Christmas Cards *By: Sharon

It's that time of year again...time to send Christmas Cards. Christmas cards have very little routine at the Simon house, except that at Thanksgiving I start talking about the fact that the cards must go out and that the family needs to get to the mall to take a family picture. David almost inperceptably winces before forcing a smile to his face and asking "When is the picture appointment?"

Once the picture is taken care of, there are other steps to accomplish as well:

1. Make a list of recipiants.

2. Order Picture cards (the ever popular card and picture combination).

3. Get actual Christmas cards for the wallet-size pictures which come with picture packages (we're not wasting any pictures, we had to trade a year of Colin's education to get the picture package......can I say Outrageous?)

4. Buy stamps.

5. Remember how to use mail merge so that I print labels instead of hand-writing all the addresses.

6. Hand-write the addresses for the labels that didn't print correctly or had an incorrect address. I always end up writing about 20% of the labels because I don't print labels well and when cards are returned to sender for incorrect addresses and/or our friends move, I forget to update Microsoft Access.

7. Write a note in the cards.

8. Lick the back of the envelopes to seal them. Why hasn't the stationary industry figured out that we don't want to lick envelopes? I know, there are some some cards with 'peel & stick' closure but I always manage to pick ones that must be licked.

9. Take them to the post office.

The steps above are a clear explanation as to why there is no routine to Christmas cards at the Simon house. They have gone in the mail as early as the day before Thanksgiving and as late as mid-January. In fact, I think there was a year that cards didn't go out at all.

So, this year, I decided to do something just a little different. I bought cards in January '07 during the post-holiday sales. I used a picture of the kids that I took in September '07 so that the timing of our annual family picture was not an issue. I ordered prints and picture cards. I put a limit on the number of cards that would be sent out. I didn't write a note in each card. I enjoyed every minute of this year's Christmas cards.

The moral of the story? Christmas cards don't have to be stressful!

Advice of the day:

*If you didn't get a card from us, don't be offended. We love you, we just knew that you could love us without receiving a Christmas card.

*When you open a Christmas Card this year from anyone, value the effort that it represents. I know I will. Whether someone has 2 cards to send or 200, getting a card to you or me was an effort.