When
it comes to Christmas traditions at our house, I have to confess to
being one of those folks who not only writes out a newsletter, but I
love receiving holiday newsletters from our loved ones. In
fact, I archive them! Some people, perhaps even the majority of
folks, scoff at the tomes written by individuals in lieu of a
Christmas card – they are considered boastful and impersonal –
but they don't have to be looked at that way, especially if we
consider the season and the concept of unconditional love –
accepting everyone, especially our loved ones, just the way they are.
In
the beginning, I sent Christmas cards. It seemed too impersonal just
to sign my name, so I started adding messages to each card. After a
while, the messages got longer in an effort to update people I had
not seen. And then the messages began to all sound alike, so why not
type up one version and pass it along to everyone?
One
year I realized I was sending a Christmas card along with a picture
of the girls and a typed update. That seemed like too much – so I
streamlined with just the newsletter and a picture of Sarah and
Amanda.
After
a while I tried to have a theme for the newsletter that interwove
with the update of our lives for the past year. And while I like to
stick to the highlights, I tried not to sound too boastful. The
newsletters got long mainly for my own creative outlet, and so then I
tried to scale back.
When
Mike and I got together, he helped me figure out how to include
pictures on the newsletter instead of separate snap shots. The
newsletter got long again so as to include Mike's children and
eventually the sons-in-law and grandchildren up to this point in
time. Nowadays, the creative challenge is to come up with a theme
which is a holiday message for the reader, a succinct update of
everyone which is neither too boastful nor too humble and not too many words, a picture page collage that
encapsulates the year and includes all.
This
year the theme was merely a repeated thank you to everyone in
our lives special enough to be on our Christmas card list. A batch
went out in the mail yesterday, and another today. The remainder will
go out Monday after purchase of more envelopes and stamps. And some
will be sent by e-mail. We send out a lot more Christmas greetings
than we receive – but we would not know how to pare the list.
Sometimes we run into folks we have not seen in years, some of them
from Mike's list who I had not ever met before, and their faces light
up when they see us because they know us so well from the annual
newsletters, and it is clear that they have enjoyed receiving them!
So
to those who scoff at the Christmas newsletter – I don't care.
Writing them, sending them, receiving them – this is one of the funnest
parts of the holiday for me – every single year!
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20151219 We had a good year...
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