holiday gift guide: you can't go wrong with photo gifts

if there is one present we know will bring tears to the eyes of grandparents at gift-giving time, it is when we present any gift with photos of the family in it, on it or around it.

shutterfly has some choices that really have me drooling for the holidays.  how about this photo that is printed right onto a canvas?  no worries about picking out the right frame or mat (or the added expense).  now your loved one can have the photo ready to hang as the perfect decoration:

if you want something a little less permanent, there is always the classic photo calendar. i have never done this for the grandparents, but i love the idea of picking out photos from each season of the year to include. each month brings a new surprise and a new fond memory of the year before:

for myself, i really want one of these photo books. i don't scrapbook and we only have so many places to put up photos in our home, so most of my kids' pictures live on our computer. i would love one of these to keep on our coffee table. i can picture many hours of flipping through one of these, either alone or with the kids, reliving our favorite memories and laughing at the silly things the kids did. shutterfly has a "simple path where you choose the pictures and they put together the book for you, or a "custom path" where you do more of the design work yourself.

of course, since i have christmas cards on the brain, i couldn't resist a look at the selections of photo cards that shutterfly has to offer. i love this one because the photo dominates the card:

so many decisions to make, so little time! i can tell that i will be spending some more time on shutterfly's site trying to narrow down my choices to make a good decision for gifts and cards!

in return for writing this post, shutterfly has offered me 50 free holiday photo cards. regardless, the thoughts and opinions expressed here are purely my own.