Barely...

To those that are getting Christmas cards, well barely...please excuse the messy hand writing for the addresses and the stamps.

This year I thought it would be a great idea to design our own in Photoshop with what little knowledge I have of this complicated program that I can't seem to master even after a year of trying. Doing this only added more time and stress to my already busy days of monogramming, shopping and gift wrapping. But I was determined to do it after I had decided that we wouldn't do Christmas cards. I had not even had the chance to take a "Christmas" picture of my boys let alone all 4 of us.

Determined to do it after receiving so many cards from friends and family, I finally got it created Friday before Christmas Day. I used pictures from our beach vacation with a Christmas background. The boys are sportin' appliqued sailboats with Christmas trees as the background. However, the best part of the card (in my humble opinion) is the smile on their faces. For those with multiple children, twins or not, you know how hard it is to get everyone looking at the camera much less looking at the camera with a smiles. Well this picture had both so I stuck with my decision to use it instead of attempting what usaully becomes a torturous photo session of them posing in front of the Christmas tree or some other holiday decor.

I uploaded the photo to our Wal-Mart's 1 hour only to be called and told that their machine was out of commission. This was 6:00 pm, Friday. I called another local Wal-Mart to see if their machine was working. It was, so I used that store instead. JB came home and we all headed to other Wal-Mart to fetch our Christmas cards. This was 7:45 pm, Friday evening. While there, I ordered 20 more. The photo people were nice enough to have them ready in 20 minutes. So while waiting on the other 20, we searched for envelopes to fit the 4x6 photo to no avail. But JB promised he would search our metro area for envelopes in enough time to get them mailed by noon the following Saturday. We left Wal-Mart about 8:30 and headed home with Christmas card photos but no envelopes.

11:00 pm, JB came home after he searched and found envelopes. Although somewhat too big for the photo, it was the best we could do. By this time, I was too tired to address 50 envelopes, stuff and seal. I went on to bed with the intentions of getting up early and fulfilling this task.

Well, I had to give BB a breathing treatment at 2:00 am b/c he was coughing so bad...(he now has RSV). After this I was wide awake and finished some monogramming orders. I didn't get back to bed til 5:00 am with BB sleeping by my side.

JB took morning duty so I could sleep in. 10:00 am, I started to address the 50 envelopes. Several other distractions occurred as they usually do around here. 11:15, JB and I are still trying to get these cards addressed, stuffed and sealed so I could get them to the PO by noon. Oh, I still had to get stamps and place on the envelopes.

I pulled out of my driveway at 11:45 am heading to the PO. The lines were horrific for both desk service and the Automated Postal Machine. And yes, I again just about went postal.

NOTE: DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT WEIGH AND BUY INDIVIDUAL STAMPS FOR 10+ ITEMS AT THE APM!!! How hard is this to understand. The APM is supposed to be for quick transactions...just like an ATM and drive through at a bank!!!!

I digress.

I finally get to the APM (11:59 am), buy my 3 books of stamps, step aside to stamp my envelopes. The stamps I had were of nutcrackers. I was slapping these stamps on so fast that some of you will receive your mail with them standing on their heads, cart-wheeling or lying down.

12:02 pm, they finally got dropped in the stamped mail slot. Whew!

Next year it won't be like this...no, it will be 12:05 pm, the Saturday before Christmas before they get mailed.

HB