I am not up for a major cleaning/purging project today - it is too cold; I just want to pour a glass of wine and snuggle in for the evening. But, I am committed to this blog so I elected to clean out the beautiful wooden bowl that serves as my Christmas card receptacle every December. The bowl was a wedding present to my parents in 1956. My mother used it every December to hold her Christmas cards for as long as I can remember. When I inherited it in 1994, after the deaths of my parents, I employed it for the same purpose.
The joy I felt every year when I returned to my parents' home for Christmas and read all of the Christmas greetings sent to my parents is repeated years later when my daughters return home for the holidays and catch up on our longtime family friends by pulling the cards out of the wooden bowl.
I have been remiss the last few years and have not sent Christmas cards. I am amazed and pleased that my friends have not crossed me off of their lists. I must remember, this December, the simple pleasure a Christmas card can bring and resume my annual tradition of sending out Christmas cards.
This year the wooden bowl held 45 cards. A slim count by previous years' standards - but considering the economy and 42-cent postage (and my inconsistency as a Christmas correspondent), not too shabby.
I am not such an insane pack rat that I save Christmas cards*, but I do save the photos. Some will earn a place on my refrigerator door, the rest will be relegated to an antique wicker picnic basket that holds beaucoups of photos from Christmases past.
As I work my way through my house this year, throwing away some things (a lot of things) and donating others, rest assured that no photo will be relinquished. I have to draw the line somewhere, and photos are border-line sacred!
So, send me a Christmas card this year (you might get one in return) and it will have an honored place in the wooden bowl. Any accompanying photos will be cherished. Christmas letters - that's another story.
6 cards from people we do business with
19 cards from friends and family
17 photo-cards, or cards with photos included, from friends and family
3 Christmas letters
* I have referenced my grandmother, Big Red, in previous blogs and insinuated that she is partially responsible for my pack rat tendencies. For years she saved all of her Christmas cards, tore off the side with the colorful artwork, and sent them out the following year as Christmas postcards. Her rationale: The card cost her nothing and the postcard postage was cheaper. She was the original recycler.
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