Are they Christmas Card worthy?

I love Christmas Card season. I love getting the message cards, the newsletter cards and I really like the photo cards. I get to see how my friends are changing, how families are growing, and basically feel connected.   I think a photo should be required.

Card season means the mail is awesome for weeks. I wish we still did mail. It is just fun to check the mailbox and see what is in there. Right now the only surprises I get are from Chase and J.Crew. And the surprise I got from AT&T yesterday that we went 500 text messages over our allotment.

So I was stressing over what "we've had a great year" photo we were going to send this year and even mentally composing a poem in my head or just a photo of our dog. The Hawaii pictures were awesome, but I am hardly dressed modestly in any of them. And there is no puppy. So many of our other photos are clearly taken by ourselves, with the long-arm method. And the wet-bun runs rampant through the photo album.

I was running out of ideas and thinking, "oh goodness, I really do need a child. Can we push Christmas back nine months?"

Enter Ashley. She just so happened to get married a month ago, thereby entering our ward (church). We chatted. She's starting her photography business. She mentioned she wanted to build her portfolio and wondered if we'd be her guinea pigs. Hello world, I am always up for being a guinea pig. Here is the result.

Sidenote: There are more of us kissing and being cute, but I don't think PDA is good for a holiday greeting. I do not out rule PDA on the blog or mushy poems though, so feel alerted.

Number one: Definitely frame worthy. Not sure the whole looking off into the distance thing is good for a card. But this is on our fridge.

Number two: Don't we make great parents? If you substituted the dog for a kid it would totally work. Can't decide if that is cute or creepy. This is the wallpaper on my desk at work though. I love my little family.

Number three: This one isn't my favorite, probably because we look like an AT&T commercial a bit and I am hating on AT&T today (it took one bill cycle folks, one!) but it just may be the winner, because we are all looking straight on. A marvelous feat if you've ever met our rambunctious puppy. And me. I have a horrible time not being goofy when someone has a camera pointed at me.

Number four: I think this is too far away, but I think we look cute. Possibly even sophisticated.

Ashley's site is already up, and if you still need your pictures for Christmas or any other holiday or just for fun, contact her through the contact page and tell her that you know Natalie. OK, you'll probably get the same service even if you don't tell her you know me, but I've always wanted to say that.

There is a poll embedded in this post if you would like to vote.