Making a list, checking it twice…

That’s the song running through my head as I am addressing the last of the Christmas cards this evening. 

I admit it:  I am one of “those people” who write Christmas card letters.  I know some folks don’t particularly like to read the annual updates… but I do!  I want to hear what is going on in my friends’ and extended family members’ lives.  I love seeing the family photos—including the pets!  I enjoy watching the changes as the children invariably grow up.  Every card, note and picture bring me joy. 

My list includes people from different parts of my life.  There is an elementary school teacher and high school drill team coach.  A family who gave me a college scholarship.  A Japanese girl who stayed on our dairy farm for a few weeks one long ago summer.  Exchange students who lived with our family in the past few years.  An incredibly nice woman in Finland, whom I met while traveling alone in Germany—we’ve exchanged cards for about 30 years! Former English students of mine in Brazil.  Friends of my husbands from his childhood. Friends of mine from elementary school through college.  Our kids’ friends’ parents—who are now are friends, too.  Friends from clubs, boards and church groups.   

This year, I am further inspired by our Thanksgiving Eve Zoom call with my mother’s side of the family.  We are scattered now in Mississippi, Wisconsin, Illinois, North Carolina, Indiana, Massachusetts, Vermont and Colorado. I called my mother, and got the addresses so I could update my list to include all the cousins—on both my mother’s and father’s sides.  

I have been emailing a lot of these cards the past few years, and I did that this morning.  I also post it on my personal Facebook page, and I’ll do that again tonight.  I also realized that I usually hand out a lot of these in person… but we don’t see hardly anyone right now.  This made me annoyed and a bit sad.

But the more I kept sticking on labels and stamps, the more I thought about the friends on the list.  I also kept adding to the list.  It just seems 2020 is a good year to send Christmas cards. 

My silver lining for today comes from the opportunity to send a little bit of extra cheer!