Are you a Christmas card sender?<\/p>\n
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There must be many of us out there that send them because the stores are full of boxed cards, and often have many left over the day after Christmas for deep discounts.<\/p>\n
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I always buy my cards a year in advance.<\/p>\n
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As I pull them out from the decoration boxes each year to “prepare” them, I can tell what mood I was in when I bought them. Interestingly enough, I had just enough this year though I thought last year that I might have purchased enough for two years.<\/p>\n
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What do you do with your holiday cards when they come?<\/p>\n
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We’ve had some interesting rituals around Christmas cards in my house. I remember as a child we would hang them individually around the door frame with a small piece of tape so we could look at them more closely when we wanted to. Ours usually covered most of two door frames and, sometimes, we added them to the window sill over the dining room table.<\/p>\n
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When my son was younger we also did that. I often saw his little hands open them carefully to peek inside and ask about those who sent holiday greetings.<\/p>\n
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Today, I simply put my cards in my “star” basket and pull them out to look at them several times during the season. Last year, I left them in the basket and looked at them well into February.<\/p>\n
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While most of the cards are donated at the end of the season to a group that cuts the pictures out and makes something useful, there are some I just can’t part with. In my family memory books I have those scattered throughout the pages. Others I have framed and use every year to decorate.<\/p>\n
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Last year I got a card from people I didn’t know. That was a first. I’m still trying to figure out who they are.<\/p>\n
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This year, as usual, I have quite a collection.<\/p>\n
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For example, many of my family members and friends live in other countries – Wales, Australia, England, Germany, New Zealand to name a few. Those cards are always different.<\/p>\n
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The funniest thing this year about cards from afar is that I got two different cards from the same person…and they were both received on the same day! I checked with my family here in the US and everyone else received two as well.<\/p>\n
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I can only imagine what was going on when he did that. He likes to imbibe so perhaps he just didn’t remember writing the first ones and wrote them again on another day!<\/p>\n
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Then there are the religious cards. I usually get more of those than any other and have a problem every year deciding which one I like the most. This year there are three that speak to my heart…one from my sister, one from dear friends nearby, and one from a friend in the upper part of the state that invited me to our old home church recently.<\/p>\n
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The most unusual card I received has nearly 200 signatures on it.<\/p>\n
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It comes from the publisher of my book and has their logo built with a snowman in the middle of it. It was designed by one of their many talented staff members.<\/p>\n
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Then there is the card that came with no<\/strong> signature on it.<\/p>\n \n The inside says – “May all your Christmas wishes come true!” and then added are the words – “and then some!” Only reason I knew who sent that one is because there was a return address label on the back of the envelope with his name on it.<\/p>\n \n I called that friend and said I needed to come get his signature on something and let’s meet for a quick dinner. We laughed till we cried when he saw he had forgotten his signature. It made him wonder if he signed any of them at all!<\/p>\n \n Normally I would never have said anything to someone who forgot to sign a card. I think we all know he was probably in a hurry to get it done. It is the thought that counts, after all.<\/p>\n \n With this friend, however, we have an easy going and trusting relationship full of laughter and joy. This was a chance to enjoy time together…something we can all use a little more of around a rushed holiday season.<\/p>\n \n His card will be a keeper because of that encounter.<\/p>\n \n My wish for you today<\/strong> is that you will take the time to enjoy the cards you received and take a closer look at them. You may just have a good laugh, a gentle tug at your heartstrings, and a reminder of some fond memories … much more than just receiving a holiday card in the mail.<\/p>\n \n ~Joellen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Are you a Christmas card sender? There must be many of us out there that send them because the stores are full of boxed cards, and often have many left over the day after Christmas for deep discounts. I always buy my cards a year in advance. As I pull them out from the decoration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,24,27,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-holidays","category-humor","category-living-life-to-the-fullest","category-releationships-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}