Christmas cards

I love the Christmas season. The feeling of anticipation and the whole crescendo up to Christmas Day is a cycle I embrace. Now that I'm a grandmom, I feel it's becoming even more important than ever that I make sure all of the holiday traditions are carefully observed.

One of my favorite traditions is Christmas cards, but each year, as we receive fewer and fewer cards, especially from family and friends, I wonder if the tradition is dying out. We get more Christmas letters, but not as many cards. I was brought up to believe that Christmas letters are tacky, and so each year, I write a personal note to each and every person on my list.

It's kind of unfortunate, really, because my handwriting is so poor I most likely cause all kinds of consternation with my notes, "Did she tell me to shove the what where?" When I might have been writing about my latest pet or ailment, depending on the person.

Rob and I share the poor handwriting affliction, so even through my handwriting is almost illegible and unattractive to the point of embarrassment, I still sit down with pen in hand and thumb through my Rolodex writing all my cards.

Then I sit back and wait for the cards to come in. At this point I would say I get one card for every three I send out. It used to be one card for every two, but recent years have brought even fewer. We try to beef up the card count by including cards from the Realtors and people asking for money, but even with that it's still looking pretty sad.

I guess like with many things Christmas cards have probably been replaced with e-greetings and Facebook gifts that clutter up your profile. Social networks make the Christmas letter more anachronistic than ever. But I still love the assortment of pretty cards all containing holiday wishes. And I want it to be something tangible.

I love going out to my mailbox and seeing the familiar, square-ish hard shape of a card. I love how they look on the mantle in the center of the room. But maybe this year I might have to go out a buy a couple and give them to Rob from the pets to fill out the row a little.