By Monday, they should be at their destination — delivered to mailboxes, which if anything like mine, will be full of the too-familiar chorus of catalogs and flyers — each shouting for attention with color and bulk — drowning out the rare voice of a personal greeting — like that annual Christmas Carol of mine.
I Imagine most on my mailing list will make quick work of their mail. Like me, they’ll sort. Then make short stacks — one to discard now; one to discard later. And in so doing, they’ll come across that little card. It will stand out because of its handwritten address — not done by computer, made to look handwritten — and the mere sight of it — if they are anything like me — will make their hearts sing. Oh, the joy — that comes from receiving a piece of personal mail.
My Christmas cards always contain a letter. The tradition grew out of handwritten notes which in recent years, graduated to being typed and professionally printed. Many tell of how they enjoy my letters, how they look forward to receiving and reading them — how my words inspired them to pen their own annual letter. One friend on my list has a rather small printing: she sends out one. And this — I probably don’t have to say but will anyway — makes me feel all-day special — for many days.
Yet, I wasn’t up to writing and packaging my year in 500 words or less this time around. So sans letters, I sent out cards.. And in a year where I’ve written so little, relative to others — releasing them into the world without weight of personal words felt right — in keeping, in harmony, in tune with my year. And at this moment, in the now, I can’t imagine any will mind. Most, in the busyness of life, won’t even miss my missive — why, if truth be told, I probably wrote more for myself than any one on my list.
But while at peace with the act of going letter-less, what wouldn’t go away was a desire to make my greeting personal. And with a wish to put my best face forward — and other faces in my family forward too — I enclosed something better than a letter — a glossy little card, offering a small collection of six black and white images — each depicting joy, peace and hope, to harmonize with my card’s printed message:
“May the gifts of peace, hope and joy be yours at Christmas and throughout the New Year.”
No need to embellish these words with my own, I thought when I found them. But how good and right to underline them — to show rather than tell, as they instruct in the world of writing — with faces of joy, hope and peace from my everyday life. And so I did. The photos were easy to choose. The first, captured last January — seconds after her birth, almost a year ago now — is of my newest granddaughter, Reese Caroline, with her newborn parents. The second, a cropped photo of our new front porch leads to the third, an already poignant photo of Don this past June — where he sits at his mother’s kitchen table, in front of a lit birthday cake baked by his dying mother — in a wordless poem, her back is turned to the camera. Four, five and six celebrate the wonders of an October wedding. And all of these, I pray, let me never forget.
***
Go now, my best bits and pieces of joy, hope and peace for 2011. Make your way into the world, as I cover you with this borrowed benediction from a favorite pastor: Today. Always. “Go in peace. Not in pieces.”
Hallelujah! My little Christmas Carolers. Handel with care.
an everyday life 
I have done this for years. From home to home, family news, picturs and this year will not.
Guess I feel not much more to share. I have arrived home and so much I share on my almost daily journal.
Finding out that my grandchildren and some of their friends are reading my entries, along with children and many I know who do not tell me.
Guess that is enough at the present time.
Maybe next year there will be some new new or special pictures.
At the present – life just continues on…..
“And that life continues on…”
Yes, Ernestine, these are good words to land on — and I’m glad you’re able to write them and I’m able to read them.
Much of what you say I’ve thought — the blog entries — even as few as I’ve done — seem enough this year. Those who wish can catch up on our lives — and we with theirs — through checking of blogs. I love how your grandchildren and their friends check yours — I don’t think mine — the older ones, of course — even know this side of my life. But one day — yes, one day they will — and they’ll find stories I’ve written about them and know how much I love them. And how much I love life — the sweet, the bitter and everything in between.
Not writing that letter is a nice way to begin Advent, don’t you think?
Janell
Thanksgiving was a nice holiday, but I’m having (ahem) a dickens of a time with Christmas this year. With every new holiday task – baking cookies, decorating, doing cards, etc – I’m suddenly reminded that I’m no longer able to share it with Mom.
However! I did buy cards, and Christmas stamps. Now, we’ll see if I get them done. I do very much like your inclusion of photos rather than a letter. Some Christmas letters are pure joy, but most get just a bit tedious. 😉
To echo Ernestine — life continues on, but after the loss of a parent, it goes on differently. New traditions supplant old ones, or maybe old traditions continue reinterpreted.
Memories always seem thickest around the holidays — appropriately, Dad’s favorite holiday movie was “A Christmas Carol” and he always made a big production of watching it — Mom didn’t really watch movies, but was famous for baking a two-layer red cake.
Monday will mark the fourth anniversary of her death — and I want to say — has it just been four years? It seems much longer — especially as I think of all that has happened without her — Kate’s graduation from nursing school, the boy’s college graduations, Bry passing the CPA exam, three children married, one grandchild born, and the sell and purchase of personal residences — and I almost forgot the restoration of Sis’s place and my brother’s re-marriage! Zoom, zoom, zoom — see the life mile-markers fly by… .
But I trust you’ll do what feels right rather than forced — and that what gets done will be good.
Totally off task — but isn’t it about time for “Dickens on the Strand?” If so, I bet there might be a few Christmas Carolers floating about in full costume this weekend not far from your place. Wish I were there to check it out….
Janell
Dickens on the Strand is this very weekend! I’m going the other direction, though. I’m taking Princess for her first road trip, to visit friends west of Kerrville. Just as phone calls can be better than emails, so visits can be better than phone calls!
Sounds lovely — I bet Kerrville, if still the charming downtown I remember — is all gussied up for the holidays. And yes, there’s little better than those face-to-face visits. Enjoy!