Resolutions: 2012 Edition

I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to talk more at length about resolutions/goals/areas of improvement for 2012 in a separate post, so here we are!

So a couple of months ago, Maggie mentioned Health Month as a good way of accomplishing health goals.  And I liked the idea, so I signed up for it in November.  During November, I made three goals: take a vitamin every day, eat leafy/green/healthy vegetables 6 days a week, and write here every day.  I succeeded at all 3 of them, though there were times when I creatively defined “day” in making sure to take a vitamin.  And it was awesome.  I’ve wanted to establish a habit of taking a vitamin forever — I managed it while pregnant, but never else, and I’m on the low end of iron levels so it’s a good idea.  I even HAVE vitamins, I just don’t take them.  Except now I mostly do!

For December, I picked three slightly harder things: drinking 8 glasses of water a day, reading a book every day, and tracking my calories.  I’m not sure I succeeded as well as those things, partially because of the holidays and general busy calendar that comes along with it, and partially because I didn’t pick things with any leeway, so missing one day seemed to derail the whole process.  For 2012, I’m going to focus on small things, one at a time.  I also have non-health related goals, but I’ll detail those below in the general plan.

So, my general plan for 2012 is:

1) Do Health Month each month.  Pick 3 small, positive things to emphasize.  Pick goals that are attainable and habits that I want to add, then maybe think if there are habits I want to break.  My long term goal is to lose about 25 more pounds and then focus only on maintaining strength, but I’m also totally uninterested in losing weight through gimmicks and nonsustainable lifestyle practices.  Food-wise, my long term goals are to eat more protein and vegetables, less carbs and sweets.  Exercise wise, my long term goals are to do yoga and bike, and walk/run outside as much as possible.  Oh, and get enough sleep.  That’s it, really.  I don’t want to run a marathon, I don’t want to do 100 pullups — I would just like to walk up five flights of stairs without feeling like my lungs are going to strangle me at the end.

For January, I am going to: 1) eat a fruit and vegetable 6 days a week; 2) bring my lunch to work 4 days per week; 3) do yoga or other exercise 2x per week).  Will check in in February to see how that goes.

2)  Read more.  Last year, according to GoodReads, I read 58 Books and 19825 pages (this doesn’t include today, but I’ll add that in 2012 anyways when I finish the book I’m reading).  I think my goal for 2012 is 30,000 pages in at least 50 books, because I want to emphasize reading longer and more difficult books and not just reading as many romance novels.

Side note: in the 5th grade I was the book champion for the MS Readathon in the “books read” category.  I read 153 books in the 12 weeks we had to read during the program.  I raised almost no money because I wasn’t interested in that part, just the reading.  I ended up reading crazy short and lame books at the end just to up my totals.  This is the kind of thing I would like to avoid in my “read more” goal.

3) Find a yoga class that I can attend sustainably about once a week.  I have a couple of yoga coupons and I’ve found a couple of classes I really like, but I want to finish the coupons I have and find a class I can attend once a week at a time that works with a class I like.

4) Put myself on a spending diet.  We spend too much money in the following two categories: food (esp. restaurants) and random shopping.  I am going to try to limit those things this year.  I haven’t decided if I want to be more forced about it than that, but I’m going to start by being more mindful of the money I’m spending vis-a-vis the student loans I could be paying off.  I also want to eat all the food in the house and start clearing cupboards and using stuff up so that when we hopefully move in August it won’t be such a pain.

That’s it.  (I mean, it’s ONLY MONEY AND HEALTH, no biggie.)  I’m hopeful I can do it.

Retrospective: 2011

As per usual, I’m ending the year with I’ve done this survey forever and ever, and I really enjoy it. I’m using the same version I used last year, though I think it’s slightly different from the one Linda posted. Past years are here: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006.

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?
This was a big year in the “things I’ve never done before” category — probably the biggest since I co-created and birthed a whole human being.  I went to Hawaii!  I graduated from law school.  I spoke at my law school graduation.  I got a job.  I got an article published with a class.  I studied for and took the bar exam.  I took my daughter on a family vacation.  I started a different job than the one I thought I would be started.  Got an article accepted for publication all by myself.  Passed the bar exam.  Became a lawyer.  Bought a car.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Last year I put sort of general things involving food and health, and I think I succeeded at those goals.  I’ve lost more than 25 pounds since law school ended, and I’ve figured out that the strategy that works for me is to focus on doing positive things that are good for me rather than restricting bad things, and have the bad things be displaced by lack of time or simple lack of desire.

I’m going to write a separate post about resolutions for 2011, but suffice it to say that yes, I have some goals in mind.  Doing Health Month has really helped focus the way I think about personal goal setting.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

A law school friend, and a cousin, and two other close friends.  I also have a couple pregnant friends, so there have been babies but I haven’t seen them as much.  Probably because of the information in Question 1.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

My parents had to put down their dog a few days ago, which was really sad.  I can’t think of anyone else particularly close to me, but I really hope I’m not forgetting anyone.

5. What countries did you visit?
None. I went with B to Hawaii in January and it was SPECTACULAR.  We also took K on her first real vacation (well, longer than the weekend in DC) to Denver, and although people looked at us funny for choosing it as a vacation destination, I really enjoyed it.  There was a plane ride involved, we rode a train up a mountain, we went to a great zoo and botanical garden and aquarium and children’s museum and had great food and it was really kid friendly.  Hoping to do the same in Chicago or San Diego or maybe even Maine this summer before switching jobs in August.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
A more routine yoga practice.  A cleaner house.  Less stuff.  Less debt.

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Let’s see.  January 6, when we left for Honolulu.  May 13, when K turned three.  May 14, when I graduated from law school.  June 26, my 7th wedding anniversary.  July 26, when I took the bar exam.  August 3, when we left for Denver.  August 9, when I started work.  October 5, when I was told I passed the bar exam.  October 27, when I was sworn in as an attorney.  Holidays and birthdays are holidays and birthdays, but other than K’s they were great but not different.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Graduating law school, getting a clerkship, speaking at graduation, passing the bar.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Reading my paragraph from last year on this, I really feel like 2011 wasn’t as bad as I forecasted it could have been.  But it was hard.  I was stressed, and I can be mean and demanding when I’m stressed.  3 is hard, and filled with delight but terror and difficult choices.  Figuring out how to navigate two jobs, one toddler, preschool, debate season, carpooling, and actually seeing the person I’m married to is hard.  I feel like it might finally be starting to get more manageable, but there were many, many times in the last year where I simply failed to keep everything afloat, especially with grace.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Not really.  3-year-old in preschool who never went to daycare means that we’ve all had every cold ever this year, but I’m the least sick of the three of us.  Which is weird, because I’m the one who was the most sick as a child.  Of course, now I’ve probably jinxed it.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
I got a bike for my birthday, which was technically bought for me but clearly comes from the same account, which has been awesome.  I also bought a CAR right before Christmas, and even in the one week where I haven’t had to drag K out of bed so B could take me to work has been glorious.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Isn’t this always just a time to talk about how awesome the person I married is, and how much patience I imagine he has to have on a daily basis?  My life has also been greatly enriched by having Sam, our nanny, and all the people who teach Kiernan: the preschool teachers, the dance teacher, the swim teachers.  Kiernan continues to be her delightful self.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled or depressed?
You know, same old, mostly politicians.  I may not make it to the 2012 presidential election.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Student loans, childcare, food.

15. What did you get really excited about?
Graduation, probably, and our trips to Hawaii and Denver.  Starting work, dorkily enough.

16. What song will always remind you of 2011?
Mostly the Adele album, since that’s what K requests in the car at all times and is the most fail proof way to get her to fall asleep on the way home from anywhere late or during nap time.  A couple Lady Gaga songs.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

– happier or sadder? I think the same but optimistic about happier soon?
– thinner or fatter? Thinner, though not at all where I need to be.  Getting there.
– richer or poorer? Well, I actually OWE money on my loans now, so I’ll say poorer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Still Yoga.  Reading.  Being outside.  Hanging out with B.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Yelling about stuff I fundamentally don’t care about.  Studying for the bar (easy to say in retrospect!).

20. How did you spend Christmas?
B’s mom and her partner went out of town for Christmas, so technically we’re not done with the Christmas celebrating yet, but we spent Christmas eve first in Rosemount with B’s dad and then at my parents house.  We hung out at home on Christmas morning where a certain small friend put on ten separate outfits from her new dress up box before nap time and generally had a glorious time, and then went to my parents again for Christmas dinner.  I wish we had spent more time just hanging and less time shuttling people back and forth and worrying, but it was spectacular.  I will probably talk about the K part of it more later.

21. What was your favorite TV program?
Still the West Wing, always the West Wing.  We also started watching Once Upon a Time, which I’ve really enjoyed, and I always enjoy Survivor and Big Brother.

22. What were your favorite books of the year?
I’ve gotten really into Goodreads in the past few months and have really enjoyed finally tracking books and reading fiction and figuring out what else I want to read.  Looking over my book lists for the year, I think the books I’ve enjoyed most are: Scorpions, A Map of the World, and Bossypants.  My favorite romance novel author for the year was probably Sabrina Jeffries.

23. What was your favorite music from this year?

Adele, Tracy Chapman, still Eric Hutchinson, still Maroon 5.  The singles I put on my phone and then listen to over and over.

24. What were your favorite films of the year?
I think I saw one movie in the theaters–Crazy, Stupid Love– and it was good but pretty depressing.  I think I remember liking Easy A on Netflix.

Ooh!  I saw Bridesmaids in the theaters!  And I loved it!

25. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Went to work, had a coincidental lunch out at work which was lovely, went out to dinner with B at Il Gatto (which was good but has now closed, oddly) and then saw aforementioned good but depressing movie.  I was 31, and 31 seems to be the exact most lame birthday ever because it ushers in the fact that all birthdays from here on out are pretty lame until 40.

26. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Less stress right up until I started my job, more house space, less stuff.

27. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
Suits on court days, work clothes the rest of the weekday, forgetting to wear a coat in the winter, jeans and yoga pants the rest of the time.

28. What kept you sane?
The joyous affection and unabashed adoration of the child who lives with me.  ”I love you, Mama, more than anything in the whole wide world.”  never gets old.

29. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.

Sometimes learning not to say anything is the best thing you can do.  It never hurts to be kind.

30. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
“And if this is what we’ve got, then what we’ve got is gold
We’re shining bright and I want you, I want you to know
The morning’s on it’s way, our friends all say goodbye
There’s nowhere else to go, I hope that you’ll stay the night”
- James Blunt

December 26 Shopping

So, I like to go shopping the day after Christmas.  I like it considerably more than shopping on Black Friday, and I’ve been going for all of the years I can remember, though some of them I’ve worked in retail so “shopping” mostly occurred on breaks or during lunch.  I’ve mentioned this before, sometimes in ridiculous detail (that 2005 one is somewhat mortifying 6 years later).  (Also, I didn’t mention shopping on the day after Christmas in 2004, but this post about working on the day after Christmas is hilarious.)

Anyways, I like to look for two things primarily on Dec. 26: clearance Christmas stuff and clothes for me.  The first is mostly done at Macy’s/Herbergers, and the second I did most of at the outlet mall.  I actually went to the outlet mall because I have a pair of black Gap city flats that are starting to get worn out and I wanted to replace them but when I walked into the Gap at Southdale, they did not seem to have my size AND they were not on sale AT ALL, and I am not willing to pay $40 for flats that fold up into a bag.  So I thought I’d check out the Gap Outlet, which had a color I liked better in my size for $22.

My biggest observation?  It was considerably less busy than in previous years.  I parked right next to the door at Southdale, and there were approximately 80203498 times more sales clerks than there were people shopping.  Even the 75% off Christmas sale at Macy’s was easy to navigate, and that can sometimes be mobbed with older ladies.  (I also did not previously realize that the Herbergers at Southdale does not have a home department.  That will probably prevent me from ever going there again — I really only went there instead of Rosedale because it seemed more on the way to my other two destinations, which in retrospect I’m not even sure I was right about.)  The outlet mall was somewhat busy, but not any more busy than it would be on an average Saturday.  The only store that WAS busy was the Coach Outlet Store, which appeared to be having a really good sale and had a line out the door with tickets and times and everything.  Which made me personally conclude I did not want to walk into the store, but also probably means that but for the Coach people, the mall wouldn’t have been that busy at all.

Overall, I got what I wanted and will probably only need to return one shirt that doesn’t fit.  But if I were a retailer?  I would not be pleased with that turnout at all.  B said it was probably because the last thing people want after Christmas is more stuff, and I agree, but I find it mostly interesting that that argument has weight to a lot of people now when five years ago it seemed like a nonstarter.

Tired

Today kicked my ass.  I woke up this morning too early with K because B was still at the Hyatt for Blake and planned to take her back to the hotel to say hello to everyone and go swimming in the pool, which was thwarted because about two blocks from the house I turned to make sure I still had the in/out ticket to go in the parking ramp and realized my purse wasn’t in the car.  Since I didn’t remember taking it into the house I started to panic and turned around to check the car more thoroughly and run into the house to check there too but no such luck.  So then I got to spend the morning calling credit card companies and figuring out how to replace my drivers license and that was not at all fun.

Then I went to a party, which was the highlight of my by day by far and excused from the description of the day that kicked my ass, because it was lovely and I had a great time and I love the host and everyone who was there.

Then I came home in time to sing Kiernan to bed and she’s just exhausting.  I feel like such is the state of 3.5: she’s cuddly and tells me she loves me a hundred times a day and wishes me a Merry Christmas after we sing Jingle Bells and loves to do fun things together but she’s also destructive and a beast when she’s tired and getting over a cold only exacerbates the situation.  So now, since she’s in bed, I feel like I barely have the strength to do more than stare at the wall, even with the 2093480293840 kisses I was bestowed before she passed out from all her daytime shenanigans.

Blake Weekend

Blake weekend is one of my very favorites of the year.  I’ve been there every year for more than a decade, I’ve judged finals more than once, and I’m even an official Friend of Blake.  There are certain traditions that are inviolate: every year we go to Manny’s, every year I see people I like, every year I go to a party on Friday night.  Since Kiernan’s addition to the party, we’ve added new traditions: we walk to the Macy’s to see the elf display, she comes to visit friends in the tab room.  It’s lovely.

This year was no different.  I took Friday off work for the festivities, and we had our (almost every year) tradition of going to Hell’s Kitchen in the morning.  We took a break in the afternoon for nap time, then K went to my parents’ house and I went to the tournament.  I hung out in the tab room and took a shower in the awesome hotel and went to Manny’s and drank less than usual and got a full night’s sleep.  So basically, it was spectacular.

Then, this morning I went and picked up Kiernan and she ran around the tab room with Danny and met friends and we walked through the Skyway and up the escalator to see Macy’s “A Day in the Life of an Elf” display.  And she LOVED it.  She stared in wonder at all the displays and loved hearing the poems read out loud and loved hearing the explanations of why the reindeer were learning to fly.  It wasn’t particularly busy, which made it even better.  We’ve gone the last few years, but this is the first where she seemed to actually GET the story and be interested in how the parts fit in with her understanding of Santa and Christmas stories in general.  So that was neat.

Now she’s still napping and I’m watching episodes of the West Wing and all seems to be right with the world, even though there was meltdown there in the middle and we skipped the Holidazzle on Friday night because a certain short person is still getting over a cold.  It’s amazing how easy it is for the good parts to stick out.

Christmas Season

Tonight, I found the miniature Christmas tree in the basement, plugged in the lights, and let Kiernan go to town with the miniature ornaments.  She has been asking about this for DAYS, and I believe she thought it was worth the wait.  She told me at the end: “This is MY TREE.  You and Baxter can have the big tree, but this is MY tree.”  Fine, kid.  Your tree was purchased for $1 at Target after Christmas and my mom bought me approximately 2039842093480 more tiny ornaments than I could ever possibly use many years ago, so HAVE AT IT.

Now, in the true Christmas spirit, my plan is to watch the Christmas episodes of the West Wing and wrap books in order to be prepared for the start of non-religious Advent tomorrow as per this lovely suggestion.  I think I might have to make coffee if I intend to make it until 10 PM.

All of the Weird TV, none of the Ads

I feel like in some ways Netflix totally mimics the experience of watching terrible TV just because it’s on for Kiernan, except that there are no commercials.  Basically, here’s what I mean:

Kiernan doesn’t watch that much TV.  I think she watches a little when Sam (her nanny) is here, and sometimes watches movies or whatever with parents.  And then, most nights, I let her watch one show after dinner, after we play, as a little winding down thing.  It’s not every night, though it’s been more since she’s been sick, and I try to stick with educational stuff (SuperWhy, Signing Time, animal shows) and short things, though I’m more apt to let her watch something trashy if it’s something I like (the Care Bears, basically).

I think this is pretty analogous to my TV habits as a kid.  I remember watching TV after school sometimes when I was older, and Saturday morning cartoons, and my parents didn’t censor TV, but I was never a kid who watched a ton of TV.  My sister was, which is why my parents got me a TV in high school – just so I could watch what I wanted, with no fear I would watch too much because I just didn’t.

But right now, we’ve been watching Christmas movies as our after dinner show, because why the hell not?  And the selection on Netflix is just totally bizarre.  I turned on what I thought was Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer but was actually a series of 40s movie shorts of various Christmas-ish things, which Kiernan thinks is awesome since we watched them for about a half hour and she got to watch SO MANY MOVIES.  And between that and some random movie about a bear who didn’t want to hibernate during Christmas we watched the other day, I feel like she’s really getting a taste of how weird it is just to watch random TV specials.  Except there are no commercials, and there’s very little likelihood I’m going to let her watch 7 episodes of Hey Dude in a row, not at least until 3rd grade or so.

Monday Minutiae

A list of things on this Monday after a four-day weekend:

- I actually don’t mind going back to work after a long weekend, since I always have things to do, but I do mind the horrific nature of getting everyone all ready and out the door on time.  I got up late, and B got up late, and we got out the door late, and even though it was totally FINE, I hate that 10 minutes.

- This Elf movie Kiernan and I are watching waiting for Baxter to get back from picking up pizza at a Rosemount debate fundraiser is terrible.

- I managed to throw out or pull some part of my back last night and OMFG is my back in terrible shape.  It’s only one side which means my whole leg hurts too, and I’m at a loss as to what to do besides take Advil and hope for the best.

- Are you following the Emma Sullivan deal?  Because that’s my call for best news story of the year. Seriously.  And she goes to my high school!  Go Lancers!

- Kiernan does this thing when she doesn’t hear you or isn’t paying attention here she screams “What?  What did you say?!?” in a way that makes her sound approximately 93 years old.  It’s hysterical but also embarrassing in the same way that you’re embarrassed for your grandma doing the same.  Especially since a lot of the time it’s because she’s too lazy to pay attention.

- I have a series of topics that I will always enjoy reading about on the internet, regardless of how wacky and repetitive.  (Like Erin and her cloth diapering/mom wars stuff).  These things include: how much to tip, what to get teachers for Christmas (NOT CANDLES), what to get your assistant for Christmas, whether you should tip a hairdresser/paper deliverer/mail person, whether you should change your name when you get married (internet crazies AHOY on that one), breastfeeding in public, kindergarten redshirting (potentially my favorite ever).  This can be even when I feel incredibly strongly one way or the other and the post goes the opposite.  Today one of my favorites came up and I refreshed approximately 1 billion times: small children on airplanes.  My actual opinion: I assume that everyone is doing the best they can with what they have to work with, try to be kind and generous towards others, LOVE newborns and would always be willing to hold yours, and am considerably more angry at people being angry at people with kids than the actual people with kids, but also packed to take Kiernan on a plane like we were moving permanently.  But the comments?!  OH!  I especially like when it devolves into “how come you can say you hate children but if you said you hated [insert racial group] we’d all hate you.”

Black Friday

I am not a 4AM shopper, really for any reason. Or a midnight shopper, not unless there’s something I really want. But, at least as it relates to Black Friday, my objection isn’t one of its existence but rather that I very rarely want things that are featured. I’m not in the market for a gigantic television, and I don’t need a Blu-Ray player. I’m also not going to buy DVDs, so it seems like going out at midnight is a bust for me.  I think my favorite part is looking through the ads, honestly, since the ads on Thanksgiving are the only thing that makes me sad wee don’t get the paper.

On the other hand, crowds don’t bother me and I like to shop, so I usually go out the day after Thanksgiving, at least for awhile.  Baxter doesn’t enjoy either shopping or crowds and intensely dislikes taking Kiernan to such events, so I made plans with a friend and we made a sojourn to Southdale.  And it was lovely.  We had breakfast and wandered through Macy’s and Gymboree and Herberger’s (highly enjoy the new Southdale one).  We then had lunch and I went home and took a nap since everyone around here, including me, is getting sick.  I don’t think I purchased any Christmas gifts but I did get Kiernan some Christmas jammies, which was the only thing I actually wanted to buy.

And then yesterday I also went out for Small Business Saturday, which appears to be a new fanciful holiday thought up by AmEx.  But since they were willing to give me $25 to essentially do nothing but show up at stores I like anyways, I am willing to take their money.  I also picked up an advent wreath and stopped at Target, so my shopping for the weekend was a total win, with no trampling or pepper spray involved whatsoever.

Related: I enjoyed these articles on the origins of the term Black Friday.

 

A Very Tiny Prints Holiday

This is a sponsored post. Tiny Prints is giving me 50 free holiday cards to write a post about holiday cards. If you want to do the same, fill out this form.

I love holiday cards.  I love making them, and I ADORE receiving them (especially of the newsletter variety) We’ve been sending them forever, and I have one of each year that we’ve done them since 2005 on the refrigerator.  For some reason, I’ve never posted them here, though now I wish I had and I’m beginning to see how much I dislike that I’ve probably posted many of them on Facebook and now don’t know where they are.  But anyways, when we started sending holiday cards, they were always of the cat (and then cats).  This was for two basic reasons:

1) Baxter really prefers not to be in the pictures for our holiday cards.  I put him on the one last year and I do not believe he has forgiven me, if the 8 times he’s mentioned not putting him on the one this year is any indication.
2) I think it’s funny.  I know that a lot of people do not like photo cards of just people’s kids or cats, but I both enjoy them and find it hilarious to get pictures of animals.

Last year, we got our cards from JC Penney, because it was cheaper just to order them when we went in to get photos done.  And I liked them fine, but not more than fine.  This year, as I’ve mentioned, we got photos done and I could NOT be more pleased with how they turned out, so I wanted to get awesome photo cards and have been shopping around.  Like approximately everyone else on the internet, I have been enthralled by the gorgeous ones at Tiny Prints but thought they might be a little expensive given how much we paid for the pictures, so when they offered me 50 free cards to write about them, my big feeling was: PERFECT.  I love their cards.  I like modern art and contemporary design and their aesthetic really appeals to me, though I’m not sure how easy of a time I’m going to have convincing Baxter to do non red/green because he’s a traditionalist.

Here are the cards I’m considering.  All of them have the following characteristics:

1)  Multiple photos.  I want to use at least a couple of the lovely photos we had done.
2) No religious sentiment, and no explicitly Christmas sentiment if possible.  I grew up in a household of really strong believers of the celebration of multiple faith traditions, and I lean towards “Peace” or “Joy” and away from Christmas trees or Nativity Scenes.

Colorful Collar.   Pros: Colorful, love the sentiment, love the picture space.  Cons: not particularly festive, looks beachy (which is not really Minnesotan), would like more decoration.

Vivid Slant.  Pros: very colorful, seems more Christmassy, love the lines.  Cons: Not sure about the square pictures, given that all of mine will be of Kiernan.

Lively Wishes.  Pros: more holiday-oriented, love the different picture shapes.  Cons: not quite as modern.

Seasonal Patterns.  Pros: love the red, love the bright colors.  Cons: has a Christmas tree on it (not a dealbreaker), same four square picture thing.

Delightful Pastels: Spring Green.  Pros: love the trees, love the colored look.  Cons: not sure it goes with our pictures.

I really don’t know what to do.  I’ll have to see what looks good with the pictures I have, I guess.  But I LOVE them, you know?  The website was super easy to navigate, and I’m so excited to get cards this year with a little more pizzazz than a mid-level department store.  I’m sure I’ll figure out a way to post a picture when I do decide which one goes with the pictures the best.

What is your holiday card tradition?