Chance and Far Guy love their trips to the mail box during December.
Since we send 120 Christmas Cards. We get many in return.
I did find one of my Christmas Cards…tucked away in a box of cards that I sometimes take to carving when my hand is not up to working with a knife.
2017 Christmas Card inside it said “Christmas comes anew each year to draw people in from the cold.”
The sled/birds design was a stamp, stamped on water color paper and embellished with markers and glitter then it was framed with a border of red (other colors were used too) and then mounted on the white snowflake embossed paper ( which I also embellished with some kind of glitter!)
Yesterday I read through all the Christmas Cards and letters again. Then they were either tucked away in a folder or recycled.
Photo Christmas Cards were looked at again and placed in a folder for a someday look back down memory lane.
Some letters were kept. The letters are bittersweet; they told of struggles with cancer, deaths, births, lonliness after being widowed, and the usual what Far Guy calls “Brag” letters…we vacationed here and there and everywhere. Two letters in particular touched us this year…Jamie with her sense of humor and Bob and Sheila… well I guess really only Bob writing about an old print of Rural 1950’s Farm life and never giving up on our dreams. Bob is a retired Pastor and he and Sheila are the other set of Grandparents to Noah and Adam.
Some cards had notes inside and some were on the front…like this one…from Sharon, her husband Gary was Far Guy’s best friend who died way too soon back in 1993.
The card count this year:
46 Christmas Cards
24 Christmas Photo Cards
22 Christmas Letters
Lots of good reading!
Ongoing Project: Last year I organized all the Christmas letters and photos and put them in page protectors in three ring binders. This year is was real easy to get out the binders and slip letters and photos where they belong.
You are so industrious! Thanks for sharing your abundance of cards with me. I enjoyed the snowman one, but I can see why it would be bittersweet. I have a memory drawer and should do something with it, but I probably won't.
ReplyDeleteYou are so organized! What lovely cards and letters too! I love your card making...the sled birds one is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI don't care for the "brag" letters either. I'd much prefer a single sentence scrawled on the card than the multi-page brag letter that contains nothing personal. I can almost envision the assembly line approach: print address labels, print letter, fold letter, and place in envelope with card (which is seldom unsigned). My thought is, "why bother"
ReplyDeleteGreat idea for the Christmas cards and letters. I have saved lots of them. Most are in a big envelope labeled with the year they arrived.
ReplyDeleteI just pulled down all of our Christmas cards. I hang them around the kitchen and it looks so bare when they are gone. I always save a few...but they aren't organized...
ReplyDeleteI haven't gone through mine again yet. I have a container full and I love the cheery look of it sitting on the kitchen counter. You make such pretty cards, Connie!
ReplyDeleteI think it depends on the "brag" letter. If that is all you get it feels more impersonal, but I still like to hear what had been going on in the last year (those are often from people I only hear from once a year). If they have the info-form letter and then hand write something personal, too--that's really nice. The notes written all over the inside of the card or the letters tucked inside--always feel more personal and exciting. But the people who write randomly or regularly all year long--those are really special to me. Love opening up the mail box and finding a letter there!! :) People don't write like they used to. Not that a lot of people ever wrote--LOL!
Stay warm! :)
So how do you organize your cards? By year? By who sent them? Just curious as I have a cupboard full that I need to do something with......
ReplyDeleteBy who sent them, I cannot keep them all but those from family and close friends. The letters that are a bit of family history are wonderful and fun to read from year to year how they write about their children. :)
DeleteThat is a lot of cards, I send a lot as well but also receive a lot between 30-40 cards generally, I send 10 photo cards to special people.
ReplyDeleteThe card that you made and didn't send...the one on embossed snowflake paper, is delightful.
ReplyDeleteThe one you received, the one with the snowman going the 'other way' is cute too.
You hand made cards are beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI send out about 70 - a photo card and a printed letter. We get lots of the same back. I keep the photo cards from year to year. I punch a hole in the corner of each and put them on a ring. they get stored away with the Christmas decorations. the they are put in a basket to look at to see out people have changes. Kinda fun. I have done it for about five years now. Don't know how long I'll keep them.
I have a file of every Christmas letter we have ever scent. It is a family history.
I send out about 60 photo cards and always write a note on the card too. I am always amazed at the people who send a photo card and don't write a thing on the card. I guess I'm just supposed to be thrilled I got it? But I love sending and receiving cards so won't stop for awhile yet! Your sled card was beautiful! I love the glitter!
ReplyDeleteSo many great cards!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a great project idea...maybe a bit too organized for me, though...
ReplyDeleteYou inspire me!!! Love the idea of your binder.
ReplyDeleteI make certain that we keep them all together as that is our source for the next years job. We sometime get three years all saved together and then start tossing some of them. I still have one lady, cousin of my wife’s that thinks my name is Jim.
ReplyDelete