It's the Final Countdown!

Hope y'all had a blessed Christmas!

The previous 3 posts reviewed 8 of our top 10 Christmas cards and we are finally down to the last two cards. Before ranking them, I will post the cards and the wrap it up at the end. So here are the two cards...

Christmas 2006

This card was probably one of our best ideas...or maybe it was the next one? The idea was to illustrate what it's like trying to do a photo shoot with the family dogs. Of course we have awesome dogs, so it was easy for us to show how hard it is. We can't decide which of the "goof-ups" is our favorite. For me, its a toss up between the one of T-Bone sitting alone and the one where Jezebel is facing the wrong way. This was definitely the best time we had actually making the card.

Christmas 2007

This card was probably one of our best ideas...or maybe it was the previous one? The idea was to show the kids sleeping and what they were dreaming of this Christmas. To make this card, I just went through our library of photos looking for pics of the kids sleeping. Then I had to go through all the pics and decide what they would be dreaming about. We had just bought Jezebel a kiddie pool that summer and she loved it. T-Bone loved do anything as long as it was with me. We had lots of fun together on runs and he loved to hold his own leash and give himself a walk. Tiger II (his first card appearance) was always sleeping, so I figured that was what he dreamed about. The photo of T-Bone and me is one of my favorites.


So those are our final two cards. Holly and I talked it over. We really can't decide between the two. They both crack us up. For dog owners, I'm sure y'all have had conversations with your dog and speak for your dog during the conversation. When they speak, you probably have a certain voice or accent you use for them. It is that kind of fun and love for your dog that these two cards embody. It's not a cop out, we really just can't decide. So we have a tie for #1.

If you don't like ties, then you tell us who #1 is!

Best Christmas card, 2006 or 2007?
	2006: pet difficulties
	2007: pet Christmas dreams
pollcode.com free polls

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Jesus was born with the ultimate purpose of ending his life on the cross for our salvation and to give us a life we can't earn on our own.

Top 10 Christmas Cards: Part 3

The final 4 cards were tough to judge. We were able to at least agree that the following two were not our top two. So at #4 and #5, we have...

#4 Christmas 2013

These photos were taken with two purposes in mind, Isaac's first birthday and for our Christmas card this year. We can't get enough of Isaac and JAG in their snazzy shirts and ties. This shoot went off without a hitch and everyone having a good time. It ranks high for us because our kids just look so freaking cute.

#3 Christmas 2009

2009 was another fun year of pics for us. These were the boys' first Halloween costumes and it gave us the idea for the card. So we put Jeremy in front of the fireplace on a red and black blanket. We put Jordan on a white blanket in front of a blue wall with cotton clouds tapped to the wall. Then wrapped it all up with a simple Christmas message, Jesus loves all. Also shows the evolution of our cards, from the 2000 "Happy Holidays" message, to focusing on Jesus.

Only two cards left from 2006 and 2007. It will be tough to decide on #1.

Top 10 Christmas Cards: Part 2

We posted #10 through #8 on Saturday and today we continue with the #7 through #5.

#7 Christmas 2012

Number 7 definitely does not rank high on the fun-o-meter, but it has all three of our boys, so it climbed up a couple spots to 7. It wasn't very fun to shoot because momma wasn't feeling to well. The first shots we got were from pics we took just to capture momma preggers with Isaac. That's where the bottom two pics of the boys come from. Then we figured we'd get another shot with the boys and Isaac (momma's belly) a few days later for a card. Unfortunately, in between these days, Jeremy stage dived and took a header into the sidewalk. So the pic with all 3 boys has Jeremy sporting his concrete scar. It was this last attempt to get pics of all 3 boys that didn't go well. Boys weren't feeling it, momma wasn't feeling it...but at the time it seemed like a good idea.

#6 Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010 was a fun photo to share. This one wasn't specifically shot for Christmas. It came from our family trip to Scottsdale Arizona. We went there with no plans, just a week of solid family time and "what should we do today?" We also caught a Raiders game, and them giving away another win to the Cardinals...the usual. This pic started a tradition of getting pics of all of us jumping on the bed during vacation. However, the tradition didn't last long. We forgot to get pics the last two travels.

I had lost all evidence of this card and we couldn't remember what we had done for 2010. I asked on Facebook if any of our friends happened to save their Christmas cards and still had it. Our friend Glenna was the first to reply and remembered the card with us jumping on the bed. That jogged my memory and I was just going to post the picture we used. Kirsten then said she still had it. Luck would have it that she was in the neighborhood the next day and now we have a digital copy!

#5 Christmas 2000

Our very first homemade Christmas card with all our kids. From left to right: Spyncer the cat, Kukoc the parakeet (wearing a tiny bow on his head), T-Bone and Jezebel. The work it took to get pics of all these guys together was hilarious. One of our best memories. I couldn't find all the shots and this is not the exact one we used. The one we used had a shot that was timed just as Kukoc decided to fly away, so he was still sitting in his spot, but his wings were spread out. I don't know how we got the cat to just sit there...I think she thought she was invisible if she didn't move and could then sneak up on Kukoc. She never took her eyes off him. T-Bone made sure the dumb cat didn't hurt his little best friend. He was his usual self, obedient, yet humiliated by another one of our antics. He loved Kukoc so much.

They story with this card and Jezebel is a bit fuzzy. She is photoshopped in. We originally took the picture of Spyncer, Kukoc (in a box decorated like a sled) and T-Bone as the reindeer before we had Jezebel. We can't recall if we used that card originally or not, but we definitely used this after we got Jezebel and pasted her in.

Top 10 Christmas Cards: Part 1

First off, there is a bunch to recap for 2013, but we'll be putting that off for a more relevant post. As you can tell, we haven't been posting for about 6 months now. I didn't even have to update the site's banner...the Christmas banner up top has been up since last year. That is what adding a 3rd kid to the mix does to you!

Ok, back to the topic at hand. Holly and I have been making our own Christmas cards since 2000. That is when we got our first digital camera and I started messing around with Adobe Photo Deluxe on an ancient SONY VAIO. The digital camera was Olympus and had a whopping 1.3 megapixels!!

We are missing cards for 2001 and 2003-2005. No idea what happened to those 4 years. We either didn't make any cards or I lost all evidence of them. However, we do have evidence of 10 years worth of family Christmas cards. Without further delay, I present to you our top 10!

#10 Christmas 2002

Number 10 was before Shutterfly, Kodak Gallery and every other fancy pants, ready at your fingertips, online photo print service. We used MS Word to create a card you print on regular 8x11 paper and then fold up. The cover was a pic of our new home decorated for it's first Christmas. The oak trees and bushes we so itsy-bitsy!

#9 Christmas 2008

This card is special to us because it has "ornaments" with sonogram pics of our twins. We tried 8 years for those guys! However, it ranks low in terms of the memories and amount of fun we had making the card. Sorry JAG.

#8 Christmas 2011

Number 8 also ranks low in the fun of actually making the card, but we love that it has all of us in it. We used pics of the day it snowed in Austin from the beginning of that year. 2011 was also the last year we had a card made that featured the bestest dog ever, T-Bone.

It was tough for us to rank the 10 cards we have from Christmas past. A lot of them hold incredibly fun memories of taking pics for the card. You'll see in the next post that one is especially cheesy looking, but was probably one of the most hilarious times Holly and I had making a card. Tomorrow we'll post the next 3 on our way to #1!