Christmas Card Chaos

At the Christmas Eve service at our church, we watched a (light & humorous) video about Christmas Chaos.  All I could think is that the video perfectly depicted what it is like for me making Christmas cards every year.  I keep thinking I need to do it simple, but it never works out that way.  Eric always questions why I make things difficult for myself, but he knows me well enough to know the answer: that is just the way I am.  I am not happy just sending out a pictorial card of the family.  Instead it needs to have some mark of my own creativity and design (although after this year, the years to come may just have the 4x6 or 5x7 pictorial card that everyone else has!).

As I have mentioned previously, this year I finally figured out how to use my cutting machine, so I wanted to utilize that to make my Christmas cards.  I designed a snowflake pattern on my computer and then thought the machine could easily cut them out and I would just add a picture and letter; done...right?  Well, the machine works well, but you can only cut one card at a time, so it takes a LONG time. Then, since it was cutting the same thing over and over again, it eventually cut through my cutting mat.  After about 6 hours of cutting, I had only 12 cards done, 1 ruined cutting mat and a dulling blade.  It was time to forgo the idea and come up with something else.  Here is an example of what I had:

The Front

The Inside

Instead, I printed our Christmas letter and then cut it out for the card.  I then attached a photo and a printed Christmas greeting along with two snowflakes that I used my cutting machine to make.  Again this was "simple", but the multiple parts made it still take a while to put together and Eric and I were up late one Friday night getting them done so I could get them in the mail the Saturday before Christmas!

The other part of the card, as I already mentioned, is the photo.  I wanted to keep the card simple this year with only one or two pictures and wanted an updated family picture (that included Avery) to use.  Since Eric's brother was going to be home with us for Thanksgiving, I asked him to take some pictures for us again.  He obliged and we did our best to get some pictures, but a photo shoot with two kids under two is NOT easy...here are a few of the best that we got.

This was the final picture we used for the card's front.

This was the final picture we used for the card's inside. (it is a photoshopped version of two others).

The final result of the card looked like this (except cut out of paper...not photoshopped).  If you received one, I hope you liked it.  If you didn't I hope you understand, and had a very MERRY CHRISTMAS despite the chaos!

Here is the text from the inside of the card:
Try taking a picture with a two small children and you will quickly realize that they are unpredictable beings.  The “perfect” family portraits becomes impossible and is replaced with the “good enough” and the “it is what it is” pictures.  You never know what you’re going to get, but that is what makes it
life.  Life is unpredicable.  This year, that fact became greatly evident to us.

For starters, 2014 began with the realization that we would be welcoming a new member to our family in the fall.  While this was by no means "unplanned" it was surprising how quickly everything happened the second time around!  When Fall came, we again experienced the unpredictability of not knowing the exact day and time the baby would come (September 24 at 11:54am-6 days after our due date and 1 day prior to induction), whether it would be a boy or girl (Avery, a healthy baby boy) and how big the baby would be (a sizable 10 pounds, 5 ounces and 22" long!).  We also attained a new understanding of unpredictability through our toddler, Asher, never knowing the mood that he would be in, the sippy cup that he would demand to drink from, whether he would be brave for that day of swim lessons, the hugs, kisses, tantrums, smiles and giggles that seemingly come out of nowhere, how he would react to Grandma K. dressed up in an Easter Bunny suit at the local Egg Hunt, which animal he would like the best as we toured the Milwaukee Zoo with friends for some Mother's Day family fun, the disappointment of his first parade as we realized it was much smaller than anticipated and the excitement of the next parade as the firetrucks went blaring by, the realization that he sweet-talked Grandma M. into a second piece of birthday cake on his 2nd birthday (unbeknownst to his Mommy), how long he could sit still in the car on our road trip to Kentucky, whether or not he would be freaked out by the awesome Mammoth Caves National Park, if he would be okay with the fact that we found out the city pool was closed for the year after telling him that is where we were headed in the van and if going to the beach instead would be a welcome alternative, wondering how he would do in his new Big Boy room/bed and how he would react to having a baby in the house and no longer having 100% of Mommy and Daddy's attentions, cringing at the thought of the fits he may throw over his new Truck or Treating candy and the fact that Mommy will only allow him to "pick one" at a time, watching throughout the year at how much he loves his family and looks forward to time with his grandparents and finally witnessing the wonder in his eyes by the season of Christmas (the lights, the treats, the music, the nativity) and his first year being at an age to begin to understand the holiday.

Beyond our children, the year had other moments of unpredictability as well with the tragic loss of a loved one, the news of God's provisions for our family in amazing and unexpected ways, and several other moments throughout the year.  Consistently though, there is one thing that remains.  Our God, although never predictable and constantly full of surprises offers us a promise of hope.  Through the birth (and later death and resurrection) of His Son two thousand years ago, God promised us an eternity with Him.  He sacrificed His Son so that we could live with Him, with only one condition; that we accept this gift and place our faith and trust in Him.  No matter where our lives lead us, the sorrows or celebrations that we encounter, we can trust in Him and know that one day we (if we just take the gift) will live with him in glory.

Romans 5:1-10:  Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoiced in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

We do not know how 2014 went for you and what surprises or heartache you encountered, nor what lays in store for 2015, but we pray that you have the Hope of Jesus Christ to guide you through what ever comes your way and wish you the Merriest of Christmases!

With Love, The Migrins (Tracy, Eric, Asher, Avery & Emma)

Christmas Family Portraits

A few of our pictures from Portrait Innovations...