December 08th, 2020

The Christmas Cards have begun to arrive.  I'm always so impressed with people that are so on top of the holiday that their cards arrive early in the month.  Wow!  Clearly I'm not one of those people.  I always mean to be, but then somehow, I'm not.  At least I'm consistent.

I do love getting Christmas Cards!  They are so colourful and glittery and jolly and fun.  Every day in December I'm smiling as I walk to the mailbox, excited to see what awaits me when I open that box.  How many cards have arrived?  Who are they from?   I love seeing them, reading them, hanging them up as decorations in the house. 

I even enjoy sending Christmas Cards. Every year I take forever deciding which cards to buy, then as I sit down to sign the cards and address the envelopes (and put stickers on the back of each one) I am thinking about the person or people that I am writing to.  Nice memories of our times together and hoping that when I hear back from them, they are happy and healthy and having a great life. 

The thing that slows me down on the Sending End of it, is writing the Christmas Letter.  I know, I know, people are very divided on the concept.  We are very Pro Christmas Letter. We truly love to receive other people's letters, to read them and find out what's happening in their lives. It's the next best thing to sitting down over a cuppa tea and some cookies and catching up. Especially with loved ones who live far away.  

And if I'm want to receive Christmas letters, then I kind of feel like it behooves me to send Christmas letters.  Turn about, after all, is fair play.

Even though for the first time in a long time we do live near at least some family, we have even more family far away.  And we have friends that we've made throughout our lives that we want to stay in touch with even though we haven't seen them live and in person for a long time.  

While not everyone has the time or feels the need or wants to try to squeeze in that One More Thing to bother to send out an annual Christmas letter in their card, (and I totally get why some folks do not!) I am always surprised at the large number of folks who do.  Tip of the hat to them!  Some folks even send photos which is something I really love.  Occasionally Tim and I have included a photo in our cards but not often.  

I usually sit down with my calendar in front of me to compose our letter.  Y'see, I always have one of those freebie calendars that our town hands out every year.  It has pretty photos taken from around the area, one for each month, and nice big squares to write things in.  So if, for instance, Tim and I took a trip somewhere, it would be on the calendar. Or if we had work done on the house, or guests visiting, or anything else worth mentioning, it would be right there.  Just enough to jog my memory so I would have an idea of what to write about.

Then after reviewing the year, I would sit at the computer and knock out a review of our year, email it to Tim who would then make changes or additions as he sees fit.  He then prints out however many copies we need.  Then we could write our cards, address our envelopes here and there over the following few days and put them all in the mail. Taadaa, one more thing checked off the list.

This year was a little different.

I sat down in with the calendar before me and I already knew what I would find.  Not much.  It 's been such a strange year. Obviously we didn't take a vacation. Most people didn't.   There were no big projects. There was, well, not much. Hmmm.  This letter was going to take a little more thought than usual.  I toyed with the idea of not bothering to write a letter this year at all, but tradition is tradition and I like a challenge.

So I've been turning the idea this way and that, trying to create something that represents Tim and I and our life and this past bizarre year but is still a upbeat and positive while balancing sensitivity to everyone we are in touch with. Wow.  That's a big order.

I've given myself until the end of today to compose this letter.  Sometimes I do better with a deadline.  I am curious to see what it ends up being.  But I'm even more interested to see what other folks write in their Christmas letters to us this year.