Not these cards!

I start thinking about Christmas cards way before Christmas. I look at them in the stores. I contemplate taking a picture for them. I usually try to get a picture that includes Annabel and I usually fail miserably at this.

This year I snapped a picture I thought was cute and unique, so the next day I quickly imported it and spent hours deciding how to frame it and which card stock with which words I wanted. Then I ordered forty of them with a half price coupon and waited to pick them up.

Normally enthralled by my decision, this year I was not. There was something not quite right about them, but I decided to use them because they were paid for. I carefully wrote on the back of one and set it aside to see if the ink would dry to be smear proof because I like to use a gel pen. A few days later I checked and it seemed fine, so I promptly wrote on all the others.

Yesterday I sat down to address envelopes and began stuffing the cards in, but half way through I noticed some of the ink was a little blurry and then I noticed that most of the cards left to stuff had ink smeared on the front of them! No way to know about the others without opening signed, sealed and some even stamped envelopes, so I did my best to fix the ones left. I discovered I could rub off the smeared ink on most of them and still send them, so I finished up. Late last night I had a stack of thirty two cards all ready to go except for buying more Christmas stamps.

I should have felt really happy, but I didn't. I felt like these cards had never been meant to be mailed.

So today I went to the post office very early. I bought one stamp for Germany and two cards of regular Christmas stamps. Then I went to the drug store and found some really sweet cards that happened to be on sale because it was so late.

I came home, put the crackling fire on the television, turned on the Christmas Music radio station, made a cup of coffee and sat down to rewrite my Christmas cards!

A modern world requires adaptation.