Christmas Card Photos thanks to Shutterfly

I have been using Shutterfly for pretty much all of my digital photo printing and organizing since shortly after I (finally) went digital.  Honestly, I had used another company when I was still using my beloved film camera, but once I was all digital, I made the switch to Shutterfly initially based on the fact that they didn't send me emails threatening to delete my old photos if I didn't place an order soon.  On their website, they state their policy pretty simply:  "Shutterfly has never deleted a photo."  I like that!  I also love that I can get my printed photos at my local Target. 

So, I was pretty excited when I found out that they are giving away 50 free photo cards to bloggers everywhere just for writing a 150 word post about their cards!  Count me in!  I love their cards, so it's not hard at all to write about them, and to spread the word that if you have a blog, you can get 50 cards (FREE) as well.  Here's the link for the promotion:  http://bit.ly/sfly2010 

Now, the worry about getting the perfect shot with 3 kids has begun.  I just finished up an awesome project about local parks and we found this spot in one of them:

I love white birch trees, especially a whole bank of them.  When we found this particular spot, both of my daughters said we should come back and take our Christmas card picture here (I was so proud). 

In years past, I have taken a group shot of all three of my kids together.  Honestly, it's been getting tougher and tougher every year.  The odds of getting everyone looking at the same time, and smiling and not doing bunny ears is statistically very low.  This year, for the first time ever, I am seriously considering changing over to one of the collage cards and taking individual shots of each kid and then putting those photos on the card. 

I think I will still take a few group pictures and see if I can use at least one on the card with the individual photos also.  I like to prove that for one day at least, they were sitting together nicely and not making bunny ears. 

After browsing through the selection of Christmas photo cards, these are my favorites so far:

With love Chartreuse (bonus that it's called chartreuse)

This one is really nice, too:

It's cute and called Peppermint Bliss

Now, all I have to do is get something for them to wear that doesn't clash, schedule some time for the photo, devise an appropriate bribe  treat for cooperation and hope that it doesn't rain.  Not too bad. 

If you've got a blog, be sure to sign up for your own 50 free cards, just follow this link and you will receive instructions on how to participate:  http://bit.ly/sfly2010