2019 Christmas Card Reveal

I am not a Christmas fanatic. I love Christmas, but not like some of my friends who really loooove Christmas. For example, I have several red and green tubs out in our garage full of Christmas decorations, many of them penguin theme. This year however I didn’t even bother getting any of it out. We have stuff going on every weekend and we will be out of state the entire winter break. So we decorated at church which was fun and we will do all the Christmas festivities, but no Christmas tree at our house this year.

On the other hand I managed to get cards out the day after Black Friday. We took the photos in October while camping in Michigan. I made sure the design was finished and ordered in early November. We went with postcards this year. It cuts down on the cost (the prints and the postage) and since we are spending a lot of extra money on travel this Christmas we have a very limited gift and card budget. Enough of me rambling. What was our theme this year???

TA-DA! Camping Christmas Cards.

Originally I had this completely staged idea of a tent with a pennant banner and lots of props like a canoe and lanterns. In the end it was way more natural. We were four days into camping in the woods. We were all scruffy in our matted hair, clunky boots, and ragtag clothes, but that’s what we look like when we camp so I just went with it. Photo credit to my friend Mels who snapped the pics with my camera for us. For the record the Merry Christmas banner is photoshopped in, but the smoke that you can barely see in the background to the left of the tent is real campfire smoke. I can almost smell it now. Good ol’ camp life.

Christmas cards are one of my absolute favorite traditions and I like to keep it fun. This one was definitely fun! I’ve been dying to share some of these hilarious outtakes, like this one where we are “mean muggin”

I liked this one, but it didn’t leave much room for text and SJ has her spaced out look.

Another mean muggin’ shot. I love how Elle can’t not smile. She is trying!

This one is funny but also very disturbing. It wasn’t supposed to look like a reenactment of Abraham sacrificing Elijah (*ahem* Jeremy and SJ)! Please don’t call CPS.

I can’s stop laughing at how podunk redneck we look. Is Elle smoking a cigarette here?

There are so many things that I can’t help but laugh at in this situation. I am wearing an American flag hat, an army-style jacket with a Navajo print on the back and a clashing Navajo print backpack. At least you can’t accuse us of being too matchy-matchy.

On the back of the postcard, we had Joshua 1:9 “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” We chose this verse because it encourages a wild and adventurous spirit like the photo on our card. Also because 2019 was a very difficult year for us. I haven’t really opened up about it on the blog other than the car wreck. This verse is such a great reminder that even when things don’t go as planned we can stand on the promises of God. We don’t need to be fearful for we know that God is with us.