We tried for weeks to get pictures of the kids that would be good enough to send out this year on our Christmas cards. And it wasn’t until we decided to have fun doing it that we finally captured some good pictures.

We (I) missed sending out announcements about Jeremiah’s birth, so we opted to do a bit more for Christmas cards this year. I put together a background, found some great resources with Amy’s help, and sent the order off to Whitehouse Custom Color for press-printed 5×5 tri-fold cards on their watercolor paper. We’re immensely pleased with the results!

The full layout above is the inside of the card. The three laying flat are the outside flap, inside flap, and back of the card respectively. The card reads “Merry Christmas! Jesus, the founder of our salvation, the radiance of the glory of God is the One who’s birth we celebrate! Love, the Norwoods”

Despite much proof-reading, we noticed after we received the order shipment that we (I!) forgot to put the year on them. We have the kids’ ages on the back, but not the year!

Here are the full original layouts (click for larger versions):

Here are some more pictures from our fun time last night:

After three very frustrating attempts at some Christmas pictures for the cards we want to send out this year, I think we finally did it. With some “handling” advice from my sister (“if they’re not having fun, it’ll show”) and some technical advice from my dad (“bring up the [exposure on the] box a bit”), we had a wonderfully fun shoot tonight. The kids had fun eating way too many cookies, and Tami and I had fun making them laugh. I still have some processing work to do on them, but here’s a teaser:

More to come over the next couple of days!

And for those who have been asking and insisting, I do believe we will be including the “take one” picture on our card somewhere. Happy happy joy joy.

UPDATE – here’s one more from tonight: