Doing My Card-io

I haven't mailed most of my Christmas cards yet.

Yes, I know. I can hear you gasping in shock. I usually have them drawn, signed, sealed and stamped by the day after my birthday at the latest. But life has a funny way of leaving rocks in the path of efficiency.

My first clue that this would be "one of those years" was that I had no ideas for the Christmas card. It has become tradition that I design my Christmas cards. I usually start thinking about this in September. From September through Thanksgiving, our weeks seemed to fill up with visits, family events, activities and the occasional illness. It didn't help that Thanksgiving came as early as it could possibly be. The last week of November, I was panicked, because I didn't even have a sketch of an idea. I decided to focus on it and managed to design and ink in one Christmas card design.

And then I lost it. Before I could copy it. I spent days sifting through papers on the desk, and the piles of books and papers in the living room where the kids do most of their living. No luck.

You might wonder why I go to all this trouble. The stores are full of cards. I probably have enough just from all the cards my various charities sent me. Many of the people on my list probably won't send a card to me. Some of them don't even celebrate Christmas.

For me, cards give me a moment to think about each person I'm writing to. Even if I only write "To---, Love---," I am still spending time remembering these friends and family who are so important to me. It's my own Advent meditation. The cards have also become a family effort. Hubby (tech support) prints out the labels, sometimes Marina helps fold and she also does some hand coloring to highlight parts of the design. Chase and Sierra like sticking on the return address labels and the stamps. Oddly, no one likes licking the envelopes.

You will be happy to know that I gave up looking for the missing card and came up with two new designs. I'll post them on my blog in a week or two for all of my blog readers. The cards are finally printed and folded and the writing process has begun. And so, of course, today I found the original design, face down in a closet.