2014 Christmas Card(s)

Wait - it's February and really just a few days shy of a month after Christmas.  I know that doesn't quite seem possible (at least for me because January freaking FLEW by), but I think it's still fair game to post our Christmas cards, don't you?

Mainly for documentation but also because it's quite the blog worthy story and they turned out pretty funny.  In the end.  Regardless of the fact that I stressed out about them like every day in December.  Sheesh.  So that in itself deserves it's own blog post, don't ya say??!

Ok - so this is the first year in 5+ years that neither Jimmy or I work at Hallmark Cards.  You know, the ginormous card company known around the world?  Yeah - that one.  Well, it's been pretty easy each year because I'm not going to lie, Hallmark.com is not the most user friendly website...but once you have your addresses loaded in, it's SO easy to make your card and then they mail them for you.  Oh my.  The best part.

However, as you know in life, each thing like that comes at a price.  In this case, your time is what it's worth right?  Well this year, we didn't get our huge Hallmark discount, so I decided to search other places.  I LOVE CostCo greeting cards and hunted there, but since we do send out a lot of cards...I was trying to be thrifty and found a groupon for Invitation Box.  They offered limited designs, but after looking at them and consulting Jimmy (the CEO of our house - his self title), we decided we liked one of the designs and went for it.  I ordered them the week before Thanksgiving knowing that there would be about a 2 week turn around time (as stated on the deal).  Then that would give me a week or so to get them all addressed and sent out WELL in advance of Christmas.  Because the cards did say "Merry Christmas" and all.

WELL.

That's not quite how it worked.  At 2.5 weeks after ordering and the cards still hadn't arrived, I just figured I would send an inquiry about my order to their customer service, asking if my order had shipped, etc.  Four or five days went by with no response.  So I tried calling them.  No answer every time.  The days flew by - just like they always do in December - and then I tried to chat them.  Still NO response.  I was freaking out.  Mainly because I love getting and send Christmas cards and we are usually one of the first ones to get them out...so I was already irritated that they were "late" in my mind.  But I still had time, right?  Days passed and nothing.  No response from anyone there.  So I went to Groupon because I was mad.  Oh and I posted on their Facebook wall about the terrible customer service.  Yes - I did that.  I know i's horrible, but I literally didn't' get a response from ANYONE!!!!!!!!!  I did get a comment from another customer saying that she had the same issue and saw a few more people posted on their wall saying they had not got their cards either.

Luckily, Groupon has the best customer service on the planet.  I explained the situation, sent them the order # and let them try to get in touch and then they just gave me credit.  Amazing.  I was pissed, but they made it a little better.  So I went to plan B thinking that our cards would never ever arrive and did the CostCo quick photo cards with a "Merry Christmas" AND "Happy New Year" on them.  To make it a little better if people opened them in between.

BONUS - Ali got our pictures turned around so fast that were able to use this awesome shot she got.   So all in all, I was fine.  I picked up 125 of these babies from CostCo on December 23 and was golden.

But wait - that same day - yes December 23...one month after I ordered them...I got a call from a neighbor that they had just got delivered a box for me to their house that day and wanted to see if I wanted to pick it up versus sending it back to the post office.  I knew it was them.  And I was so angry!!!  I was finally content and happy with this card and just figured I would never see the other one.  And I had already got a refund.

But then I went and got the box and saw these cards:

And I liked them a lot too!!  I loved the pictures that I picked and the colors and that it was thick with a patterned back.

What's a girl to do??

Well - I had a total of 250 cards of pictures of my family.  That was about 248 more than I wanted to keep in my possession...so I decided to do the crazy thing.  Send both out.  Yep, I know...but seriously, after this whole process I was just like - who cares.  And then I thought - I must attempt to explain this to our card recipients....and of course in a funny way.  Funny in that I make fun of myself for getting bit in the butt for use Groupon for Christmas cards.  (PS I will never do that again).

So I wrote this poem, printed it off and sent it with each of our cards.

Turns out, some people saw the note and some people didn't.  Oops.

But those that did - loved it, so I guess that is all that counts, right? Those others can just assume we are vain or just have lots of extra money sitting around to waste on multiple Christmas cards (for the record, neither of which we have).

So there you have it.  Our 2014 Christmas Card(s).  They are official because now they have their own post on my blog and they will never be forgotten.  

Check out our past Christmas cards too -

2009. 2010.  2011.  2012 (no clue where that one is!)

and our 2013 one that never made it to the blog last year in the midst of graduation, getting a new job, finding out I was pregnant - yeah....this one got lost in the shuffle - so here it is!  It's crazy to think that was just one year ago and I was barely pregnant and now Maddie is 7 months old! Time flies!!!

I loved loved seeing everyone else's Christmas cards that we received in the mail and in blog land!  So thank you for sharing - it honestly one of my favorite things about the holidays!!!