by Sarah Pinnex

After a full day of sewing Nutcracker Ballet costumes, I realized last evening that I hadn't even thought about sending out Christmas Cards this year. Usually, I meticulously take a family photo, order prints, and execute a large mailing. But, we need to go digital this year, or the family will be forgoing the annual holiday card.

I have been using Cozi for the past month to help keep our family organized. My favorite features of Cozi are the calendar and shopping lists, because it allows my husband and I to communicate and access our information from any computer or phone. So, I wasn't really sure how I would use the Cozi Family Journal... until I realized I could use it to create a digital Christmas card.

Here’s the virtual Holiday card I created today to send to our family, using just a picture and a short message. 

I can email it to the family straight from my Cozi journal, or I can publish it to the web.  Pretty cool, and it only took me 5 minutes!  Now THAT fits into our busy schedule! 

A Family Website for Non-Bloggers

As a blogger, I didn’t think I would use the Cozi Family Journal beyond this, but just to try it out, I also created a family journal and posted it on the internet. Turns out, this is a great feature for non-bloggers to get the function of blogging without all the work of setting up a separate website. And if you want it to be private, it can be. 

Also... and this is REALLY cool! Cozi can build in nicknames for your family members to display on the public site!  When you look at it, you'll see "Sarah," but when the public views your journal, they'll see "Super Mom." Woot! You definitely don't have built-in privacy controls like that on a traditional blog.

I don't really share every day, mundane things on my blog. So I may just end up using the Journal as a way of posting things that my family would love, but I may not want to share with all my blog readers.   

Finally, I’m loving the easy integration into Facebook. I put the Cozi Family Journal Facebook App right on the sidebar of my profile, so I can send any particular update to Facebook in a snap.

Off to sew on some more sequins...

Get your family organized and on the same page with Cozi, the free online family organizer.

Sarah Pinnix is the author of Real Life Blog, and a mom to three beautiful girls-ages 8, 6, & 4. Her blog includes personal family stories and faith issues, as well as tips, reviews and giveaways. A former piano and voice teacher and avid performer, Sarah can be found on a variety of new media forums including MomTV, the High Country Mom Squad, the Wii Mommies website and BlogTalk Radio.