Xmas Cards - a Family Affair

In years past the Xmas letter, card, or whatever we sent out, was all put together by me. Tom and I created something cool, and I was in charge of stuffing, addressing, and stamping, not to mention the dreaded licking and sealing of the envelopes. Occasionally I could trick Tom into helping, but not generally. Well, this year we took all kinds of steps in the right direction. I got paper that was pre-scored, so anyone could fold it easily. I bought self adhesive stamps, so anyone could stick them down. I bought self sealing labels so anyone could close them up properly. And the most important thing? Well, I started working on them while the kids were here and slightly bored. You see, in years past I've done this all when the kids were asleep or at school, but this year I figured what the heck - might as well give it a try. And it worked.

I sat down three or four days before Christmas and put out all of my supplies on the couch. I roped Max in first - he offered to help without any prompting. Then Ian wandered over and wanted to fold the letters up. Then Sam wanted a job because everyone else was helping. Soon I found Lucy in my lap as she had woken up, and we were all putting our holiday letter together happily. It took a whopping 15 minutes and they were all done. Tom came home right as we were finishing up, and I had him snap a picture. The amazing part is - we send out about 100 letters per year, and usually it takes me a long, LONG time to get them all done. Fifteen minutes and the kids not only enjoyed themselves but also asked who folks were and saw names they recognized and had fun - pretty cool if you ask me. Now to figure out how to get them to do it again next year...