Today we finished our Christmas cards.
On checking my super organised spreadsheet from last year, it appears that we sent out 52 carefully crafted cards and received…
a whopping 17!
As I was lamenting this I went through the list of those I sent, already whittled down from a hundred or so from the days of our youth (the youth who lived in our house I mean) and realised that nearly everyone on our list is a must-have-a-card candidate, my Mum, hubby’s Mum, and so on. Our distribution will probably remain constant again this year. But how sad, that people don’t send cards any more?
E-cards are such a let down. One they usually only go to hubby’s email and two, we never print them, so they can’t go on display.
Now if you know us, you’ll know that we go all out with our card. Receipt of a Merry Christmas from us is a gift in itself. It shows the creativity and loving attention we, as a family, put into greeting everyone on our list personally and extending prayers and prosperous thoughts for the coming year.
This craft based gift started many years ago when our children began drwing. We would look at some of their sketches and think
“Um…that would make a good Christmas card!”
We’d reproduce their art, use coloured paint pens to finish off the colours and then we’d send them off with a family photo and a letter.
The family photo was another matter. Always an ordeal we dreaded the sight of the tri-pod! It was next to impossible to pick the right time for everyone, so there were good hair days and bad hair days, clear skin and not so clear skin, fat and thin times, nothing to wear moments, tears, but we grinned and bore it and always took a sendable photo for prosperity.
Finally the photo became the card and these became very creative, from black and white creations to posing in front of a massive, photo shopped, Christmas tree in our living room which my mother thought was real! We’ve leapt for joy, and stood on a Destin beach with the boys added in as obvious cutouts, mis-sized and badly cropped!
This year caps them all, but you’ll have to wait until closer to the time because I haven’t sent any out yet.
Tonight my reading group will get the first round. The cards themselves are made from flock paper, highly patterned which adds marvellously to the kitch.
I still have the letter to complete, that will be included here too.
Again, not until later!
Well hello there! My name is Vivienne McNeny.
I am an empty nester exploring life as a Boomer…you could say I'm happily Boomering along!
As a homeschooling Mum I have finally quit the job of role model and mentor to my four children. I do what I want to do, eat when I feel like it, enjoy life with my blue eyed cowboy and clean my house once a month or so whether it needs it or not!
In true English form I write about the emergence of my true identity now that I can no longer hide behind my children as their Mum.
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