Greeting Christmas

The challenge has been issued: It’s time to get going on my Christmas cards. A good friend—who I’ll refrain from identifying but her name starts with J and ends with ennifer—started asking (nagging) me about two weeks ago. “Have you thought about what you’re going to do for your cards this year?” she asked, trying to keep me from procrastinating but secretly fishing for ideas.

I have brought this on myself. Making our cards started years ago, and I’m sure it was partly a way to save money. But since then, the pressure to top last year’s greeting keeps escalating. One of my early attempts included a Christmas letter written from the perspective of our dog (insert eye-roll here) and then I think the next year the letter came from the viewpoint of our newborn son (double eye-roll now).

Now, I might be in the minority, but I love getting cards with pictures of my friends and/or their kids, and if you enclose a corny letter, then I’m really excited. Just don’t drone endlessly about Uncle Roy’s hernia operation. That I don’t care about. I love hearing how your kids made the basketball team or about your trip to Mickeyland.

Somehow I have fallen into the routine of sending a photo of our kids one year and a photo of our entire family (and sometimes the dog) the following year. Thankfully—since I’m still not wild about my haircut—this year is the kids-only picture.

Taking a picture is a no-brainer, but I still have to write my letter. Last year I rewrote the lyrics to “My Favorite Things” and the year before was an ABC thing. This year, who knows? I might just break down and email a photo to Shutterfly and call it a day. At least that’s what Jennifer admitted she just did!