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| One of several pieces of stationary that I used this year. |
One of the first things I do at the
beginning of each December is to write our Christmas letter. That's
what I did last week and as I started to finish it by signing, “June,
Ward, Wally, and Theo,” I paused and wondered if it were time to
take the kids' names off and just sign it from Ward and me. Wally and Theo are out on their own now
and it would really be more appropriate for them to send their own
letters and cards. This
thought made me a little sad. So I struggled with my emotions that wanted things
to be the way they used to be, but realized that they weren't.
So what did I do? Well, I let it
percolate for a couple of days and decided that I wasn't fully ready
to acknowledge our empty nest this Christmas. I signed the letter,
“June, Ward, and the two boys who are out of the house, Wally and
Theodore.” We'll see if I can get away with that next year.
(((HUGS)))
ReplyDeleteI understand. Each year our signature line gets shorter and shorter...lol
But now you have a little one to talk about and show pictures of. :)
DeleteI think it's fine that you included the boys this year. Truthfully, there are very few guys I know who would send out Christmas cards/letters on their own, so at least this way, people can still feel connected to them (or so I would be telling myself if I were in your shoes--I'm gifted at rationalizing!!!!!).
ReplyDeleteI think my kids are typical in that they will not send out Christmas cards on any regular basis. I asked them if they wanted their names included and they didn't care one way or another. Clearly, this is a mother thing.
DeleteAwwwwww. I feel your pain. I solve that problem with no Christmas cards…:( Actually I haven't sent them out in years, and I've never done a Christmas letter. I don't receive many either, as I'm assuming I was pulled off of lists because of non-reciprocation. A couple years back I was so annoyed with the cards I was getting back that I decided to stop the whole Christmas card thing. People I haven't seen in a while would just sign their names. Not even a "how have you been", or "thinking of you". Seemed impersonal so I stopped taking the time to write in my own cards.
ReplyDeleteI like catching up with people so I send out a Christmas letter. I enjoy getting them and many people say they look forward to mine. However, what I did differently this year was not write an additional personal note/letter with each one. That always made it very cumbersome and I didn't enjoy the process any more. I wrote a few personal notes in some but not every one. We'll see if that makes a difference to anyone this year.
DeleteI still include our college age son in greeting to those he is friendly with, but have others that are just from TheHub and me. Kind of confusing but we send out 3 very different types of cards for 3 very different groups of friends and family
ReplyDeleteI'm not ready to send out three different types of cards, but it would solve a lot of problems. It is very nice that you customize that way.
DeleteI really don't customize out of choice, but out of need. The ones I send to my good friends are a little tongue in cheek and would not be well received by everyone. My relatives fall into 2 different camps, those who like snarky and those who would strongly object, so they get a traditional Merry Christmas greeting ( along with all our business acquaintances), the third card is a generic Holiday Greeting. We have many friends and a few relatives of different faiths. We don't want to offend them at all so it's a secular greeting. Takes a little time, but I have my Christmas card list subdivided which makes it easier.
DeleteI do a generic Happy Holidays for everyone and write Christmas greetings on the ones who celebrate Christmas. And for the ones who are very religious, I do a religious stamp. Occasionally, I do include a silly card for a few. So I guess I do a bit of customization myself.
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