I set a new record for ordering our Christmas cards this year. In preparation for my surgery, we got together with Allison for family pictures before normal families had even thought about visiting the pumpkin patch! But dressing up and capturing our family together is an annual tradition I just did not want to miss! One of my very favorite things to do while unpacking our holiday decor is to go back through our years together in Christmas cards. Each card has been so special to us. In 2011 we celebrated our first married Christmas, in 2012 we purchased our home, in 2013 we announced our first pregnancy, in 2014 Caroline stole the show and in 2015 we added another adorable little person to our card!
I think it goes without saying that THIS is definitely my favorite Christmas card yet! My entire world in a 5×7 rectangle…
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I owe my friend Lindsey for dolling me up, Allison for her incredible ability to capture our winning Christmas card photo in five minutes and Minted for the prettiest holiday cards and saving me so much time with free recipient addressing!
Want to see a few strong runner ups for this year’s Christmas card?
I swear Caroline spends most of her day hugging and trying to pick up her baby brother. She is so obsessed with him and loves him to pieces, well, until he’s sitting in her bumbo or looking at her books.
Our sassy little munchkin…
Nothing says “shoot is over” like a toddler noticing the nearby ducks!
And I have some fun news! Minted has graciously offered to give one lucky reader a $75credit towards holiday cards! To enter, use the rafflecopter below. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Our Christmas cards through the years:
2014 Christmas Card
2013 Christmas Card
2012 Christmas Card
2011 Christmas Card
Love your beautiful family pics! We took ours a week ago and I'm itching to see them and make our cards. This credit would be so helpful!
Those are beautiful pictures. I don't know how you picked which to use. I have yet to have pictures taken of us so I think it'll end up being just the kids. Oops! Great giveaway.
Your card is beautiful!! Christmas cards are a favorite tradition – I always take the picture of the kids and add a handwritten note to each card. I've been sending them out since high school!
SO adorable!
My favorite Christmas tradition is a huge breakfast Christmas morning at my mom's house. It's so great to stop the presents for a few minutes and spend a few minutes appreciating the time together!
Your card turned out great! I need to get on the ball and get mine ordered, too 🙂
I love spending Christmas Day with my extended family on my dad's side. There are a ton of siblings and cousins, and it's the one day a year that we are all together. PS- I love your card! So cute!
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this card!! I need to get on my cards…now!
I love doing Christmas lights with the kids
I have so many fun Christmas traditions but my favorite is going to cut down our Christmas tree – it is so fun and I love the memories we've already created 🙂
Love your hair !!
I love making cookies with my little ones!
I love going to pick out a Christmas tree and decorating it together while listening to Christmas music.
You have the most beautiful smile! Love your Christmas cards, kuddos to you for getting these done so early! Last year was my first year with my son, and I didn't get Christmas cards out, 1st time mommy fail! This year I have a shoot planned for this Saturday (in plenty of time to get it together!)
We always drive around to look at lights on Christmas Eve after our church servic . I love that tradition.
I adore your family pictures! Our favorite family tradition is Christmas pajamas that we pick out for one another, and open on Christmas Eve.
You are one beautiful family!!! I'm a little behind on our cards, but they're coming along 🙂
My favorite tradition is heading out with hot cocoa and looking at all the christmas lights and being with family!
Baking and decorating cookies!! Great family photo!!
Beautiful card! We are never allowed downstairs until Daddy checks to see if Santa came.
These are too cute! Glad you were able to capture such a happy time!
Beautiful pictures!!! I love looking back on old holiday photos. So many happy family moments captured!
Adorable! You have the most precious family…hope all is well!
Beautiful family!!! And a beautiful collection of previous years! It's great to look back and see how far you've come in your life! Mike and I go back through old family photos at least once or twice a year and see how much has changed in 9 years.
Amazing cards, lady! I LOVE when cards say Merry Christmas :)!
I'm just obsessed with little Caroline's dress! And of course Thomas and the rest of you are cute as well. 🙂 I think my favorite holiday tradition is going to Festival of Lights at our local zoo. It's just so pretty!
Toddlers and pictures are HARD! We have to reschedule ours FOUR times between Toddler sass and weather. Ugh. Love how much Caroline love her brother!I think my favorite tradition is that we all get together on Christmas Eve. My family did it before and so did my husband's. When we got together, we started mixing it and it is one of the only times during the year that we have EVERYONE together at once, without anyone else. It's so nice to just soak up the family time, and John gets doted on by everyone. With four grandparents around, plus his aunt and uncle, Mama and Dada get to relax a little!
Love your Christmas card choice C! And so impressed with your timeliness. Merry merry
Great pictures! I love watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Last year was the first year I was able to introduce the show to my son!
Great pictures! I love watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Last year was the first year I was able to introduce the show to my son!
Great pictures! I always have the hardest time choosing a card design.
What a beautiful Christmas card! Minted cards are my favorite!!
Love the pictures! Our favorite christmas tradition has been putting out cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer with our 3 year old daughter! She loves it!
This year will be our first married Christmas! Love your cards 🙂 My favorite holiday tradition with my family is receiving matching PJs on Christmas Eve every year … Even now at 25 years old!
I'm so behind on even thinking about Christmas cards this year! So adorable!!
Great giveaway!! Love your photos!Jax (jaxandmarbles.blogspot.com)
Such beautiful pictures!! Thank you for the chance to win!!!
Your family is adorable! I'm usually ordering my Christmas cards around this time but we are expecting any time now (seriously … ANY TIME NOW, baby!) and we thought it might be good to go ahead and wait for the cute aspect for our cards. 🙂 Glad to read you're healing well!
You have the cutest little family! Holiday cards are my fave tradition, and with just getting engaged recently, I'm SO excited to design this years!!
Your pictures are beautiful! I'm so glad you guys got to carry on this tradition with all that you have going on! Minted cards are always my favorite….cannot beat the quality!
Sending out cards is also one of my favorite traditions….I make a small book each year out of all of the cards we receive and love pulling each year's book out with our decorations to see how all of our friends and family have changed through the years.
The cards turned out adorable and y'all look precious! Beautiful family!
Obsessed! Such sweet pics! And Christmas cards are by far my favorite holiday tradition! xx
So cute!
Hmmmm putting up the tree with the kids the day after Thanksgiving is definitely my fave!
Love your Christmas card for this year!! You have the sweetest and most adorable family. I am so excited to finally send out our first Christmas card this year!
I am obsessed with xmas cards!! Your are so so precious!
Love the outfit colors you chose! Would love to win! 🙂
Gorgeous Christmas cards! Would love to win this for our first Christmas cards as a family of three! My favorite holiday tradition is baking with my grandmother and sister.
Such a beautiful family and gorgeous card x
Making and sending out our family Christmas cards is my favorite holiday tradition with Christmas cookies as a close second 🙂 Your photos turned out beautiful!!
we love making our ginger bread houses and decorating them!
You got some precious and beautiful pictures of your sweet family! Love it! I'm always excited to get the perfect picture for our annual card. :)Whitney @ Come Home For Comfort
Beautiful card!! My favorite holiday tradition is waking up Christmas morning having breakfast with the family while in our matching pj's and waiting to open gifts.
Beautiful pictures! My favorite holiday tradition is having Christmas breakfast at my parents house each year.
Love your Christmas cards! My favorite tradition growing up was having a birthday party for Jesus on Christmas Eve before bed. It was the best we got to stay up late and eat all kinds of sweets my mom made and sang happy birthday to Jesus!! I plan to continue the tradition with my children!
Great pictures! They definitely show the love in your family. My favorite tradition was when my brothers and sister and I would all sleep together in the same room the night before Christmas giggling. Then we would wake up super early and go downstairs and stack our presents until my parents would wake up. Then we would go to my grandma's house for Christmas dinner
I plan to order our Christmas cards within the next 2 weeks! I'll have to check out minted :)Justine @ Charm City Ciemny'swww.lifeasabaltimoregirl.blogspot.com
So cute!
Your card is wonderful! Our little girl, who is the same age as Caroline, had a scowl in all of our pictures this year! Haha oh the memories! I am surprisingly on the ball this year and have mine ordered too ? Our family has so many traditions thanks to my mom. One of my favorites is Christmas pajamas and our Christmas breakfasts! Another is our Black Friday shopping extravaganza with my mom, sister and cousin! We love being a part of the craziness ! Beautiful family! Take care Hun!
This is our first Christmas as a family of 3 (I was in labor last Christmas!) so my minded is flooded with all kinds of fun Christmas traditions to start with my little family 🙂
Prayers for continued healing for you! Such a beautiful, loving family photo.
Beautiful cards! I love sending and receiving cards.
Gorgeous Christmas cards! This is our first Christmas with a baby so all of our traditions are really just starting 🙂 Can't wait to pick out a tree, decorate and spend some time together cuddled up!
love them!
one of our favorite holiday traditions is going to christmas eve service at our church (although we do it more for just tradition sake!). i love the family photos — your hair is sooooo pretty!
I LOVE making new traditions, especially with both babes being so young. We love to make gluvein (for the adults) every winter.. and we love to make homemade sugar cookies with the babes!
Gorgeous as always!! I'm all about the family time and baking cookies this time of year! 🙂
We're taking our Christmas card picture next week 🙂 Love yours! My husband and I are looking forward to our second married Christmas this year. We love heading up to the mountains of VA and picking out the perfect tree! This year, we've got a new puppy to help!
Oh my goodness – LOVE your Christmas card and the pictures are absolutely adorable! We took our pictures with a tripod in the backyard on Saturday – the next door neighbors mowing probably thought we were nuts!
We always get Chinese food before mass on Christmas Eve and then drive around looking at lights before heading home to new pajamas, Twas the Night Before Christmas and Elf.Now, that this is my first Christmas with my husband, I am excited to see what new traditions we begin as a family.
I love christmas cards, and the tree, and you know, all the usual stuff, but I like the weird stuff too – like, we always have a cheese plate for dinner on Christmas Eve. Weird yes. But fun 🙂
Beautiful Christmas card!
So cute!! I love picking out cards every year 🙂
My favorite holiday tradition is watching Christmas movies and coloring in Christmas coloring books on Christmas eve. No matter how old my siblings and I get, we still carry on this tradition!
Your cards are beautiful!! I love minted cards!
I love minted cards! I completely missed the boat last year on Christmas cards and need to start getting my underway here before long!
What a great family picture! We have two holidays traditions that I love. I do an advent countdown by reading a different Christmas book each night. My boys love it and can't wait to see what the next book will be. On Christmas morning we always have cinnamon buns which is a real treat in our house.
I love minted cards! I completely missed the boat last year on Christmas cards and need to start getting my underway here before long!
Love!! Beautiful pics and card! Santa visit, the Legendary Santa of course!, has always been such a huge tradition to my family and it was SO much fun starting this with Lawter last year. I can't wait to create new family traditions with my own kiddos as they grow!
Beautiful!! Your family is gorgeous. This is our first year with a baby in tow, so we're starting to think about what will be our new traditions! Definitely sending out Christmas cards, visiting Santa, seeing the lights at Opryland Hotel (here in Nashville – always decked to the nines), baking beaucoups of Christmas cookies!
Gorgeous cards!! I am over the top excited for Christmas this year because Gabriella is home with us and we aren't spending it in the hospital!! Can not wait to start all sorts of new traditions with her 🙂
My favorite holiday tradition is simply spending time with family. A close second is the fact that my parents will still sneak out in the middle of the night to put presents under the tree from Santa — even though my sister and I are both grown.
Beautiful family and photos!
Love Minted cards! The capture all of the love of your family just perfectly!
One of our favorite traditions is putting our Jammies on, making hot chocolate and then ride around town looking at all of the Christmas lights. So fun. Your pictures look amazing!
Beautiful family!! I wait all year to have our Christmas Baked Eggs which is by far my favorite tradition!
Your babies are precious! Very excited to get Christmas cards out this year. Having kids makes this time of year so much fun!
GORGEOUS photos!! I love baking sugar cookies with my mom (we're doing it at thanksgiving this year since I wont be home for christmas), I also love watching all of my favorite christmas movies — esp the original grinch + love actually. xo jillian – cornflake dreams
Those pictures are so gorgeous!! Your family is beautiful. One of my favourite traditions is giving our kids books on St. Nicholas Day (Dec 6) and yummy breakfast with my in-laws on Christmas morning!!!
My favorite Christmas tradition is the Feast of Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve. Thanks for the giveaway!
My favorite Christmas tradition is our family gift exchange on Christmas Eve. It's so fun to see everyone's eyes light up!!
Love the card! This is our first Christmas with a baby so we are really excited to add her to our Christmas card this year 🙂
Love your card, love your style, love your updates.
I love love love cooking in the kitchen with the ladies in the family! It gives us great one-on-one time with minimal distractions since the rest of the family knows we're on a mission!
My favorite tradition is heading to home to NY to see my family. My grandfather started the tradition of going to see the tree and all the store windows on Christmas Eve. It is always freezing but something I hope we continue for generations to come.
for thanksgiving, we each go around the table and say what we are thankful for
My favorite tradition is driving around after Christmas Eve dinner to see everyone's light displays. So cozy, so happy, and so excited for what's to come the next morning!
Beautiful family!My favorite tradition is wearing matching jammies to bed and waking up before the family to make breakfast. I miss being close to family so that we can celebrate xmas eve festivities together.
We like to decorate gingerbread houses.
So cute!
We open stocking on Christmas Eve! it is my favorite tradition!
I love your pictures!! My favorite tradition is driving around looking at Christmas lights with the family. Before my grandfather passed away, he would load us all up in his RV and we would drive all around the area in our PJs, drinking hot chocolate and eating some Chex Mix 🙂 I sure miss that!
I love painting sugar cookies for Christmas! ([email protected])
Love your card! Caroline has SO much personality! Blessings to you and your family this Christmas season…hopefully 2016 will be a little less eventful (medically speaking) for your family.My favorite tradition is baking Christmas cookies with my mom and I can't wait for Christmas this year as my daughter is almost 2 and so she is really going to 'get it' this year!
Going on vacation for Thanksgiving and choosing and cutting our tree down on the way back. Your pictures are gorgeous!
Your card this ear is precious!!
My favorite is cutting down our Christmas tree 🙂
Can't wait to use Minted for my cards this year! Yours are just beautiful!
I'm so excited to have a baby added to this year's card!
Beautiful card!
Such a lovely card! Decorating the house is one of my favorite traditions.
We're taking our family photos Friday and I cannot wait! That's always one of my favorite traditions. You always have the cutest outfits and hairstyles for photos I swear! Gorgeous Mama!
Cutest card ever! I loved looking at each year of your cards…so special. Good looking crew 🙂
I used to have fun making a gingerbread house with my daughter.
One of my favorite holiday traditions is going with the whole family to pick out our Christmas tree. Complete with popcorn, hot cocoa, a visit with Santa and reindeer. We have carried the tradition on with our boys.
Drinking hot chocolate while looking at Christmas lights
Oh my goodness, so adorable! I cant imagine how you are going to top this year's card next Christmas. Beautiful family!
Adorable card this year! Favorite tradition is definitely picking out our tree each year and cutting a piece off the bottom to make an ornament out of.
Beautiful family and lovely Christmas card!
Beautiful family and cards. We have ordered form Minted before and the quality is terrific! We have many traditions in our family and one of them is going out and choosing the tree together.
Beautiful family and cards. We have ordered form Minted before and the quality is terrific! We have many traditions in our family and one of them is going out and choosing the tree together.
Your children are just absolutely beautiful! I'm working on our Christmas cards right now – complete with our fur children 😉
Christmas eve mass is my favorite tradition
Your cards look great. My favorite tradition is going to a candle Christmas service
We are taking pictures this weekend. Would love to win!Your card is beautiful! Praying recovery is still going well.
Can't wait to do our holiday cards. We are taking pictures over Thanksgiving and decorating our new home in downtown Charleston – can't wait to buy new decor!
Having Christmas brunch with family! Thanks!
One of my favorites is to open one gift each last thing on Christmas Eve.
Your Christmas card is precious, you have such a beautiful family!My favorite tradition is our Christmas Eve pajama exchange and watching a movie.
You are gorgeous mama!! Don't ever forget that. And your family is just beautiful.liz @ sundays with sophie
You go momma! Such cute pictures! Minted had me sold when they started offering to address your cards.
Decorating the tree
Decorating the tree
I love volunteering at the food bank and shelter. Thanks for the opportunity
I always dream of having my cards done and ready for delivery this early!! Our new addition just arrived at the end of August and I am hoping we will be able to get a picture of his previous gummy baby smile during our photo shoot this year 🙂
I need to get started on my cards! Love yours!
hunting for the perfect christmas tree on a snowy day in VT!
Beautiful family picture and love this card!!! We just took our pictures Sunday and I am so excited to get started on our cards soon!
Love your picture! My favorite part of the Holidays is Christmas Eve. We open a couple gifts in our jammies after a delicious dinner.
I love your idea of framing christmas cards to add to the decor! Such a beautiful family <3
Your strength is amazing Christina! I hope your recovery is going well. Would love to use the Minted credit for my Save the Date's or wedding invitations!
So adorable!!! Love all your pictures!
I love getting my girls dressed up and going to visit Santa for our annual photo.
Our favorite tradition is baking cookies together, my children get to pick a new recipe to try every year.
Decorating the Christmas tree and watching Elf!
Christmas pjs on Christmas Eve
Christmas eve mass with the kids and special dinner with just our family.
Christmas eve mass with the kids and special dinner with just our family.
Love your card! We still stay at my parents every Christmas eve and help play Santa to my younger siblings and the nieces and nephews. Such a fun tradition for us!
Love Christmas eve service at church
Love the pics! I just love being around family no matter what we're doing! We grew up in a military family, meaning Christmas 'traditions' changed every year, so just being together is what I love!
Family pics may be my favorite tradition! even with all of the craziness.
So cute! Caroline in Thomas's face is my favorite one. My favorite tradition is decorating the tree. We blast Mannheim Steamroller and drink cocoa and tell stories about all the (mismatched) ornaments. I also love putting electric candles in the window; they are just so homey! Best wishes for your continued recovery.
Baking cookies for our friends is a favorite tradition!
Christmas Eve service at church with the family is a favorite tradition.
My little boy is 5 months old and we are so excited to start sharing some traditions with him! We love making Christmas cookies and decorating the tree together
Your pictures turned out perfect!! We are supposed to be taking pics this weekend & I'm sort of terrified! HA! Love the cards you picked out also!!
Beautiful pictures! Love your hair! And glowing smile!
Absolutely love the pictures!!! One tradition I love is family Christmas breakfast at my parents house.
I actually found your blog through a photo from your Christmas card post when you were expecting Caroline! My husband and I are expecting our first baby in May, and your card from that year is our inspiration (baby Santa hat included!) for our annual card. My favorite Christmas tradition is spending Christmas Eve at the candlelight service at the church I grew up in.
That is awesome!!! Congratulations, mama! Hope you are feeling great! xo
Such beautiful pictures of a beautiful family!
Hi! My favorite Christmas tradition is we always exchange Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve. We've done this since is I was a little girl and I have since carried on the tradition with my family. 🙂
Good gracious these pictures are darling! So great you planned ahead and got this done. Love minted cards as well.
I love these family photos, so beautiful!
My favorite holiday traditions are taking our annual family photo and baking!!!
Taking our family pictures this weekend and would love this credit to order cards!
I LOVE making Russian Tea — my Nana's recipe — for our family at the holidays. It's heart and soul-warming!
There are so many traditions to name, but our favorite has to be baking all the goodies for family and friends, and of course Santa Claus. 🙂
Our little guy is 6 months old so I am REALLY excited to do Christmas cards this year….our photo shoot is this weekend 🙂 The tradition my husband and I started a few years ago is new jammies for Christmas. I hope to maybe up that and do new jammies and then watch a Christmas movie and drink hot coco each year now, maybe the weekend before Christmas. Now the question is, will I be able to find match pjs for mommy, daddy and baby??
Love your Christmas cards…both past and present!!! We are still trying to figure out family Christmas traditions. Neither my family or my husband families were big Christmas celebrators! I think my favorite part is getting together with family!!!!!
Adorable!!!!
Making sugar cookies with my kids!
Our favorite tradition is to make hot cocoa in to go cups, then we all pile into the car and drive around town to see all the beautiful Christmas lights.
Absolutely beautiful photos! I love the card! 🙂
These pictures are gorgeous!! I love your Christmas card!! I just ordered ours from Minted – they really have the best designs! I love the quality of their paper, too!!