Call me stubborn; call me a hold-out. But, I still believe in sending Christmas cards.
I believe in going to the post office and purchasing out some nice holiday stamps - even as the price continues to climb - and I love picking out some nice cards to send. When we got started, we found some lovely cards depicting cardinals in some yuletide scene. Over the years, we’ve managed to continue to find cardinal cards that we liked and, thus, the tradition has stuck.
It’s amazing to think of how many different scenarios we’ve found - redbirds in trees, redbirds in snow, Momma Cardinal; Poppa Cardinal, cardinals near churches; cardinals with Santa. We’ve done this every year since Year One when, I suppose, we stumbled into the tradition.
We even try to keep a couple boxes in reserve in case we are unable to find suitable cards on year. But so far, we’re doing ok.
Perhaps my favorite card is the one we designed, ourselves, on the occasion of our 20th Christmas together. We scanned thumbnails of each of our past cards and made a timeline of all 20 Christmases we had been together up to that point.
Maybe we’ll do another, similar, card when we get to #40?
The fact that we even HAVE all those cards leads me to confessing that we have, indeed saved them all along with a collection of many cards sent to us over the years. Downstairs, a plastic tub is filled with the library - volume by volume. Someday, Holly and Paul will have a nice treasure trove of family history (or some other ‘random’ item passed on from mom and dad - only time will tell which it is!).
Still, you have to give us points for establishing traditions. We’ve got a bunch of 'em!
And yesterday, on an unseasonably warm December Saturday, we renewed this particular tradition for yet another year. And when the post man came to pick up our mail, I was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt when handed him a stack of cards.
Outside, it only feels like Christmas if you imagine that we’ve moved to South Florida!
Inside, with some of our favorite holiday selections playing in the background, it felt very much like Christmas - especially as the four of us worked together on assembling our package. Each one of us signed, of course. Holly meticulously addressed each envelope while Paul went through the very nice Christmas card address book that Lisa’s mother purchased for us so many years ago.
I think she recognized, then, that we were interested in preserving this somewhat lost art form.
Anyway, Paul was the information man, looking up addresses of distant relatives, long-lost friends, former co-workers and old college chums. One by one, we made it through the alphabet from A-Y (no Z’s in the book this year).
As for me, I inserted the cards with a photo of Holly and Paul that was snapped during our summer vacation.
Lisa, meanwhile, enjoyed the warmth of the four of us together working on this annual family project. I think, for her, the togetherness is more important than the reason.
JG
(Source: The Globe and Mail)
Originally posted 12/9/2012
No comments:
Post a Comment