Christmas Card Rewind

A tradition I started when Emry was 1 was sending out Christmas cards.   Sometimes they included notes or funny poems about what was going on in our life.  Some of these are pictures of pictures as I was the last person on earth to get with the program and go digital.

2001 - This was taken in downtown San Jose, Ca.

2002 - This was taken in our apartment in San Jose.  Lila was a few weeks old and I am sleep deprived!

2003- We had just moved to Temecula that summer and would be spending our first Christmas just our little family.  This was taken in a neighbors home.  She took a few of us as a family but I wasn't happy with the way they turned out.  Bummer because I had just cut all my hair off and it looked really cute.

2004 - This is in front of our home in Temecula.  I was about 5 months pregnant with Ethan and not feeling too great.  I love the girls pale blue dresses.  This was a very happy time as we prepared for the holidays and our new baby boy come March.

2005 - Precious sleeping angels.  This was a hard picture to get.  Glenn was in another country as he would not have condoned the moving around of sleeping kids.   Once the kids were asleep I had to move them one by one into my room praying that they wouldn't wake up.  I had to move them around and take tons of pictures.   The first round didn't turn out and I had to repeat this process the next night.

Stamped inside the card were the words 'O Holy Night'.

 2006 - This is our first professionally taken photo.  I love this picture.  The kids look sweet and I have my dream hair.  I slept in curlers to achieve it.

2007 - Just a collage of various pics.  Nothing too clever.  Our life.

2008 - I was feeling tight with time and money and didn't send out Christmas cards this year.  I wanted a yearly picture though so I snapped this after church.

2009 - This was taken professionally in a huge park in the next town over.  My entire family was in Temecula for Thanksgiving and we were able to get a complete Mitchell picture.  My parents with all of their kids and grand kids, 31 of us in all.

2010 - My favorite Christmas picture.  While running one day early in the year this exact photo popped into my mind, exactly how you see it.  The day we took it Glenn had 15 minutes between conference calls so my mom came over to snap our picture.

I was the only one who got ready so it was super easy. I placed everyone where they needed to be and told my mom to take a hundred pictures, one would surely turn out.

I've gotten more comments on this picture than any other, and continue to get them.  Some people even told me straight up they were copying my idea.  Flattering.

I love it because it is us.  It's who we are and what we do.

 As Christmas nears I will post our 2011 picture.

In other news Ethan is back in school feeling good.  Lila is home sick after barfing in her bed last night.  Glenn and I took turns throwing up all night and Emry called at about 10 am from school because yup, she's sick.

I am achey and nauseous but glad we will all be done with this flu before the holidays begin.

I am wishing you all a healthy holiday season.