You're a mom. You can do anything. (yes, even manage your money)
Start today and download my FREE Mom's Got Money starter pack!
You’ll also get updates from me.

Wishing You A Merry Christmas + Up to 50% Off Shutterfly

  December 18

This post may contain affiliate links.

decoratingforchristmasHello dear readers! I wanted to drop in and wish you a very Merry Christmas, and I also wanted to share some holiday photos of my family and home. We really are feeling the Christmas warm fuzzies this year, and the kids are so incredibly excited for the big day (picture them yelling “Santa! Presents!” multiple times a day.)

Life/Health Update

We are really ending the year with a bang, or at least a little bang up. Last week, I had surgery on my sinuses. I’ve been suffering with a lot of sinus related migraines and pain the past few months. It made it hard to work and look at my computer screen, so I decided to schedule a surgery and get it taken care of while work was a little slow around the holidays.

Unfortunately, during my surgery last week, there were some big complications with my eye, and I ended up having an emergency eye surgery half way through the sinus surgery. This is why I’ve been pretty much completely out of it for the past week.

On Tuesday, I go back in for a second surgery since they were not able to completely finish the first one due to those complications. I’m a little scared, and I’m hoping things go well. I’m still having a lot of pain, and I’m super ready for it all to be over with.

Needless to say, I’ll be taking it very easy over the next week or two, and this will likely be my last blog post of the year. I have a lot of amazing things planned for next year and have been working on a small design refresh too for the site for the New Year. I’m excited about what 2017 has in store for me, and I hope it will be an amazing year!

Decorating for Christmas

I think subliminally I knew that I would not be able to do a lot during December because I purchased all Christmas gifts and holiday decor in November. The tree is up, the gifts are wrapped under the tree, and we’re so excited that The Hubs is off on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the whole week after that. It’s a huge deal, and I’m sending out lots of love to his co-workers who will be working over the holidays so the twins can have their Daddy home with them during this special time of year!

My home is also feeling very spiffy this holiday season. I love decorating for Christmas, and I partnered with my friends at Shutterfly for the fifth year in a row to really bring in the holiday spirit. Even though I’ve worked with Shutterfly every holiday season for five years now, I actually had no idea how many different types of gifts they have on their site. I always get Christmas cards and photo gifts from them, but this year I took some more time to look through their site, and I was able to get gifts for my entire family from one store, which is so easy and awesome.

I wanted to mention this because today is the last day to get standard shipping from Shutterfly in order to have gifts arrive by Christmas and everything is up to 50% off right now. Woot!

Just to give you an example, I had no idea that Shutterfly had beautiful jewelry (I got a bracelet for my sister with her kids’ birthstones on it and she LOVED it.) They also have table runners, glassware, coasters, and more. I think when people think of Shutterfly, their minds automatically jump to Christmas cards, but when I sat down to dig through their site I ended up getting tons of pillows and blankets to make my home really Christmas-y!

Here are some pictures of the customized blankets and pillows I got for my living room. What can I say; I’m southern, and I love monogramming things. #notashamed

shutterfly4

shutterfly1

shutterfly2

Our Holiday Pictures

We ended up getting professional pictures taken this year. We don’t do this every year, but I came across photos by a talented photographer named Monica Allen and I just fell in love with them. We got really lucky and had amazing weather. I was supposed to pick 10 that I loved and honestly could NOT narrow it down. The pictures came out so gorgeous, and I just cherish them so much!

alfordfamily1 alfordfamily3 alfordfamily2 alfordfamily4

My favorite part was finding out that Monica, our photographer, is actually also married to a resident physician who works at the same hospital as my husband. So, I love that she is such a #momboss, taking care of her two children and running a successful business while balancing everything. I know how hard it is to keep everything afloat when husbands work as much as ours do, so I was thrilled to support her in her endeavors. It made it all that much more special.

Of course, I loved all of our pictures so much, I ended up picking a photo card that allowed for a million pictures. Shutterfly came out with a new type of card this year called glitter cards, and if you know me, you know I was all over that. Glitter = Awesome.

Ultimately, I’m just so happy to be here at home getting ready to enjoy Christmas with my family. As many of you know, 2016 has been an incredibly challenging year from so many perspectives for us, but I feel like we fought our way through some of the bad moments and have arrived here at the holiday season.

I can honestly say that I’m happy to be here in Michigan looking out at the snow and finally adjusted to our new life here. My kids are really happy right now and enjoying making cookies and playing in the snow, and again, we just feel really lucky that The Hubs will be home for the holidays, because there are many kids out there who have a parent who is a medical resident who won’t get to have their mom or dad home this year for the holidays.

I’ll definitely be back in a few weeks to share some great content for the New Year. Until then, I’m wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas, and if you still need to get some last minute gifts, I hope you can snag some of the deals on the Shutterfly site today.

Lots of love,

Cat

7 responses to “Wishing You A Merry Christmas + Up to 50% Off Shutterfly

  1. Cat,
    So sorry to hear about the eye complications. I be sending you healing thoughts and prayers for the next surgery.

    I agree — the pictures are fabulous and it would be impossible to narrow them down! They are all different and all wonderful.

    Meanwhile your house looks cozy, warm, welcoming, and full of love — one can tell just from the pictures.

    Wishing you and yours a snuggly, sweet time together on Jonathan’s WHOLE WEEK off!

  2. Hi Cat,
    You’ve been busy behind the scenes. My wife also has issues with her sinus but was never offered any type of surgery. I’m sorry things are a bit rough for you right now but it will all be over with before you know it. Lovely photos of your family. Your children are growing so fast. Happy Christmas to you and the family.
    Mr.CBB

  3. I really hope this second surgery is a success. A couple friends of mine had sinus surgery and said it ultimately helped a lot, after the recovery.

    Your family is so beautiful! Great photos. And I had no idea Shutterly had all those products!

  4. Sending best wishes for a successful surgery and speedy recovery, and Merry Christmas!

  5. Nice family pictures, Cat! Monica Allen is really a good photographer, and I’ve seen her portfolios and they’re awesome!

Comments are closed.
Copyright © Catherine Alford.  Designed & Developed with by LizTheresa.com