos didn't match the card. But then, I apparently stopped there when it came to card design. This is how you whip up a card in 5 minutes people. Voila!
I ran to Target to pick up my creation, got home and about had a heart attack. I failed to check all the tiny details of the card such as WHO IT'S FROM. Notice the name: Love, Jenny and Ella. WHAT?! How could I not see that?! Way to go Cori, way to pay attention to details. What if I sent these out like this? I would never, ever, ever hear the end of it.
I was not wasting the $6.90 it cost to print these up so I did what any self-respecting creative type would do and cut off the Love, Jenny and Ella part. I would have preferred to just mark it out with a big, black Sharpie pen, but hey, I couldn't send out tacky Christmas cards. I'd rather send out cards that are the size of a teeny, tiny, odd looking post card with no 'love - anyone'. I decided to hand write our names on the back to cover for that little over sight. No one will ever know the difference. Right?
When the kids got home I asked them, "So, who wants to be Jenny and who wants to be Ella?" That elicited multiple blank stares. I then went on to confess my pathetic Christmas card failure to them. Confession is good. Laughing at yourself is good. Sending Christmas cards out with other people's names on them is not good.
Watch out - next year we might just send out a picture of Chuck and Ninja. Apparently, anything goes around here. Always check the signature part - just a little something I've learned from life experience.
****addendum****
This occurred on my second batch of Christmas cards which only highlights two more failures on my part, 1) I did this once before and knew you were supposed to change the name part and clearly forgot and 2) I didn't order enough the first go around and had to pay more to add 10 more cards to my collection and a lifetime of embarrassment to my ego. I had no excuse. It was pure stupidity, plain and simple.
