The Great Christmas Card Decision of 2011

I have been in Christmas card planning mode for ages, just not for us.  We send out an obscene number of cards during the holidays at work, and this year the task of designing those cards fell to me.  It was actually a nice diversion in the midst of a very busy season.  We ended up going with Tinyprints.com, partially because my aunt had just used them to send out some very cute Thanksgiving invitations, and partially because their prices and selection were the best I found.

Our work cards.  We decided not to use this family's photo, though, cute as they are.

So now it's time (some might say past time, but I've never been super on top of it when it comes to sending out Christmas cards) to pick ours.  I just can't decide which ones to pick!!  Some options:

Pretty and swirly but sort of subdued

Peppy and bright and almost Seussian

Sort of soft and snowy.  Maybe too snowy for a California Christmas card.  False advertising.

There are so many more too... and then comes the picture decision.  We didn't actually have pictures taken this year, so I have to choose from candids, almost none of which include all three of us!  Why, oh why, are we so terrible at posing for pictures at important family events??  Thankfully we have some cute ones from J's birthday and my birthday that will probably suffice.

Anyone have any awesome Christmas card tips and/or ways to actually get family pictures with everyone in the frame occasionally?  I could really use both!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I can't believe it's already almost here!  Yay for a four day weekend!