Christmas Cards

Sending Christmas cards is one of my favorite holiday tasks. I've sent my own Christmas cards out since my freshman year in college and have always gotten them in the mail right after Thanksgiving.

Not this year, though. This year I just mailed them on December 15.

There were are few reasons for the delay.

For weeks I was in a big debate with myself about going the easy way out and doing a photo card from Kodak Gallery or Snapfish or one of those sites. I poured through their designs and there were many that I really loved. My hang-up was that those cards leave very little room for a personal, hand-written message, and most of them are not very religious.

You see, I can handle most of the commercialization of the Christmas season, but I take pride in always sending a religious Christmas card. For the past several years, I've purchased our cards from Ministry of the Arts a group of wonderfully talented Sisters of St. Joseph. This is our card this year. And, I also ordered a few packages of this card for our Jewish friends and some others. I like it because it isn't specifically for Christmas but still feels very spiritual to me. I also take pride in hand-addressing my cards and writing at least a short note in each one.

For the past two years we've also included a photo of Lucas in the cards. This year that was also a major hang-up. You see, our digital camera died a few months ago. I know we are getting a new one from my parents, but in the meantime, we needed a Christmas photo! So, I bought a disposable camera and we took an entire roll of Lucas in his wagon outside--in our front yard and at our local park. There were three good ones and one great one. We're thrilled with it!

So, on Saturday, just a few weeks later than I would have liked, I felt the satisfaction of putting 67 beautiful, religious, hand-addressed, photo-enclosed Christmas cards in the mail!

If you are one of the lucky people to receive one, Enjoy! (And sorry to be so late this year!)