25 Days of Thanksgiving: Days 20-22

I spent this weekend with my in-laws, as is common during deer season. I enjoy spending time with my family, and I usually take the opportunity to "unplug" for a few days. Saturday my mother-in-law, who is also sickly right now, and I took Princess Pea Pod and went Christmas shopping. It was a learning experience! And so for day 20 of thanks-giving, I am thankful for learning experiences. We have learning opportunities all around us, and sometimes we miss the lesson, but on Saturday I learned that I am apparently too old to go power-shopping when I am sick. I used to put healthy people to shame, even when sick, but I suppose I will be staying home from now on.

Sunday we took our sickly selves and a great-grandmother grocery shopping. Not for pleasure, but because we didn't want her to go hungry. I was very thankful for my inhaler, but for day 21 of thanks-giving I am thankful for family time together. What else is there to say about that?

Today I am thankful that my baby brother is coming home this week! We were pretty good to each other as kids, as far as siblings go, but we didn't really appreciate each other until we grew up. Then he got a good job that took him entirely too far away from us. He's hardly a baby anymore, but he'll always be my baby brother. This year he's bringing his girlfriend Miss J, so we're double thankful! Sure, that kind of bundles right up with day 21, but my baby bro is in a league of his own.

Note: Winners of the Shutterfly freebies have been notified! Congrats to tyson2468 and Jen!

Shutterfly Always Brightens My Spirits!

I have already posted about how much I love Shutterfly. But I've focused on their photo cards in the past and would be remiss if I didn't tell you how awesome their photo books are. I have friends who are scrapbooking queens, and I admire their work. But I've always been more of a photo album kind of girl. Having said that, sometimes you need more than a photo album for a certain event. For example, our family has created photo books for two fun family vacations. These were opportunities to highlight the best photos and really emphasize the story of our travels. (Trust me, traveling with all 10 of us leaves plenty of opportunity for stories!) My favorite, though, is one that I made for our daughter for Christmas last year. It was a much nicer version of one that I had created with a few photos from her birth, some contact paper, and a cheap board book when she was an infant. I titled it "My Family Loves Me" and included pictures of our family members and some of her first friends. She treasures it, and I really enjoyed putting it together especially for her.

So I was thrilled when House Party and Shutterfly selected me as a hostess for their national Shutterfly Making Spirits Brighter house party! What better way to share Shutterfly with my friends?!? They sent a fabulous party pack, including some super cute Shutterfly totes, festive balloons, coupons for freebies (I love freebies!) and several other items to set me up for success. All I had to do was bake tons of muffins and set out lots of fun, warm, cozy drinks for all the friends I had invited.

Now, I thought I had chosen the perfect date for my party. I went with opening day of rifle season, so that my dear hubby wouldn't have to figure out an escape route. He would be in the deer woods with his dad, leaving his mom and me "deer widows" to party and photo book all day! Oops! I didn't consider that my friends' husbands (and, who am I kidding, several of my friends) would also be in the deer woods that day. (And that is the story of how I came to vow to never again schedule anything but the annual "deer widow" shopping trip on opening day of rifle season.) Having said that, I am blessed with super supportive family members who showed up and had lots of fun talking about photos, photo cards, photo books... and photos.

So I have a little "Merry Christmas" for you! For my dear readers, I have two separate freebies, offered to you! One is for a free 8x8 20 page hard cover photo book. The second is for 10 5x7 folded greeting or flat stationery holiday cards. Simply post here what your favorite Christmas tradition is, and I will select two winners. Only one entry, and you have until 11:59pm Friday to post. You'll LOVE Shutterfly's photo books and cards! (A side note: Our Shutterfly Christmas cards have arrived and I'm MISERABLY waiting until time to mail them!!!)

Post away, my freebie-loving, picture-snapping, mom-a-razzi friends! GO!