Deployment Christmas cards
Tomorrow, our Christmas card makes its grand debut on the ole blog. This year presented a challenge because Mac has obviously been in Afghanistan all year. We’ve taken an enthusiastic approach to wearing matching outfits in our cards, and this year was no different. Last year, I found these awesome Virginia Tech Christmas sweatshirts through Campus Emporium (a Tech store in downtown Blacksburg), but they were sadly sold out.
I happened to be on their website back in September, saw they were back in stock, and ordered them right away. After I told Mac about them, he was onboard with the idea of wearing them for our Christmas card. Here are a few of my tips for Christmas cards during deployment.
1. Decide on your card photo and theme. This was easy for us: a photo card with matching sweatshirts. You could decide to use a photo taken before they left or one from midtour leave. You can also do the no-photo route. You will see with our card that we chose a two-photo opening card.
2. Be prepared. And flexible. I mailed Mac his sweatshirt in October. I wanted there to be enough time for it to get to him and enough time to come up with a Plan B if it got lost in the mail. He had the unit PR person take a few shots in their office, so he had to wait for a good moment when they were both there and not too busy. I had my mother-in-law take some of the cat and me because the cat and a self-timer don’t mix. Fun fact: Christmas in 2015 will be on December 25, so this makes it pretty easy to plan. I would plan to nail them the Christmas card outfit and props at least six weeks out.
3. Pick out the actual card. I’m a big fan of Shutterfly because they love $20 off coupons during the Christmas season. Yes, I’m the obnoxious customer who places three separate orders to get the best discounts. I narrowed down my choices to a top few before I had the photos in hand. I made our final choice after playing around with the actual pictures. Despite my best efforts, I neglected to count how many cards we actually needed, so they won’t be mailed out before Christmas for the second year in a row.
Can’t wait to show y’all the finished product tomorrow! Merry Christmas Eve!
