Christmas Expectations

Is there was a season better, than this holiday one, for considering the subject of expectations (even for those who don't celebrate Christmas)? It's such a big holiday in the United States, that for pretty much everyone, there are expectations for what it'll be-- negative or positive. They come from childhood, then get reinforced throughout our lives, maybe even something we saw or read about how it should be. When Martha Stewart's magazine first came out many years ago, I saw it was so full of expectations that at this season I even avoid looking at its cover when by the checkout counter.

Expectations-- ours and others-- happen everywhere in life, but Christmas cards provide a good illustration-- which some people have learned to avoid by sending none. The season starts for me with that exact question. Will I send one this year or not? If I do, which I am but haven't yet, will I include a Christmas letter?

Once I have decided to send, at the least a card, the next thing is to pull up last year's mailing list on the computer. I know some most appreciate getting totally handwritten cards but as soon as I realized a label list could save me addressing all those cards, I was sold. Since computers, my handwriting isn't nearly as smooth as it used to be-- at least that's the excuse with which I am sticking.

Once I have found last year's mailing list (sometimes my filing system logic amazes even me), I do a save as using the current year. This saves me from possibly a catastrophic loss of the whole list when the computer pulls some kind of Christmas prank which is not funny to me but might be to whoever created the Internet (wasn't that Al Gore-- just kidding for those for whom the season has already robbed them of their sense of irony-- of which this season is full).

The addresses on the list will have been updated in January before I threw out the cards and envelopes (no, I don't save them). Looking at the list now helps me remember who didn't send one the previous year. Then comes another expectation-- mine and theirs. Do they like getting cards but just aren't sending to us anymore or would they rather not receive one again?

In another question of expectations, I am doing a Christmas letter again this year but expect some who get mine will wish I hadn't. There are also those who will think I should have written an extensive note on each card (heck wasn't it enough that it's really my signature?) But then again-- some will like how it catches them up on how the kids, grandkids, and we are doing.

Doing Christmas letters is a good time for me to look through last year's photos and helps to remind me what happened. My Christmas letter is a mini-synopsis of what mattered in the year-- important facts like weight and height (the new grand-baby's, heaven forbid, not mine); followed by a collage of photos to illustrate what I just wrote.

This year my expectation of sending cards meaningful to my life collided with my expectation that I would not spend too much for them when I realized that, for those seemingly simple cards, I had ended up spending $1 a card. How the heck did that happen, I asked me. But I know how. I bought painting cards, small boxes, not all at the same time, and didn't think about what it was totaling until I lay in bed Sunday morning mentally beginning to write this blog.

When you add a stamp to that, it makes this an expensive (to me) year for cards. Fortunately the list is not large (under 40) and I can afford to do it, but still... I can't believe I spent that much to find cards reflective of a simple view of life... hmmm is there a lesson in that; but if there is, it'll have to wait for January!

Expectations! Instead of humming Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas all day, I need a song that says it like it really is.

(Please enjoy the cards, it will help me feel a little better about what they cost!)