In praise of the Christmas letter

Growing up, my family received a few Christmas letters. One family's in particular stands out. It went something like this:

This year started off with a bang. The family rang in the new year at Time Square. I am pretty sure Dick Clark winked at Kitty. In the spring, Katherine was inducted into the National Honor Society while Nathan placed first in the science fair. Both kids kept busy studying, volunteering, and staying active in sports. The summer brought a fun trip to the beach, although Red sure ended up just like his name with that hot sun! This fall Katherine was a beautiful homecoming queen and best of all, she found out she got accepted to Harvard! She is hoping she can continue to play volleyball there while she studies science. For now Nathan is just going to have to settle for being at the top of his eight grade class and fighting off the girls. Kitty and Red have stayed busy as well, with Red getting another promotion at work, and Kitty driving the kids everywhere, delivering meals to the elderly, and continuing to make her gourmet dinners. What a great year we had this year. We hope yours was good too. Merry Christmas!

Honestly, I wanted to hurl when I read their letters (which I exaggerated just a little). Years later, I have no idea where that family is, though I suspect they are not as perfect as their letters would suggest. But their letters made me resent getting letters for years. Even if the letters were not "look-how-great-my-life-is" accounts, I often felt as if I had accomplished nothing meaningful that year. And, on the other side of the coin, I would sometimes get letters from people who recounted everything good and bad. When you have to read about someone dying or in the hospital, that kind of sucks the jolly right out of the season.

But lately I feel different. I want the Christmas letters. I don't care how much people brag. It is just nice to know what is going on in others' lives. After all, the Christmas card or letter is the only remaining connection I have with some people. If I don't hear about their trials and tribulations, I won't know that Sally had another baby or that Tom's kid had to have chemo. I just can't (or won't) keep in touch with everyone throughout the year. Besides, don't you miss letters in general? I could write an entire post on that (and probably will some day).

I don't have much to report about this year, certainly nothing that would fill a letter. Anything I wanted to share I did it right here (since I refuse to get on Facebook, at least for the time being, this is all my friends are getting). So I will send out my Christmas cards that I am picking up at WalMart today (pray for me, please; I hate that place), and I will write little if anything inside the card other than our names. But know that I truly welcome your Christmas letter and I look forward to seeing pictures of your kids. I really do.

Why do they stand up there and say that when they are just lying?

That extra-long title is courtesy of my nine-year-old and was something she uttered during "Say Yes to the Dress" on Friday evening. I watch very little reality TV, but I make an exception for this show because I like to look at the dresses. And sometimes, the stories are heart-warming. Typically at the end of the show, a snippet of a wedding is aired. In this particular show, a woman who was confined to a wheelchair was exchanging vows with her fiance. After the two of them finished, J made her comment. I asked her what she meant as I must have been on the computer while the TV was on, and she explained that because so many people just get divorced, why do they even say "as long as we both shall live"? That is tough one, kid. I tried with what I thought was a sound explanation: Most of the people who get married truly believe they will be together the rest of their lives, but sometimes it just doesn't work out. But if you don't think that you will be ...

Do you ever just want to run away...

Yesterday's post was a rant about a fairly pointless two-hour delay. For the record, if it is snowing in the morning or if it has snowed throughout the night, I am not against a delay; the road crews have a lot of ground to cover. It is unfortunate for those who still need to get to work and are left scrambling to find child care or have to go in late. But I am all about safety. It is the temps that are clearly going nowhere any time soon that do not warrant a delay, again, in my opinion. It will be cold all day today. Having another delay today, once again, seemed pointless, but I am over it. ***** I had a rough weekend, and I have debated whether I should write about it. As my mom and one of my brothers are so fond of saying (though I will be paraphrasing), "Once you put it down in writing (on paper or in an email), it will always be there. You can't take it back." For that reason, when things weigh heavily on my mind, I don't always share them in this blog....

Disenfranchised Republican

When I went to vote this a.m., I handed my ID to the guy, since my last name can be tricky. He looked for several minutes in the box with the cards. Then he asked if I was in the right place (there is another area in this room, for people in a different neighborhood, I presume). And I told him that this is where I have always voted. He then reviewed the bound paper list, found my name, but could not figure out why it was there, yet not in the box with the cards. Then he realized what was going on and rather exclaimed, "Oh, you are a Republican!" One of the ladies sitting next to him said, "Oh, one of those." I said I assumed they had not seen too many of "my kind" that morning, and she said I was the third. Then, being the open person I am, I eagerly said I was coming to rock the vote and vote for Ron Paul. One of the women commented that she liked some of the things he had stood for, perhaps to try to make me feel as if I was not voting for a terrible per...

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