Write 'em or Print 'em?

I saw a segment on the Today Show and it got me thinking. They were discussing if Christmas Card Emails were appropriate or not. It made me quickly think that sending an email as your Christmas card, in my opinion, is not good Christmas etiquette. I don't think I will ever do that. However, I quickly thought about what we do for our Christmas cards. I go online and set up the photo thing and send them to get printed. All I do is lick the envelope, put the stamp sticker on, write the address, and maybe throw in a cute Christmas stamp on the back. Really, it only takes me 30 minutes to do all of that for all our Christmas Cards. So am I really doing anything better than sending a Christmas Card Email? Well, I guess I am doing a little better.....but not by much. Could I write them all out?

First things first - I am in NO WAY judging people who send the cute printed pictures from Shutterfly or any other company. I have done it for 4 years now. In fact, I really look forward to everyones pictures, so PLEASE keep doing those. I was just thinking that I would like to put an extra touch to our Christmas Cards in the future.

My Mom always hand writes all of her Christmas Cards. I can even visually see my Mom's handwriting on the cards she sends. This makes me think I should hand write them. However I also know it takes my Mom a very long time to get her cards done. I remember as a kid she would always try to get them done early so she wasn't worrying about rushing to get them done.

With this said, I also realize that individual notes on every card takes a great deal of time....which I could use to do other things such as, scrub my kitchen floors, Comet the toilets, or FaceBook! Ha haa! So then my next thought goes to--- Get the pictures Printed and write a Christmas Letter!

This also brings me back to my childhood. I loved, and still love to this day, going to my Mom's house during Christmas and going though all of her Christmas Cards and seeing the pictures of old family friends we haven't seen in 10 years and reading Christmas Letters from them. I learn who went to college where and who is married and all the fun stuff. My parents have always had a lot of great family friends and so catching up with what everyone is up to is so much fun.

Back to my new idea - Write a Christmas Letter and do a picture as well. There is one problem, Lance thinks Christmas Letters are dumb. He thinks they are just for bragging and exaggerating and telling people of silly things they would rather not care to know. In fact, as we discussed the topic for this year he said something like, "What are you going to put in the letter? Grant learned to poop in his diaper and it stinks. Oh, he also learned how to eat Cheerios". We both laughed at each other and decided not to do it.

However, I put myself on the receiving end for one second. I would LOVE to get a picture and a letter from our friends every Christmas. Especially from those we may not talk to on a monthly basis. I would love to hear of vacations, children, adventures, milestones, school, and everything else that goes on in their lives over the past year.

So, I am making an executive decision(I think) !! I will send a Christmas Letter and a Christmas Picture from here on out!

As for this year, Please enjoy our family Christmas Card!

Brown Yogurt?

Grant went from being a very good eater to a slightly picky eater it recent months. He still is pretty good, but he sure lets me know when he doesn't want something. He seems to be stuck in a routine of the foods he likes and does not want to try anything new at the moment, so we are fine with sticking to what he knows he likes. However, I have always struggled to get him a good amount of vegetables. I always put them in his noodles and tried to hide them in eggs. Well, he has caught on and is making things more difficult. I have since resorted to adding vegetables to his yogurt! Grant loves yogurt and would eat it for every meal and snack if I let him. When I am putting groceries away I have to be sure that he does not see the yogurt if it is not snack time or lunch. So I decided to add baby food vegetables to his yogurt.....and it worked! I added sweet potatoes to his berry yogurt twice now and he ate it no problem! Thank goodness! The only weird thing is the combination turns the yogurt a funky brown color - yuck! Good thing he doesn't care! Now I feel I can give him more vegetables!