Stress + Christmas cards!

 Oh man bloggy friends. It's been a crazy week. I took a one day trip to Chicago to check out event space for one of my biggest events in January. Flew in, saw nine places, and flew out. I was spent to say the least. I've got a trade show, a one-day trip to Dallas and conference here in Houston all before Dec. 4th. Ahh!

pretty Chicago Fall

To say work stress is creeping in is an understatement. And it won't stop until mid-February. All of this is good, because I like to stay busy, but having Q4 and Q1 events hitting me simultaneously is eating my lunch. I haven't even had time to get holiday stress! Which, it's still a ways away before we dive into the crazy world of Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I'm trying to plan ahead a little bit so I can enjoy and not stress. 

So the real point of this post: I just bought our Christmas cards!! 

 

And I am in love!

 

Even cooler, I bought the cards today to catch the $25 off & free shipping promo on minted.com, and can just upload my pictures later. They just know the way to my heart by encouraging my procrastination. Just pick your design, pick the 'full proof' option, pay and voila. They send you a link where you can edit your picture, shipping options, addresses or even how many you want to order!

Matthew is a little bit Christmas card shy, but there was no way he was wiggling out of it this year. Since we have no kids or pets, the picture part is kind of a struggle. Oh, and we totally skipped the easiest Christmas card year of all - the one where you slap on a wedding picture and call it day - which would have been last year for us. Or the year you buy your first home - also last year, and we missed it. Whoopsie.

And too bad none of these pictures will work from our first Christmas as Mr. and Mrs. That's because auto timer and placing your camera on the counter is not a conducive strategy to snapping family portraits. Seriously, camera tripod is at the top of my list this year! 

Nevertheless, I found a design that I think is super cute that doesn't totally make me feel weird for sending out a picture of just Matt and I (sans kids or pets). And I'm really excited about it! Eek! The holidays are a coming!

Anybody else sending out Christmas cards for the first time? Where do you usually shop??

 

Shine Bright like a Diah-mond in 2013

Here are some scenes from NYE, we toasted and went to dinner solo before braving the crazy rain In downtown Houston. We messed with the self timer on the camera for the first time, call me crazy but we just might need a tripod In the near future. I also tried to capture Matthew popping the cork, but I missed it! I'm seriously in love with the camera, taking lots of pics over and over in multiple settings. I never know what I'm gonna get and Messing up is half the fun! All in all it was a great New Years, filled with lots of laughter and well wishing with our peeps. It was somewhat bittersweet as we felt this year was such a big year for us, and it was finally coming to a close - but we shared our resolutions and agreed to take on 2013 with just as much gusto!

I'll be updating this post sometime this week with my resolutions - mostly for myself and for accountability reasons. I have them all fleshed out but want to add some structure to them! I wish everyone the best in 2013, mucho amor - Tessy