Christmas Cards, Repurposed

Just thought I'd share a fun idea for how our little family is putting all of those adorable Christmas cards, birth announcements, and change of address cards to use throughout the year.  It always made me sad to throw my stash of cards in the recycle bin.  I know how much people spend to send them out, and I love the pictures, but I don't love having my entire fridge covered with Christmasy images year round.  I used to hang them on a ribbon in my laundry room, but that got a little cluttered and I was ready for a change.  

After Christmas this year, I decided to do something with our cards that would actually be useful.  I stacked up the cards and punched a hole in the corner of each one.  Then I threaded them on a big binder ring (one perk of being married to a student is that I still have a good excuse to keep a stash of school supplies in the house!).  I would have tied ribbon on it or something to make it cuter, but I wanted to be able to flip through easily and let any card be on top without having a big bunch of ribbon stuck in the middle of the stack.  

I leave the stack on our kitchen table, and it serves two purposes.  First, it is a great tool for remembering to pray for our friends and family.  On most days I try to be good about flipping to the next family in the stack and praying for them with Riggins.  Second, it has been a great tool for Riggs to learn the faces and names of our friends and family members, especially since so many of ours live far away.  He is getting really good at picking out the people he knows, and is especially partial to the above picture of one of my besties, Meredith, and her hubby because of the "Kitty Cat!"  (It is also a great distraction when he is finished at the dinner table before we are, but we want to finish eating...he gets to flip through his "pictures.")

Anywho...nothing particularly noteworthy, but a fun, easy little trick for appreciating those carefully chosen cards throughout the year and a great tool for teaching your children the importance of interceding for those we love!  If you've sent a card to our family, you can count on our prayers, and you have a pretty good chance of being recognized by our kid :)