The Christmas Card!

Tonight with chaos all around me..presents to wrap, groceries to buy and a to-do list that seems to multiply overnight, I decided to take a break! Curled up in my favorite reading chair with the glow of the Christmas tree lights in the room, I began looking through all of the Christmas cards that have arrived in our mailbox over the past few weeks. I just love Christmas cards, beautiful religious types or humorous ones but my favorite are photo cards. Sending cards at Christmas seems to quickly be a thing of the past. Oh, I know too well the hassle of taking the picture, ordering the cards, double checking addresses and we will not even discuss the postage rates! For the past 26 years, I have swore it would be my last year to do so but like giving birth you forget the pain and just enjoy the prize of your labor so I round up the family and we take one more Christmas card picture!

1994

2004

                                                                                                                     

The very first card my husband and I posed for was at the place we met and this collectors item announced our then recent engagement! The cards have always been photos, majority have featured our two children growing up over the years and from what I hear, plastered on refrigerators across the country. More recently, I took to adding a letter with the sorted detailed of our lives with a twist of humor. Be glad I practiced on those folks before I began blogging! Promise to keep sending photo cards and a letter if my family will keep posing for the picture, sure hope to find a card or two in my mailbox next Christmas as well.

2011

The Wish List

The second most important book other than the Bible in our home during the Christmas season when I as kid, was the Wish Book! Sears produced a magnificent catalog of toys and gifts any child could wish for. The Wish Book was held with great respect and you waited patiently for a turn to glance through the pages and dream of what to write the bearded fellow. When my time finally came after my older sisters had already neatly folder down the top corner of the pages where the items on their wishes were located …I savored each and every page. It was time to make my list and writing in my best cursive taught by Sister Alberta to make sure Santa could read my scribe. After the list was complete, outstanding behavior was the order of the day till Christmas Eve because He checked his list twice and knew if you were naughty or nice. The wait was tough, wondering what Santa would bring…he always delivered more than I deserved.

This year as I asked my husband and children to give me their wish list so I could begin my Christmas shopping, they in turn asked for mine. Given some thought, my wish list was short and could not be found at the mall. The past year taught me much about blessings and discovering them after they are gone, if only briefly. One of my wishes this Christmas is for good health for my loved ones & me.

What is on your wish list this year?