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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

getting impersonal

Does anyone here do the "Christmas Family Newsletter" thing?  I don't.

Now, I fully understand the purpose and usefulness of the things, and I do appreciate the work that goes into them.  They're just not my style.  I prefer personalized letters.  And I know that some may be thinking, "Ugh, that's too time consuming!", which it is if you send a bunch of Holiday cards out.  I send out a small smattering.

smat·ter·ing/ˈsmatəriNG/  n.  1.  A small amount of something.

In fact, I composed one (1) such letter last night.    There will be a few others, and that will wrap up 2011 as far as our mailings go.  And I've never really even been tempted to do the mass mailed newsletter thing, but if I were...

Dear Friends, Family, or Current Resident,

Christmas greetings to all you all! We would like to write personally to each of you, but it’s much easier to lump you all into the same one-line salutation and send you a form letter with obligatory photos.


The kids are doing fine.  Chaco apparently made a boat since I found this photo in a pile of stuff that was left to rot on the rec room table.  I deemed it Holiday Newsletter worthy, cropped out the other boat builder kid and show it here because Chaco can't find the school pics I paid for at the beginning of the year.  I also remember purchasing a boat load (pun intended) of blue duct tape. And he bowls.




Wolfgang still enjoys track and cross country and wearing loud clothing inside of putt-putt golf course caves.  He's also teaching his out-of-touch parents some teen lingo phrases such as "smash or pass?".  He has a school photo, but we like to keep things uniform.












Meego is a fine example of how being the third child results in having next to no individual photos.  He's enjoying middle school and his liberation from the chains of elementary school.




We enjoyed a family trip to the mountains last summer, after cancelling our epic Arizona trip since Arizona was on fire. 



Magnum and I celebrated 21 years of marriage in August, and we marked the occassion by ending the three-month fight over how to load the dishwasher. 




Merry Christmas and happy 2012, with much love from the AbbyNormals!  :)
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5 comments:

terri said...

Well it's too bad you don't do the impersonal family holiday letter thingy, because you'd be pretty good at it.

To be honest, when we get those, we laugh about them. I think it's a requirement that life appears picture perfect in those letters, when in fact, if they were truthful, they would say things like, "Mark and I nearly ended our marriage of 23 years over his purposeful lack of participation in the holiday decorating of 2011. The relationship was only salvaged after much groveling on his part and much grudge-holding on her part."

Maybe I should consider sending out a letter...

Guano said...

I've particicapted in dishwasher loading debates, but they didn't last 3 months!

I think it would be funny -- and memorable -- to receive a Holiday Letter that painted a "brown" picture instead of all rosy.

Judy said...

I actually did one this year (the letter, not the epic fight over loading the dishwasher - that's so last year)...it had been about 4 years, and well, I had some fancy paper I apparently purchased about 5 years ago, so I figured I'd use it up. It was okay. Blah blah jobs school sports blah blah. Merry Christmas. The end.

agg79 said...

I envy you. I honestly hate those letters. Typically, every year my darling bride of 30+ years still wants to publish and I fight it tooth and nail (and typically lose). A few years back, I did draft up one along the lines of yours but it was "not accepted" for publication.

Rebecca S. said...

Now THAT's a Christmas letter! I'm crazy. I do the form letter thing and then write personal messages, sometimes long ones, in the card that goes with the letter. My son said to me the other day,"Mom, I've never known you to pick the easy thing to do."
Gorgeous kids, btw, and congrats on the 21 years!