Day 3

Christmas cards...do you mail them? do you email them? how many do you send? who do you send them to? how do you decide? do you get them out on time? do you feel guilty about not sending them? What's your story?

I am a Christmas card junkie...i would send hundreds if i could afford it. I have had to cut my list year after year...adding some here and there. I'd like to write notes in them, but really what do i have to say to a High School classmate with who the only correspondence i have is a yearly Christmas card? Should i even be sending one then?
I love to go to the mail box in December....though sometimes i feel a bit like Charlie Brown when there are no cards in the post that day. I love to get "real" mail. Mail i WANT to receive, not bills or advertisements. Not stuff to throw away. Maybe that is why i like to send Christmas cards. I hope that my card in someone's mail box will brighten their day just a bit.

Do you make your own cards? send photos with them? use the boxed variety you got on clearance last year?

When our son was born, we started a tradition of photo cards. Oddly enough 7 years ago, they weren't quite as in vogue as they are today. I had a darkroom and would print each card by hand...on post card paper. At the time it was a very inexpensive way to send a fairly personal card. It forced me to hand write or stamp a greeting. It was a family picture..and those who have saved them have a record of how our family has grown and changed through the years. They were black and white and very artistic, IMO, and lovely. A little piece of art sent through the mail to loved ones.

Now we are in the digital age. Everything is computer based. Even i who refused to give up my film and chemicals finally gave in. The darkroom is no more. I don't even think the post card paper still exists. We order prints online. We order cards online. They get expensive! Not to mention the postage. I can't keep up with it...honestly i have no idea how much postage is today it seems to change so frequently.

so for 7 years i have dutifully sent out a family picture for our Christmas card. It has i have to say, turned into quite the hassle. My BFF use to come and take the pics for us...but she's so busy now. Last year i had a pro friend of mine come and do them...but then i had a horrible time getting them printed well. They really didn't do justice to his amazing shots! Again, i have to go through a big production for that. This year i took the easy way out.

See that amazing photo of my kids? It was taken in September at a chain photo studio ( shudder to think!) I bought enough so that i got the disc with all the pictures on it....no more negatives! so i uploaded it to a website and have ordered 40 prints to go out in Christmas cards. I did get 10 'free' photo cards when i purchased the original photographs...so i will send those too. But really , where does the madness stop? I have about 20 or so others that I'd like to send cards to, but the cost it getting too high. So, i will try to do some online card and email them....and hope that something worthwhile in their in box will bring a smile to their day...even though it,s not in their mail box at the curb.