Every life is a living, breathing, beautiful work of art.

When you capture moments that make life beautiful, you want to hold onto them forever. Sometimes you want to share those moments with loved ones…sometimes you want to share them with the WORLD! Shutterfly helps you do all of this and more.
I’ve been using Shutterfly for my prints, birthday invitations, books and online photo storage for years now. What I love most about Shutterfly is that it not only gives you a safe and secure place to store your digital photos, it also helps you present them as beautiful works of art. When my daughter was born last year, Shutterfly was my “go-to” for unbelievably gorgeous birth announcements. When we went to the beach this summer, I uploaded my digital pictures to Shutterfly each night so I knew that they would be safe in my online gallery. When I got home, all I had to do was pop them into an album using Shutterfly’s publishing service and my book was made in no time. Not to mention shipped to me within 25 hours…wow!

This Christmas, I am searching for the perfect Christmas card from Shutterfly’s 2010 holiday collection that captures our favorite memories of 2010. I found this one and imagined choosing some less traditional photos of our children- you know the ones- the crazy, silly little moments of life that wouldn’t qualify as wall portraiture, but give you an honest glimpse of everyday life in our household. This one, with its retro flavor, yet classic design would look fabulous on any mantle. Finally, there is this one, which I am most excited about because you can take complete control of the creativity and design a truly one-of-a-kind card.

I absolutely LOVE receiving Christmas cards with photos, so much that a few years ago I started showcasing each photo Christmas card we receive in our Christmas tree. Yep, right next to my great-grandmother’s hand crochet snowflake, you may find the face of a friend I’ve known since I was a child; relatives I only see once a year twinkle in the lights and sit on branches among other cards from dear friends and family. When Christmas is over, I keep all of the cards and am hoping to begin a fun project where I place all of the cards into an album each year.

I am not sure which card I will choose yet but I know that whichever one I do decide to commemorate 2010 with, I know it will be a beautiful, high-quality work of art that I will treasure forever thanks to Shutterfly.

The Performing Arts of the season

If "all the world's a stage", then my first born will do just fine.  He was so excited to announce last week that he would be singing "ON STAGE, MOM!" at his Christmas performance at school.  I could not wait to see him and his little first grade buddies dance and sing to "Up on the Rooftop" tonight.  It was short and sweet but he was proud nonetheless.  We were even surprised with a rare weeknight visit from "GG" which made tonight all the more special.  Great job, son!

"Yeah, I'm a Rock Star!"

"...click, click, click."

Special night with a special lady!

He's Here!

Elfie arrived at our house today.  (yes, my children were so very fabulously creative and original when they chose a name for our little elf last year)

He showed up with a kid-friendly Christmas Tree, all of our kid-friendly ornaments, our library of Christmas books, seasonal stuffed animals, presents for each child (new holiday pajamas), a special Hallmark recordable story book and a handwritten letter reminding my little sugar plums what Christmas is all about.

Tate LOVED the books, Brit was excited about getting to decorate the tree and all Ellie cared about was climbing the stairs.  It was fun to see their faces but even more fun to re-emphasize that ALL OF THIS is because of a Baby born in a manger, sent to save the world.

Merry Christmas my friends, may you cherish every minute of this magical season and bask in the Glory of the true meaning of it all.

The  typical "portrait pose" with their new pajamas on.

Christmas favorites, old and new.

Elfie, himself.

December Daily- Blog Style

I have an extremley ambitious and creative friend who makes these fabulous December Daily scrapbooks for she and her husband.  Although I admire her little treasures of Decembers past and present, and love to hear the progress she is making with her 2010 album, my December Daily will be kept here, in the blogosphere.  Out here, no one will eat my mini glue dots, make confetti with the christmas tree shaped hole puncher or get tangled in spools of beautiful ribbon.