I noticed an unusually large number of friends in my Facebook newsfeed talking about how they put up their Christmas decorations this weekend. I’m usually all for putting them up the day after Thanksgiving—and I thought that was early!

After my initial WTF?! reaction, I got a little jealous. I’m all for spreading out the holiday cheer as long as no one is trying to spread out the holiday stress along with it. The truth is, the earlier I start thinking about these things, the less holiday-induced hives I find myself covered in come Christmas Eve. Instead of running around in circles with all of the other crazies at the last minute, the whole season is so much more enjoyable when I’m prepared.

I won’t lie. It doesn’t happen often. But this year I’ve been alarmingly on the ball. I started shopping before I even turned the calendar to November (that never happens, people!). And for the last couple of weeks I’ve been thinking about Christmas cards. Procrastination last year led to crossing cards off my list all together. I’m determined not to let that happen this year.

That said, I’m madly in love with the holiday cards over at Tiny Prints this year. Like truly, madly, deeply. There’s glitter and stripes and polka dots and trim options that make me get all giddy with excitement. I swear they have some sort of ninja working for them who climbed into my head, collected all of my favorite things and then made them into the prettiest holiday cards I ever did see.

Don’t believe me? Take a peek…

I’m a procrastinator. There’s no doubt about that. Instead of getting things out of the way so that I don’t have to worry about them, I inevitably wait until the final seconds and frantically pound out whatever the task is (always using the feeble excuse that I work better under pressure).

So it should come as no surprise that I did this with our holiday cards this year (although I’m patting myself on the back for actually doing them since my procrastination foiled my plans the last couple of years).

So. There I was last weekend with a discount code from Shutterfly that was about to expire. I decided that I absolutely had to use it since I’m amazingly frugal (which sounds much nicer than the truth: I’m cheap).

I was excited to use Shutterfly not only because of the discount but because I did Ellie’s birth announcement and a couple of photo albums with them and have always been happily surprised by the awesome quality you get for the price. But I digress.

I rounded up my girls, cleaned the snot and chocolate off of their faces, threw some festive accessories on their heads and placed them (ever so delicately) in front of the tree.

It should be that easy, right? Sit the girls down, tell them to smile and voila! A magical picture that captures the holiday spirit while simultaneously portraying them as perfect, sweet, little well-behaved angels.

Let’s just say we needed a round two later in the day.

After our second attempt, I was laughing hysterically. We had one usable photo and a slew of outtakes that show off their personalities way better than the nice shot could ever dream to.

What fun is there in perfection anyway? The real fun is while you’re trying to get there. Afterall, what stories do you have to tell if everything is perfect and everyone is well behaved all of the time?

I tried to make a card with a bunch of the outtakes but couldn’t find a (cheap) design that worked with the shots I wanted to use. I have to say, it came out pretty cute anyway (not that I’m biased or anything)–but you’ll have to wait to see what the final product looks like!

Do you have any funny holiday photo stories to share? I know I’m not the only one trying to wrangle up my monsters for the perfect shot!