xmas card lessons learned

wow. what an ordeal with christmas cards this year! i didn't realize how much our family and extended family has grown over the last year, not to mention, our circle of family friends that are near and dear to our hearts. this year, i learned a few important lessons, that i'm going to write a post about, just because i'm sure i'll need to look back to this next year and remind myself! 

1) fifty is no longer enough - in previous years, a set of fifty xmas cards was more than enough for me to send out. i'd even have at least a dozen extra that ended up in the recycling bin. this year, i ordered a set of fifty and was short 22 cards. wth? 22? where did these people come from? and when i look at the list of people/families that i haven't sent one to yet, i feel sad! i have to order another set from costco or something, just so they can be printed quickly. i don't think another order from shutterfly would make it to me and be addressed and mailed (key point in the process) on time.

2) addresses in e-mails and facebook messages do no constitute an "address book" -  omg. i had addresses...every. freakin. where. i had some in e-mails. fb messages. i saved envelopes with return address labels. i'm almost embarassed to admit, i even have an old planner. yeah, like the kind i carried around in college and wrote my assignments in and had an area for addresses in the back...sad, i know. and the even sadder part is that there were addresses in there that were no place else to be found! like...i needed that planner in order to get my xmas cards sent out. i spent a good two hours getting all of the addresses in one happy place, which would be my google contact list. google is my hero. i love android and i love google and i love the way they work so seamlessly together. and i love that if i don't have my phone, i can easily access everything online...and vice versa.

3) stamps cost more than getting the cards printed - since i got my 50 cards for free this year just for writing a blog post about shutterfly, i kind of forgot how expensive it can get to mail them all out. lol i went to the post office and bought 2 packs of twenty stamps, because i thought i wouldn't even need to send out all fifty cards, right? wrong. i had to go back and buy another pack. gaahhh. almost thirty dollars for 60 stamps. well, i was tipped off, too little too late for this year, but i will definitely remember this for next year...costco sells postage stamps for $40 for 100. awesome, in my book. that's only 40c per stamp, versus the face value of 44c. i have not confirmed this allegation yet, but i will definitely do so in the near future. :)

hopefully, the time, effort and money i wasted in the xmas card ordeal this year will make next year's process go much smoother. and i'm sure the list will only get longer each year. 

we are blesssed to have so many wonderful people in our lives and wouldn't want it any other way. 

i hope you are all embracing the crazy this holiday season and, most importantly, taking a moment to remember the reason for the season.

Christmas blessings to all!

from, the adams gang