A Slice of Smith Life: Our Family's Christmas Cards...Past and Present and Parents Magazine Feature!

Our Family's Christmas Cards...Past and Present and Parents Magazine Feature!

Last year, I wrote a post of all the photo Christmas cards that we have taken since the Smith family was established in 1997. This is an updated post with our current 2015 Christmas card added to the bottom of this post.

Our family has been sending out Christmas cards since the year my husband and I got married, 1997, and some years I have thought about not sending out a photo card, but I can't seem to stop the fun habit. :)

I love sending out our photo cards. (I don't write a Christmas letter, but sometimes I wish we started that tradition back in 1997 as a great way to document a year's worth of memories)

Our family also loves getting Christmas cards/letters in the mail. We display our cards around a kitchen door frame decorated with lights. (This is a door we don't use much.)

I also enjoy looking through our past Christmas photo cards and smile at how our family has changed and grown through the years.

I thought I would share the Christmas photo cards we have sent past and present so you can walk down memory lane with me :)

1997 Christmas Card

( Hmmm...I wonder what happened in July of '97? This is one of my favorite cards as it was the year the Smith family was established and I loved how our photo card had a church photo on it (that is cut off ) with the words "Silent Night".

1998 Christmas Card

1999 Christmas Card

This was the last year that it would be just the two of us in our Christmas photos. We were so blessed to conceive our first child in 1999.

2000 Christmas Card

In May of 2000 we welcomed our first daughter into our hearts and home. What a fun Christmas it was to watch how our daughter loved listening to all the Christmas music and playing with the wrapping paper. :) This was the year our daughter played Baby Jesus in a living nativity at a local parish. You know when you wrap a baby girl up in warm blankets and have her wear lots of layers, no one notices who is playing the Baby Jesus. :)

2001 Christmas Card

17 months after our daughter was born our son was born in October 2001. My oldest daughter and son get along well as they are close in age and my oldest never remembers life without her sweet little brother.

2002 Christmas Card

2003 Christmas Card

This photo card reads "We are EXPECTING you to have a merry and blessed Christmas! That was our clever way of announcing our pregnancy with Smith Baby #3. I was in the "yuck" phase of the pregnancy during this photo shoot and when I look back at this card, I remember that I was so happy to be pregnant again, yet I was trying so hard to smile through the nausea, hence the somewhat forced grin :)

This Christmas card is special too because Parents Magazine contacted me and used this card in a post titled 17 Totally Adorable Holiday Pregnancy Announcements. If you click on the title link and scroll down to #16 of 18, you'll see this 2003 card and a small paragraph about the card. What a fun post to be a part of!

2004 Christmas Card

Baby #3 came in June 2004 with a head full of black hair! She found her hands fascinating as she looks down. :)

2005 Christmas Card

2006 Christmas Card

2007 Christmas Card

In November 2007, our 4th baby was born. This picture was taken when we arrived home from the hospital. I remember our older children couldn't come to the hospital to visit their new sister because my oldest daughter was sick with a strep throat. :(

2008 Christmas Card

2009 Christmas Card

Yes, that is a wreath hanging from a tree limb in the middle of the woods. :) I was trying to make the woods festive :) I laugh at this picture though because of the Christmas wreath that seems to be hanging in mid air coming from nowhere :)

2010 Christmas Card

2011 Christmas Card

2012 Christmas Card

This picture was taken just after my sister's wedding ceremony in October 2012. My younger daughters handed out the programs and my oldest daughter did a reading during the service. My son was an altar server, hence his robe. This was another "We are EXPECTING" you to have a Merry Christmas" cards since we conceived Baby #5 in November 2012. She was born in July 2013.

2013 Christmas Card

This photo was taken in a Catholic church in PA when we went to visit my younger sister and her family for Thanksgiving in 2013.

2014 Christmas Card

These pictures were taken in September 2014 when my family had a reunion with my parents, two brothers and my younger sister and their families.

2015 Christmas Card

And this is this year's Christmas card. This picture was taken in August 2015 when we had another great family vacation at the beach with my parents and siblings and their families.

I hope you have enjoyed looking at just how fast our family has changed and grown through the years because it has been fun for me to think back to the many memories and blessings from the past years since our first Christmas card in 1997.

So do you send out Christmas cards and/or Christmas letters?

May you have a blessed and merry Christmas from our family to yours!