Warning: You might want to turn your audio down before hitting play.
Tonight, I put some Christmas music on (Harry Connick Jr., Charlie Brown Christmas, The Carpenters and Diana Krall on iTunes party shuffle), printed out our Christmas card address list, gathered this year's card selection, address labels and stamps and sat at the coffee table near the Christmas tree to start our annual ritual. I didn't always enjoy this process. When we first started this tradition, it had the scent of obligation. We would receive warm holiday wishes in the form of cards from the mailbox. It was such a nice feeling to actually receive mail that didn't suggest or demand an extraction of money from us, that we figured it would be nice if we provided a source of that feeling to our friends and family too. Prior to that year, I had written plenty of Christmas cards, but it was generally delivered to my family on Christmas Day in person. This ritual, this tradition was different. Family was now in different corners of the country and we wouldn't always see each and every one of them over the holidays. I poured the foundation on the ritual when I opened up Microsoft Word and generated the matrix of names and addresses (in alphabetic order of course).
Our Christmas card list includes both family and friends. Some friends we have come to treat as family. Other friends have drifted away such that the Christmas correspondence has become our sole communication. I have argued with myself that maybe those folks should be dropped off the list. But every year that I have received cards from them, I enjoyed hearing from them. Whether it's their holiday newsletter, telling us what their family has been up to in the past year, or a simple signature on the inside of the card. It has me thinking about them, the times we'd shared in the past, the gratitude that we were on their Christmas card list. The same thing happens when I pick up my Pilot G-2 fine point gel pen to write out their card. Whether it's fond memories of the last barbecue we had with them or wondering what they're up to now, we're sending our best wishes out to them at this time of year.
It's a process that goes well with Christmas lights and Vince Guaraldi Trio's jazzy O Tannenbaum. I guess it's just another way to count the blessings we have in friendship and kinship.
