On Thursday, I spoke a little bit about Making Your Christmas Decisions Now — and I hope that my words didn’t feel like a whole lot of talk about what you should cut out of your holiday, without much talk about what you should put into it. There was one more thing I wanted to put into words but didn’t quite have a grasp of yet.

Which is probably always the case, but ya know.

When Jesus spoke up, announcing the beginning of His ministry He said:

God’s Spirit is on me;
he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
to announce,
“This is God’s Year to act!” (Luke 4:18-19, the Message)

There is a marked difference between the person who says they follow Jesus because of what they don’t do, and the person who says they follow Jesus because of what they do.

I am hungry for my life to speak His Name in action, for the world to see His people living in the name of Love. And when we celebrate the Father sending His Son into this world for us, I want it to be about Him!

So add that to those other thoughts if you will. And share some of your own, if you like!

Insert here, mayhaps, an unceremonious segue into a discussion of something I do very much enjoy, as a part of celebrating the Savior’s birth.

We are blessed with an incredible team of ministry partners, which you are welcome to join, by the way. They pray for us and partner with us to make our ministry possible. Some have even been supporting me since I boarded that plane in Atlanta to head for Scotland! Wowzers! That was six years ago!

And in addition to sending regular newsletters to report back to our supporters each month, we send Christmas cards at the end of the year just to say weloveyouthankyouthankyouthankyou and this time around to also say, lookwe’vegottwoboysnow,whoohoo! If only the cards would give me enough space to say everything I wanted to say with spaces.

ha.

We’ve had decent experiences with a few different companies over the years, but last year I designed our cards and my Mom’s Christmas cards with Shutterfly and they were beautiful. If I do say so myself. We also designed the cards from the first year we were married with Shutterfly with a sweet little picture from our wedding, but I don’t have that one to show you. Sowwy. Just imagine them being precious. Cuz they were.

I think I showed you a screenshot of ours from last year:

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{The Tank was still on the inside!}

And after I did that one we took some photos at Thanksgiving for my Mom’s and I designed hers with Shutterfly, too and it was a Stationery Card and the quality of the paper was lovely — it was like nice card stock instead of photo paper, if that makes sense.

I loved it!

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{That’s my nieceypoo in case you don’t know. She’s a darlingpreciousangelpumpkin and she’s presently working on potty training!}

They have some gorgeous new designs this year, and I think this one might be my favorite for showcasing my favorite photo of the year, thankyouverymuchmyHeroHubs.

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However, this one is square and requires extra postage and I don’t think I’m gonna spring for that. But look at that fresh, yet vintage little red bird! I love him!

So here’s the good news. Today we’re giving away, for you and a friend, a trip to Turks & Caicos with two first class tickets andÒ€¦show ’em what else they’ve won, Vanna…

I wish.

But seriously.

I’m giving away 25 Free Holiday Cards at Shutterfly to three readers who are just lucky enough to have stumbled across this site today. Or else you’re here all the time, in which case, are we related?

I’m kidding again.

But seriously.

I have a brainbuster of a question for you to answer in order to enter to win this giveaway.

In the comments, tell me about a favorite memory from Christmas when you were a kid. Or, tell me about one of your favorite Christmas traditions. Or, tell me how you’re planning to Love More with Less this Christmas. Or, tell me whether you read this blog, and if you do, why.

You can pretty much talk about whatever you want, but don’t be cheeky.

The Bear will randomly select three winners out of the singing cookie jar that the Tank likes to play with. As soon as we can get it away from the Tank.

Just comment by Tuesday, November 1st, 12 midnight Eastern Standard Time.

Then you can head over to Shutterfly and look at their cards for this year. Hopefully in a few days you’ll score some for free!

xCC

P.S. Behave yoself and just enter once. If I discover you’ve entered more than once, your name won’t go in the singing cookie jar. I’ll email the winners their special codes to get their cards on Wednesday and announce ’em here. Amen.

P.P.S. You can have an extra entry if you like this site on Facebook. It’s the right thing to do.

P.P.P.S You can have one more entry if you subscribe to this site in a reader. It only seems fair.