Last night I was up until 2:00 a.m. working on my “Christmas Letter.”
Yes, I am deeply aware that today is January 7. I don’t know what happened. Well, I do know what happened. My husband didn’t harass me about writing the Christmas letter until after Christmas. And even then it wasn’t harassment as much as wondering when I was going to get it done. I am in need of harassment, I guess, to get things done.
But hello? I had to shop and wrap and decorate and cook and clean and . . . oh, do I sound like a whiner? A complainer? Because I am not whining nor complaining but merely explaining.
I was busy.
That letter is my 19th annual letter. I started writing letters after we moved (for the fifth time in three years) in 1990. It’s weird, completely weird, and perhaps people are just lying to me, but throughout the year, people tell me they are looking forward to my Christmas letter. Then when Christmas cards and letters begin to arrive, they have handwritten notes on them: “Can’t wait for your Christmas letter.” This year, on New Year’s Day, one of my husband’s long-time friends (from junior high!) called to ask, “Where is my Christmas letter?”
The pressure! So, I wrote a Christmas letter a few days before Christmas. Then it took me a few more days to edit it. Another week passed before I got pictures done to tuck into the card. And this week, I finally started printing letters and labels (you cannot even imagine how I struggled with that task). Last night, I began to sign letters, fold them, shove them into envelopes with a picture–and that’s when I saw that the 20 cards (with slots for pictures) didn’t really fit into their envelopes. So I trimmed each card. What a delight. Who sells a box of cards with ill-fitting envelopes?!
I had to handwrite some addresses and stuck labels to other envelopes.
(THIS IS SO BORING. I’ll wrap it up quickly now.)
At any rate, it was 2 a.m. when I finally turned off the computer and printer and went to bed. I took my daughter to school and went back to bed from 9 a.m. to 11 am. . . . bringing my grand total of sleep for the night to about eight hours. Then I got ready and rushed to the post office so I could buy 90 one cent stamps to supplement my old postage stamps. I bought a roll of new stamps. (I cannot believe a first-class stamp is 44 cents. I remember when they were ten cents.)
I still have twenty-four letters to either photocopy or print out. Then more labels to slap on more envelopes before stamping them all and dropping them into the mailbox. I only hope I manage this before Valentine’s Day so I don’t seem like an even bigger loser than I already do.
And that was my grand accomplishment for the day: Bringing Christmas cheer to friends and family in January. Because I’m tardy for the party.
(Better late than never.)
Actual Unretouched Photo 
Now you’ve got my curiosity piqued! You can send one to me, too, haha!
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If it makes you feel any better, most of mine are still sitting in a box on my desk waiting for me to add personal notes then mail them. My problem though is that I really look forward to any personal notes I get with Christmas cards and letters so I don’t want to be a hypocrit and must add personal notes!
On a related note, I reread your letter from last year just a few weeks ago when I was looking through last year’s pile of cards/envelopes to get updated addresses. It was a great letter and I only hope that I am a lucky letter recipient again this year.
On another related note… your card/letter from me are in that box on the desk… and you may not get it until Valentine’s Day! lol
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My husband and I went to see Disney’s “A Christmas Carol” today.
No longer in the IMAX, no longer in 3D, but we SAW it! I slept through part of the ghost of Christmas present, but since we were the only people in the theatre, I don’t believe it counts.
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January is such a dull month, a bit of cheer is great!
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I have to add…we get an annual Christmas letter from a couple we know that has to be THEEEEE most BORING Christmas letter in existence. Month by month, practically day by day. She must make notations on a calendar or something. What is particularly awful is I HAVE to read it!! I mean, I can not NOT read it. I guess I keep thinking it’s just GOT to get BETTER! And it NEVER does!!! Hahahaha! ;-P
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Some people make jokes about Christmas letters and I have never gotten it. I used to do these letters and I have always loved getting them from people.
And, the sleep thing, I get too. I’m in a bad non-sleep cycle right now too. I’d say it is floating around the blogsphere, but I haven’t kept up with my blogging lately. So, your card may be late, but you TOTALLY have that on me!
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One year, a friend of mine didn’t get their Christmas cards done until Valentine’s Day. So they sent Valentines instead! I look forward to getting Christmas letters every year. I am the loser who doesn’t write them, just reads the ones that I get. I think you are a much better person than I am for diligently sending one every year, even if they aren’t quite on time.
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I have a friend who writes a poem of four-line rhyming stanzas every year for their letter. There are usually eight or ten stanzas. I used to make fun of it. Now I look forward to seeing how hard she had to work to make that stuff rhyme. It’s pretty funny.
At least you don’t have to do that!
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I went to the post office today to retrieve my piece of joy you were sending out, but apparently my name wasn’t near the top of your list! Oh well – I’ll keep waiting.
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