The Great Christmas Card Debacle of '08

Create your very own custom Christmas cards with adorable photos of your adorable kiddo - GREAT!!

Visit Staples to have them print and cut said custom Christmas cards - sounds great ONLY if there isn't a language barrier and your so called "Print Specialist" knows exactly what size you want him/her to print...which is about 4.75 x 6.75. Purchase (50) 5x7 envelopes expecting them to be just cozy enough for your lovely Christmas cards which will supposedly be ready in 2 hrs. Head to Starbucks, all is well!

Return to Staples later that day only to find the "print specialist" has printed your custom Christmas cards as miniature wallet size. Grrrr.... But you can't make a scene because, well, it's not very nice or mature, right? Not to mention they're still holding your thumbdrive hostage, which was like handing over your first adopted anyway...if nothing else, you MUST get your thumbdrive back.

Wait a few days to calm down, because really, should one get that stressed over Christmas cards?? Visit Staples Round II and hope a different "print specialist" is on staff, which is the case BUT their machine is broken. Grrrr....back to Starbucks.

Visit Staples Round III - different printer person but not a "specialist", machine is fixed, told there shouldn't be any problems and you'll receive a call when the order is ready. Twenty-four hours later, you find out the job hasn't been started because they cannot figure out how to print anything. WHAT?? Oh, wait a second...they're not a print "specialist." My bad, I expected too much I suppose.

4 hours later, get a call from the specialist that your cards are done, finally, and they are the size originally requested. Yippee!! Still feeling bad, so take a dose of Nyquil and call it a night.

This evening, still feeling the effects of the Ny@uil, you decide to start afixing the address labels and stuffing/sealing the envelopes. All 50 are complete but you realize you need just a handful more. As you explain to your loving husband exactly which envelopes to buy from Staples and where they are located in the store, you pick up an addressed/stuffed/sealed envelope to use as an example. Your husband starts to snicker a little, then snorts, and you get really angry because he's obviously not paying attention to how important these envelopes really. Men!

And then you see it...the reason for all the snorting and snickering...the horrible result of combining Ny@uil with the great Christmas card debacle of '08. On the envelope in your hand, you've somehow managed to place the return address label where the delivery label should go, and the delivery label where the return label should go. Frantically you start going through your stack of 50 and realize THEY ARE ALL WRONG!!

Now come on - - it really shouldn't be this complicated, should it?! Stupid Ny@uil...

Oh, and if you're one of the 50+ receiving a card from us, you WILL ooh and awe over it, and you WILL like them and be impressed with the creativity and time it took to make these! :-)

Happy Holidays!