Harlem Lovebirds: The Annual Holiday Card Debacle (Or Better Late Than Never)

We had a holiday card for 2012 but never shared it. See what had happened was . . .

It was mostly because we left the day after Christmas for Nigeria but right before that I fell down the subway stairs while wearing my Lil Love bird fracturing my ankle (undiagnosed for a couple months) and we were packing up to prepare for our move across the river that happened a couple weeks after our return from our trip. {Thinking back to that time gives me a headache, and I'm SO glad it's over!}

A couple months prior to that I saw a free holiday photo event offered by photoOp. It was a great sitting experience for Nia despite it being a cold, yucky day last fall. The staff was super friendly and there were even snacks. We ended up with a wonderful photo of Nia in her festive gold dress ~~that was ridiculously expensive for a single print~~, but unfortunately it took forever (meaning it was nearly Christmas) to get the photo from them. It kinda made ordering holiday cards a challenge without this one particular - it was our favorite! We usually do collages and send them as a Happy New Year card to avoid the bum rush of Christmas cards that people get and this photo was going to be the main one. So without further ado, here's the 2012 card that was only sent to a portion of our friends and family (I was so embarrassed to send this out around March!):

I used Kodak Gallery which is now Shutterfly

And here are the previous years' cards . . .

Anyway, I have a dress I've been holding onto for a couple years for Lil Love Bird to finally wear this year as well as her hairstyle in mind for her photo for our 2013 card, but now I need to pull together family pics of all of us throughout the year for the final collage.

What are your thoughts on annual holiday cards? Too much of a hassle or a must?