Rigging up the lights...

Happy Holidays everyone! Is everyone in the holiday spirit yet? Hello? *tap tap* Is this thing on?

I know, I know. I hear ya. Poor John spent most of the afternoon going through 500 white twinkle lights on our pre-strung tree trying to find out why most of the strands are no longer lighting up. I spent a good chunk of that time trying to keep Max out of his way. Not easy when you have a 2 year old who has no memory of a tree in his living room. It's fascinating stuff!

The rest of the late afternoon and into this evening, I've been gathering addresses from the remote corners of the house and my computer to update the file that contains my Christmas card address labels. I have mixed emotions going through each name. Some make me smile as I think about the card I've already received from them, if they are happy in their new home, or just general happiness that I'll soon reconnect in some small way with that person or family. Some make me sad as I alter the labels to reflect the losses that happened over the past year (two family members lost husbands).

Once the address labels are in place, it's time to stuff the cards. As I look at the smiling faces of my two boys, I recall the pains I took (and they endured) to get the perfect holiday card photo. My poor kids! I bought special matching outfits (a now annual tradition), dressed them up during our recent mini-vacation to celebrate their birthdays, posed them in various arrangements in front of the pretty fireplace at the lodge, and struggled to get them both to look at me AND smile at the same time. No easy feat! They fought me every step of the way...but it doesn't show in the end result.

Will this discourage me from making a similar effort for next year's holiday card? Nope. I put up with the same pains when I was a kid - the itchy wool, mall Santas with the smell of booze on their breath, my brother kicking me in the shins, mom licking a tissue to wipe a smudge off my face or licking her hand and smoothing down my fine flyaway hair, being posed again and again, forced to act affectionate to my pesky little brother when all I REALLY wanted to do was kick him back (love ya Mike!) Ah memories.

If you are lucky enough to receive a card from me this year, please take an extra moment or two to admire the artistry and effort that went into making it. Ha Ha! No seriously. And I apologize for not doing a newsletter this year (the first year in a 10+ year streak of newsletter writing.) I went back through my blog and photos from the past 12 months and realized that nothing really interesting happened to us this year. That's not a bad thing! I'll take a news free year over one full of health woes, job loss/stress, major life changes or lots of travel for a nice change of pace. Boring is good!

OK. Enough stalling. Back to stuffing envelopes full of holiday love and cheer sealed with a generous helping of Tyler's spit.