November hit and I had no idea what to do for a holiday card for my family. I tried to get family photos taken, but the plans fell through because of one of my kid’s soccer tournaments. So, I gave up and didn’t send a holiday card.
We took some family photos with my parents, siblings, and their families over Winter Break, but I knew it would be a minute before we got those photos back and we wouldn’t have them before the end of the calendar year.
Thanks to yet another soccer tournament in southern Utah, my little family was able to meet up with Arika from Zion Adventure Photography in Snow Canyon State Park for some long-overdue photos in early January. Arika took photos of my family back in the end of 2020 and we adored them. She really captured my boys’ personalities and they really felt like “us.” I have been privileged to get to do some graphic design work for her business too. In addition to amazing photography, her website is a fantastic resource for anything and everything when you visit southern Utah. She has info about hikes, tours, hotels, restaurants, adventures, and guides on her site. She has an in-depth guide to exploring Zion National Park along with blog posts dedicated to places to explore if you’re only there for a weekend. Every one of the big, national parks has a bunch of sights in their vicinity that are worth exploring too.
I had plans for our holiday card to simply be a Happy New Year card, but then changed it to celebrate the Lunar New Year, since we celebrate that too. 2026 is the Year of the Horse, both mine and my youngest son’s years.
I went with simple dark reds and some gold horses on the card and I hope everyone who received one was pleasantly surprised to get theirs in early February versus mid December. Lunar New Year starts on February 17, 2026 if you didn’t know.
The back just had a few highlights that my family had in 2025.
I went with metallic gold envelopes from Cards & Pockets. They are beautiful and much less expensive than Paper Source. I’ve done cheap envelopes from Amazon before, but the adhesive was crap and I had to tape every one. Made the whole process take much longer. I print addresses on the envelopes with my trusty HP LaserJet printer. It takes less time than handwriting each one, and less mistakes.
I had the cards printed with Overnight Prints. I’ve used them a few times in the past and I’ve always been happy with the quality and price. These were 5x7 postcards, full color, two sided, and it was about $35 for 100 cards.
Overall, I never want to spend a ton of time on these, but I do want something to send to friends and family each year; especially those who we don’t interact with regularly.
I hope you have a prosperous Lunar New Year!