Christmas letters

Christmas virtual bouquet

I have been writing form Christmas letters since 1986 when I had a really bad year and didn't want to keep writing bad news over and over so I thought this way I could write it once, photocopy, and send.  Then it became a habit-I threatened to quit doing it but I actually had people tell me I wrote the best Christmas letters.  It became one more Christmas tradition.  Now with email and Facebook it really seems redundant.  Also if you want to put nice coloured pictures in it, it is expensive to reproduce.  My letters tended to run to three pages which also makes it difficult to stuff in with a small Christmas card.

I could just email it off as most people have internet, but now that I have become the recipient of Christmas letters, I know that it is nice to have them on real paper to read I guess.

Now that I am retired, I seem to have blogs galore (just check the side of this blog) where I post pictures of Vancouver and of my trips farther afield.  I also am a bit addicted to Facebook sharing pictures daily.  So the whole Christmas letter writing process didn't really thrill me this year.  I whipped the letter off and managed to keep it to one page.  If anyone wanted coloured pictures they could check my blogs, and I had ideas of doing a better version that I could email.  Well it is now December 17th and that hasn't happened yet-it may happen today but not sure about that.

the day I was having my annual Christmas party
last year there was a snowstorm

Last night I worked on writing my Christmas cards.  And somehow it just seemed like such a chore, something just to get done.  I reread my Christmas letter-definitely not the best and I seem to have a lack of adjectives, lovely being used at least five times.  As a teacher I probably would have given it a C+ if that.  Just thinking-I think in the past writing the Christmas letter was a bit of a fun change of scene after writing report cards

And then there are the cards-I always buy my Christmas cards at post Christmas sales.  I try to buy nice ones, but somehow they seem to be small, hard to cram papers into those envelopes.  I keep thinking of doing my own and last year did all my overseas ones digitally (and that will probably happen again).  This is time consuming to produce the first one but the recipients get them as real cards and I don't even have to put a stamp on them.

I have been torn between actually getting the Christmas cards to people before Christmas or doing them more thoroughly and mailing them after Christmas.  And when I was teaching I often ended up writing them late-i think one of the best jobs  I did was the time I was writing them on the ferry on a beautiful Christmas Day going to Victoria.  I could justify my late cards because that way you got a personal note as well as that infamous Christmas letter.

my dining room looking Christmasy

Last year I had to take my car in for something and I was writing them in the waiting room at the Acura dealership-they provide cookies and coffee and The View so why not.  There is also a big coffee table and a nice sofa so I could spread myself out.  They might find it a bit odd if I just sat there when my car wasn't there though.  Writing them last night in front of some Christmas movie didn't seem to be working too well.

Well this is a warm up so I will let you know if I come to a resolution but right now I think it's time for coffee and an ocean walk!  Meanwhile Merry Christmas!