Don't Throw Out Your Christmas Cards...YET!

Eight months ago, we moved into a new house. A lot of people don’t have our new address, so this year’s Christmas card haul was decidedly more sparse than in years past. However, I have noticed that many cards were forwarded from our old address, and these days the post office isn’t as efficient as it used to be. That means WE’RE STILL GETTING CARDS!

And I love them so much.

The Christmas card exchange is one of my favorite holiday traditions. It’s right up there with decorating the tree and opening presents, but it’s also the one that’s most easily discarded. After all, Christmas cards take a ton of time. You’ve got to gather the entire family, set up the perfect picture (everyone smiling!), choose a card, and address the envelopes.

Plus, it’s expensive!

Ironically, the very first Christmas card was sent to directly combat this very issue. In 1843 Sir Henry Cole commissioned a custom card to take care of all the pesky correspondence piling up on his desk over the holiday season. Back in those days, it was considered very rude not to reply to correspondence, so he had this card made and then he sent it out to all his friends through the efficient, newly-formed penny post.

That little card sparked a tradition that would carry on well into the next two centuries.

Nowadays, a lot of people have eschewed the Christmas card in favor of an even more efficient way of communicating with friends—social media.

But I will always be partial to the humble Christmas card.

When I receive one in the mail, especially one that’s been hand-addressed or that includes a scribbled note from the sender, I know I’ve been remembered. It’s a small kindness, but an important one, especially during this season of masked encounters and social distancing.

That’s why we’re keeping our cards out all year. I’ve put a little basket filled with the cards on our kitchen table. Every night at dinner, we’ll choose a card, share a memory about the person who sent it, and pray for their family. Again, it’s a small thing, and most of the people will never even know anything about our new tradition, but I think the ritual will be good for my own heart.

Of course, it’s entirely possible I may be clinging to a lost tradition. Now that I think about it, I don’t think we received as many cards last year as we did the year before that and the year before that and the year before that….

My husband and I always joke about the “old-people” things we find ourselves doing—me, putting on readers before looking at the menu in a restaurant and him ordering a cup of coffee after the evening meal.

One of these Christmases I’m going to wake up and find out that everybody else is no longer sending Christmas cards, but instead transmitting their holiday greetings via hologram on drones that stop in front of our house on Christmas Eve.

If that ever happens, count me in!

But in the meantime, I’m going to be poring over this year’s cards. And who knows? I may even be inspired to send some additional correspondence of my own—in February, or June, or….

Be on the lookout. You might get a surprise this year in the mail!

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What is Your ONE Thing?

Our pet turtle is depressed.

I know this because I googled, “How to tell if your pet turtle is sad.”

To be fair, we are not the best pet parents. The number of fish who have died under our watch is embarrassingly high. Over the years, we’ve sheltered several cats—all have disappeared without a trace in the middle of the night. We also have a Yorkie, and I hear the neighbors tsk tsking us behind our backs because he embarrasses us regularly.  But despite little supervision and a failed attempt at obedience school, he’s still hanging on. Unlike our cats, this little one actually DOES have nine lives.

Sometimes my husband and I both look at each other utterly amazed that our actual biological children have survived under our roof for lo these many years.

When we moved into our new house last Spring, the turtle got an upgrade. He had been relegated to the unfinished basement so as not deter any prospective anti-reptile buyers. In the new house, he got a new tank, a new rock, a new light, and a new view.

We positioned him right next to a sunny window in our upstairs loft.

Oh, how he loved frolicking in his new habitat!

But you know how it is…life happens. I decided I didn’t like the placement of the new tank.
So I moved him.  
Then the light burned out.
Then I replaced the special reptile light with a “regular” human lightbulb and called it “good.”

Only it wasn’t.

The new L.E.D. light emitted practically no heat, and the new corner afforded little view of the outside world. Oh, we continued to feed him and clean the tank every once in a while, but I could tell—our little turtle wasn’t the same.

Until today.

Today I went to PetSmart and bought something called a basking light, and so today after months of huddling in a corner of the tank and refusing to eat, he BASKED on his rock and smiled from ear to red-eared-slider ear.

And it was so easy.
All I did was add light.
But not just any light.
The right light.

When it comes to our own happiness, sometimes I think we make it too complicated. Like our family turtle, we find ourselves huddled under our covers. Maybe we lose our appetite. Or maybe we eat too much. Maybe we stop calling our friends or we ignore our chores. Maybe we procrastinate.

It’s been amazing how much of my life I’ve spent trying to find the perfect combination of friends, work, activities, and hobbies.

But as I’ve shared before we are in a weird season and honestly things are already complicated. We don’t need to make things more complicated by trying to figure out how to make everything perfect.

Sometimes the simple thing is just the thing.

Our turtle doesn’t have a bigger tank, a cleaner tank, or a view of outside.

But he has his light.

The basking light made all the difference in the world.

What one thing might make all the difference in the world for you? That’s what I’m thinking about today.

What if we decided that one good thing could make a good day a great day?

Today I made gingerbread cookies, and the fragrance filled my kitchen with joyful holiday aroma. Our Christmas cards arrived, and I’m listening to holiday music. The Yorkie is curled up next to me as I type. (He’s being good!)

I realized finding one good thing isn’t really that hard because when I set my mind to it, I discover good things everywhere I look. It’s simple. I can do it.

And so can you.

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