Christmas Cards

Over at Pikes Pickles, is a short post about how she loves getting the annual Christmas cards and letters each year. She asked the question "how do you feel about Christmas cards. My "quick comment" got longer and longer, so I figured I'd just put it here as an official post instead.

The Traditional Annual Christmas letter... I LOVE getting them in the mail. Tim is the mail opener at our house. EXCEPT for Christmas cards. I rip them open as soon as they come. I then display them somewhere in the house (usually the kitchen so I can look a them more often) for the month. When it is time to pack away the Christmas stuff, I file the photos and letters, organized as families, in sheet protectors, in a binder I call "Who's Who? - Who's Where?" It is so fun to flip through the pages and see the Christmas letters and photos. Each year as I add the new photos to the binder and I flip through each family's pictures and marvel at how they've grown and changed. I often end up pulling out letters and re-reading them. It takes me WAY to long to get this particular job completed. And I LOVE it!
Also in the binder I keep copies of all of the letters and photo cards we have send out for the past 8 years. I love to look at the changes in my own family. It is just fun see all 7 photos, all in a row, and see the changes. I'm running behind this year and haven't gotten this years letter and photo done yet. Ive got 2 pictures I'm considering using, but I don't really like either of them. I'm going to try one more time tomorrow, and if I don't get a picture I love, I'll just have to "settle."
The only thing I don't love about the whole tradition is that the price of copies and stamps and photo cards keeps going up; and when you send out close to 100 letters, it really adds up - but I love the tradition too much to give it up. (Much to my husband's chagrin. His opinion is that I should "just send an email.")
I just got my friend Adrienne's card in the mail today, and she had a great idea. She just put in a little paper that said instead of an annual letter, she just invited people to check out her blog instead. (By the way Adrienne - you (and the whole family) look absolutely beautiful!) We'll have to see what I do this year... I need to hurry. I've told myself I have to have them done and in the mail by next Wed. Wish me luck!