Christmas Cards

One of my joys at Christmas time is the sending of Christmas cards. In today's world of Facebook, My Space, IChat, Instant Messenger, telephone texting, email, beautiful greeting cards like Jacquie Lawson's amazing animated cards, sending physical cards through the mail may seem quaint.
But I'm not ready to give it up. For one thing, not all of my friends have joined the Facebook crowd. Some I hear from only once a year. But I enjoy that moment of catching up with people from my past - people who have been important to me. I even like the Christmas newsletters, because they keep that sense of connection that I think is very important. I send cards to people I've known since I was very young, to people I met in my junior high school years, my high school years, my college years, my Girl Scout years, my Boy Scout years, and friend whose children grew up with mine. And, most important of all, I send cards to our family members who are scattered from the east coast to the west coast now. Some of my card recipients live far away . . . two live just up the road from me.
But it is my way of saying each year: "You are special, you are remembered, I hope all is well with you!"
By the way, occasionally, I get to see some of these folks in person. It is amazing how often we are able to pick up right where we left off - catching up on what our families are doing, what we're doing, etc.
Whether you send snail mail cards, or e-cards, or emails, or text messages, I hope you take time to remember those special people in your lives.

Christmas Letters

In my morning reading:The Plot Lines of our Lives.

Being a self confessed hoarder (I'm working on it . . .) I save Christmas cards. Occasionally I do go back and read them and these Christmas letters provide a lovely history of the joys and struggles we've all faced as we walk through life.

While I can understand why some people may not like these letters - I have found over time that I do, because it allows me to keep up with what is going on with people I care about who live far away.

(P.S. The talk of mimeographed letters in the article - I now do mine using photoshop and a faded version of my Christmas card-hoping this adds a touch of elegance and specialness to my Christmas letters.)

Keeping Connected - The Christmas Card Tradition

From the time I left home, I've sent out Christmas cards. Out of the last 37 years there have only been a couple where I did not send out my cards. I keep a big list. You see . . . if you get on my Christmas card list, you almost never get taken off. I lose people when they move and don't leave a forwarding address. And, yes, sometimes people drift off my list as I like to send cards to people I'm doing things with, and so as my activities change, there are changes to "the list."

But Christmas cards are important to me. I grew up in Amarillo, but moved to the Austin area after my first year of college. I had good friends in high school - both through the school and through my church. I wanted to keep up with them. I met new friends those first years in college. I've kept up with several of them as well.

I've automated my system over the years. Instead of hand addressing them, I now use computer generated labels. And I finally started added a Christmas letter . . . but that only goes into the cards that I think the people would enjoy hearing our news. People I see all the time know what is going on. But I still take time to write notes into a very few of the cards for people I really don't get to see that have been special in my life.

As the years have gone by, we've lost people on the list as the generation ahead of us died. And we've had some casualties in our own age group as well. I used to use a Christmas Card Address book - I ended up marking it as these older relatives died. So as I addressed my cards . . . I would have an opportunity to bring them back to mind. With the computer generated list, I try to update it each year. But this year, I have several cards that I'll need to hand address - we lost friends and family again this year. Plus, I've got a few names to add that did not get added before I printed out the labels.

But my Christmas cards help me remember those special people. And I look forward to hearing from them, getting their Christmas letters that keep me aware of what has happened with them this year.

The last few years, I've been doing my own cards from photographs I've taken.

So for my readers who have not yet made it on my Christmas card list: I wish you an old fashioned Christmas filled with love, joy, and peace!

Christmas Cards on the Road

We only stayed in the Austin area a few days. We went by the Hubbard Museum of the American West to see my photos that made the exhibit. Then we spent four days at Bosque del Apache. We explored three other lesser known wildlife refuges in New Mexico.

But I knew that it was time to get the Christmas cards printed and delivered. I had done the preliminary designs in Amarillo. When we were in Austin we packed up the printer and the extra ink cartridges. One of the evenings at the Bosque I started printed out the cards. But, unfortunately, I ran out of a couple of colors of ink. So the next day at the mid-day break from photography we went back to Socorro where we were spending the night. We drove all around town looking for the office supply store we had located on the web. Turned out it was on the square. It was a cute little store with a little bit of everything. My printer requires 8 different colors of ink. They had two colors - not enough demand to stock all the colors. Naturally they were not the colors I needed. The other small complication in the first print run were some strange yellow spots. ARGHHH! But I did get enough printed to get one batch mailed off in Socorro.




When we drove through Albuquerque, we found the Office Depot near the interstate, and I stocked up. That night in the Comfort Inn in Las Vegas, we hauled all the stuff up the stairs to our room. And began the print process again. This time I was successful in getting all the cards printed and mailed off in Las Vegas.



And, for those that want to know, this Santa is VERY special - my kids know their daddy is the REAL Santa Claus!