Christmas Cards: A Thing of the Past?

One of my favorite things about the holiday season is getting Christmas cards, newsletters and/or pictures from friends and family in the mail. I've noticed that over the years we've been receiving fewer and fewer Christmas cards/letters/pictures, and that makes me sad! Is the tradition of sending Christmas greetings to friends and family becoming a thing of the past? I hope not, because I love seeing pictures of my family and friends' families and hearing what they are up to.

I love photo cards from places like Shutterfly, for example, but they are SO expensive! I would love to send photo cards out to all the people we send cards to, but it's just too expensive when you're looking at between $2 or $3 for EACH one! For several years Cardstore sold their cards for $.50, which included the price of postage for each card. That was a killer deal, since stamps were $.44 at the time. I suppose that amazing price was just to lure people in while they were getting their business going, and then after they had success, they jacked up the prices. (That's my guess, anyway.) I haven't been back as a customer, but since they are still in business, somebody must be getting their holiday/Christmas cards from Cardstore!

I think someone needs to start a holiday card business and sell their cards for much less than all the other companies out there (no more than $1 per card including postage). They would have a monopoly on cards, so even though they might not make as much money as they could if they charged as much as competing companies, they would make more money in the long run, since they would have more business.

I saw this picture of Prince William and Duchess Kate on the news this morning with the adorable George and Charlotte. They sure are a beautiful family, and I'm glad they send out a Christmas card!

I also heard about this mom on the news this morning. There has been some controversy over the picture she recently posted to Instagram where it shows her Christmas tree almost hidden by a stack of 300 gifts for her three children. People have been making negative comments, telling her that she is "materialistic" and that she's turning her kids into "spoiled brats." The mom defended her decision to buy so many gifts for her kids as well as her decision to post the controversial picture on social media, and said that if she had to do things again, she wouldn't do anything different. It does seem pretty excessive, especially since the point of Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, but I suppose to each her own!

Christian: Three Months Old

As of today my nephew Christian is now three months old. He is growing so quickly! Here are some pictures from the past month:

Christian on his first Thanksgiving. No turkey for him this year. :) I had my mom take a few pictures. When I looked at them I realized that Christian was spitting up in the pictures. Oops! Oh well. He's still a cutie.

I had Chandra take a few pictures when she came over last week since Christian's outfit was so cute. I liked the moose on his shirt with his puffy vest.

The rest of the pictures are ones Chandra sent me from her cell phone. Here are some bath shots. I love his adorable little bathrobe!

Here he is in his lumberjack sleeper. He makes a pretty cute "slumberjack" if you ask me. 

Chandra made a wrap that she uses to keep Christian with her when she is doing stuff around the house. He's happy, so she's happy! She also has both hands free to do stuff with.

I think the middle picture below is so funny. It looks like Christian is plotting something diabolical in his sleep. ;-)

Christian is starting to become interested in toys. He likes his monkey rattle that I bought him.

Here's Christian with his dad on his dad's 30^th birthday:

It doesn't take much to get a smile out of this little guy. Seeing him smile makes me smile!

Christian has also become aware of his toes in the past month, and has started reaching for them:

He loves his doggie stuffed animal:

And that's a wrap...til next month!!