fall has finally arrived to the bay.

just look at those magnificent colors!  the weather forecast is in the 50's and the sky has a nice cloud sheen -- it's about time!  all this magic, wet, cold, and cloudy weather helps me accept the fact that it is actually NOVEMBER! it's the end of november.  i still haven't accepted that, but i'll get there. 

andrew and i have been talking about our plans for the holidays.  it's hard to make decisions, especially since it's my first time away from north dakota, first time depending on another person's schedule along with mine, and first time with a husband (ha!).  so, because andrew's quarter ends at the year's end and he needs to have the year restart before his vacation time gets reset, we cannot be home -- nd -- for the holidays.  our compromise: thanksgiving in pheonix, christmas in sacramento, new years is still in negotiations -- nd is on the table for early january.  perhaps new years, perhaps two weeks in, and perhaps i'll just leave the hubby in california to make the journey!  that would be mean, i know.

a fun part of not being home for the holidays?  sending presents and cards in the mail!  I. LOVE. SENDING. STUFF.  nothing makes me happier than having people open up their mailboxes (or getting a piece of paper from the student union) and seeing an unexpected package!  so, all presents & christmas cards will be mailed, which actually makes sense.  i think a part of being married (or at lease the first few years) is forming your own traditions and being joint at the hip for all functions, whether you want to or not!  one tradition i would like to start: sending out a holiday card to all of our friends and families.  i used to love looking at all the christmas cards (especially the ones with pictures) on the kitchen door starting right after thanksgiving up until the last christmas decoration got stored away in january.  i know my mom put together a christmas card (including a carefully critiqued letter) each christmas and sent it to a list that she would edit throughout the year.  i want that!  so, for the past couple weeks i've been browsing through shutterfly & looking through all of the photos from the wedding -- who wouldn't put out a picture holiday card when they have all these professional photos!

shutterfly is what i used to order our thank you postcards (incase you were wondering), so i know they meet my standards for producing exactly what i want.  newsflash: i'm picky. so, i dove into their holiday card templates and here are my top pics:

cutesy yet fun.

multiple photos -- lovely.

by far my favorite! hello sparkling lettering.

so simple and nice.



i like the prospect of multiple pictures on this one -- again, we have so many great wedding photos that this might be the one!



as you can see, there's so many options!  of course, andrew will only weight in by saying "that's too girly," but who listens to him anyways?  either way, one of these bad boys is going to end up in your mailbox, so hang tight!

one more plug: great personalized calendars!  and one more time i'm going to state that we have all these great wedding photos & you can include so many!  here's the link if your curious on how fabulous these little gems really are: http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars.

*I’m receiving 50 free cards from Shutterfly for this post, and if you’re a blogger, you can too! Follow this link and check it out! Click here!