And so it begins!

Hard to believe that December is already here and we are staring Christmas down in a few short weeks. In an effort to not wait until the last minute to put up decorations around the house, my friend Heather, her son Luke, Sam, and I did another one of our Pinterest crafts yesterday.

Of course it is displayed proudly in our entryway along with The Most Beautiful Nativity Set Of All Time.

Besides doing the Christmas craft, most of yesterday was spent trying to achieve The Perfect Christmas Picture. I had this coupon for Shutterfly (where I ALWAYS print my Christmas cards) and I just knew that I was going to have to pay some ridiculous full price if I waited one more day to make and order them. So I took something like 172 pictures yesterday and a whopping TWO of them turned out decently. To be honest, I was thankful that there was even ONE usable picture out of the bunch. I was trying to get this "bokeh" effect and spent naptimes researching how to make that possible with my camera, and then mostly read that I need a better lens (GAH) but could still do it. Unfortunately, most of the examples shown on the internet were of subjects that were very still. Like flowers. Or newborns. Or older kids who understand English and don't think it is hilarious to do the opposite of everything that I say.

So there were a ton of blurry pictures and after a while I just started holding my finger down on the shutter button and prayed for the best. IN THE END, I had an acceptable picture. After I put Sam to bed, I set out to find and make our Christmas card. I finished that and was feeling quite proud of myself- until I woke up this morning to find that Shutterfly had emailed me an even BETTER offer for Christmas cards... It was almost a Chevy Chase Christmas Vacation moment.