This year’s card features Leila, our adopted black lab and the newest addition to our family. She is leading Santa’s sleigh through twilight in the Green Mountains of Vermont. The photograph is a combination of eight separate images blended together. It all started with a great photo of Leila.

When Leila first joined us she was very shy. She would barely come out of her kennel for almost two weeks. Finally she responded to Becky playing ball with her. It gave her a focus and she came out of her shell. It turns out she loves to play frisbee, ball, and most of all, diving into the water to retrieve toys. The photo is the card is actually her diving in to retrieve her toy from a nearby lake.

The mountain is actually Jay Peak taken from the gondola. The church down below is from our friend’s collection of Christmas houses. The lone house on the crest of the mountain is one of ours, and has been featured in previous cards. Santa’s sleigh was found as a display in front of a local hotel. All of the images were sized and composed in Photoshop CS3.

Printing the cards has become so much easier than the early days. This year’s card was ordered through Apple using iPhoto. The interior design comes from one of their templates.